The Nigerian polity: Bipodality vs tripodality…the danger ahead.

Photo: John Odey Aduma

RESETTING (OUR) NIGERIA AND HER FOREIGN POLICY

Coloniality of Validation…Neo-colonial Apostles and the lessons of the past not learnt. Having a notorious crook as President of Nigeria is not only selling Nigeria cheap in all international negotiations, but an international liability as all dossiers on him in the West will be on every negotiating table as a scarecrow and to perpetually arm-twist him to accept deals that sure will short-change Nigeria economically and politically. But do ever worms do battle with worms or vultures with vultures nor locusts with locusts?

Photo credit: The Cable.

The PARAPO SOUTH WEST PRESS HUB AND THE NATION…. HOW COME ABIKE DABIRI IS THE FACE OF THE FOREIGN AFAIRS MINISTRY AND NOT GEOFFREY ONYEAMA?

Whilst growing up as a teenager in the 70s, the *buzz word in every major news item then was: AFRICA IS THE CENTREPIECE OF OUR FOREIGN POLICY.

That statement or I should say, the nation’s foreign policy slogan was given its most prominence, arguably by General Murtala Muhammad in his most famous speech: Africa Has Come of Age believed to have been written for him by Dr Patrick Wilmot, formerly a Sociology Lecturer, whom Ibrahim Gbadamasi Babangida was to later kick out of Nigeria in 1988 from his base at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, for the crime of “Teaching what he was not paid to teach” – the type of education this writer and his generation received at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife by some of Africa’s and indeed, world’s finest ultra-radical Marxists.

COLONIAL EDUCATION HAS OUTLIVED ITS USE BY DATE IN NIGERIA AND ALL AFRICA…TEXTBOOK KNOWLEDGE Vs CRITICAL THINKING, ORGINALITY, IMAGINATION, INNOVATION, INVENTION, RESEARCH AND CREATIVITY

And by this writer’s recking the only education worth having, is that that teachers are not paid to teach.

This type of education recognises that every human being is a creative being and not a robot, parrot or *dolomite meant to learn by rote, memorising and cramming to come out with a first class *textbook knowledge, better still notebook knowledge), the exact thing happening in the Nigerian educational system, where year in and year out, there are harvests of first class graduates whose illiteracy, idiocy and robotism are exposed as soon as they leave the classroom.

The type of (education) knowledge prevalent amongst Nigerians, ruling the Nigerian system and national spaces is the one I’d like to call TEXTBOOK KNOWLEDGE devoid of critical thinking, thoroughly lacking originality and authenticity, where the person that crammed the most is deified, glorified, and all around them “yes Daddy” them, which is an inherited cultural influence, pervasive in the South West, and other Geopolizones.

TOWARDS THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATION SPACE AND THE EXPLORATION OF OTHER PATHWAYS TO EDUCATION & LIFE OTHER THAN THE UNIVERSITY

Now sure is the time to emphasize research, skills, apprenticeship, and traineeship-orientated education in Nigeria.

The receiver-recipient of this type of robotic or colonial education “yes sir” their bosses to death. Now therefore, is the time that this type of robotic education be replaced with a new philosophy of education that is in tandem with the current global reality – and such type of education must be competitive in every sense of the word, and having its foundation as it were, rooted in critical thinking, and in every way, skills-orientated and questioning in nature.

NOT COME CHOP, BUT COME THINK, REASON AND GIVE IDEAS/SOLUTIONS!

“Don't bring me problems, bring me solutions!”

• Margaret Thatcher

This treatise, so to say, is aimed to question whether or not, the university pathway is the only way to learning and the subsequent acquisition of knowledge in the making of self-reliant citizens?

Let the debate begin…let us start the debate now!

TYRANNY AND THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE (ELITES) RULING CLASS

At the heart of the stupendous corruption in Nigeria today, and all Africa is the robotic education/knowledge that successive generations of Africans have continued to receive even after nearly seven decades of the departure of the colonialists from African soil because the recipients of colonial education are incapable of thinking about alternative possibilities in all of their plannings and in the art and science of making money or wealth creation.

Kwenskwently, the receiver-recipient of this outdated educational system thinks corruption is the only royal road to wealth. And as in the classroom colonial education setting, where the best crammer comes out with a first class – then revered, respected and deified, so also is it in the real world – in the wider Nigerian/African society, where the kingly mentality arising from such focussing, looking at the first in every sphere of life, starting from the classroom to the office eventually leads to ownership mentality; and when all around the FIRST MAN or THE FIRST WOMAN, known in Nigerian parlance as Oga, are robotic and unquestioning in their relationship with the “first” man/woman, the latter resorts to stealing maximally, thus explaining the current level of uncontainable corruption in public offices and in every little corn of our Republic.

And in order to curry favour from these crooks who constitute the ruining class (ruling), traditional rulers, institutions/organizations, the press not excluded, chase them with national diadems, awards, chieftaincy titles, bishopric, deaconry positions/titles as in churches, and imamate titles and accolades as it applies to mosques, etc.

Lamentably and to the detriment of the nation and all of its institutions, it is not these institutions that are strong and very powerful, but the men and women in public offices, who in saner societies, are mere public servants, becomes the most powerful, turning themselves to bloody tyrants/dictators, gods and goddesses, who subsequently are glorified, deified and then worshipped. These to the church and mosque in Nigeria are the ‘saints’ and ‘Mahdis’, so are given the front rows during worship services, with the men/women of God and imams courting/wooing them, wining and dining with them, romancing and kissing them, including sleeping in the same beds with them.

ABSORBED BY THE ABSORBENT SYSTEM

Unfortunately, those ultra-radical leftists who dared teach what they were not paid to teach and gave this writer and his generation the education of thinking outside of the box and demanding alternative possibilities in all planning, have for the sake of food on the table become soft like a cocoyam leaf and got absorbed into the Nigerian system and are now more corrupt than corruption itself, following the crooked Tinubus of this world as flies doth followeth dead corpses!

THE CONCORD GANG, THE NATION…. UNPRINCIPLED MEN, WOMEN, JOURNALISTS AND THE ABANDONEMT OF THE BEST OBTAINABLE VERSION OF THE TRUTH

And journalists nonetheless, have too in what this writer regards as POLITICAL ATTACHMENT attached themselves to politicians, political officials, chieftains of industry, the so-called men and women of God, and the imams as in the case of the Muslims for their daily bread – the very people they once hurled their ballistic missiles at from the comfort of their newsrooms because they had identified all of them as the very corrupt in the country – looters, worms, vultures and locusts, paedophiles, etc, not to be companied with by any self-respecting sane person.

But here there are now, writing and templating one another, with each recycling the other’s articles for publication in their OWAMBE NEWSLETTER, THE GUARDIAN converting Rutam House to BAT PRESS HUB – “…..conscience nurtured” by “More Blessings Sah, and fighting amongst themselves to sit on the right hand of “Bola” Ahmed “Tinubu”, who recently was confirmed by another political crab, Xerxes Jeroboam of Niger, Muhammadu Buhari as the Grand Commander of the Fraudsters of the Republic (GCFR)!

WANNABE POLITICAL AIDES: OF DODDERS, MISTLETOES, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ATTACHES…ALL BECAUSE OF POLITICAL APPOINTMENTS, CONTRACTS AND FOOD ON THE TABLE

Whilst in the 60s, 70s, it was for consciencism and service for those of them who began their career in journalism from The Chronicle, The Daily Times, The New Nigerian and other media outfits in the country before joining Concord, these ABIOLA JOURNALISTS whom Alhaji Ogunlere (a.k.a. Bola Ahmed Tinubu) had inherited, and have been putting food on their tables since the June 12 battle days, some of them multi-millionaire/billionaires now and in fact, either some of them are on his payroll for just being loyal, including all your so-called shameless public intellectuals, whether such had climbed their literary Everest or are the devotees of Ogun, the Yoruba god of iron or the dwellers in Mount Olympus, the abode of the Greek gods/goddess, or actually working for him, amongst who are many international scholars, some of whom were this writer’s teachers at Ife, have all realized that their first callings were thankless ones – especially journalism/broadcasting and academic, but now against national destiny, they have abandoned the truth; integrity, decency and dignity, including binning their erstwhile idealism; ideology, morality, consciencism to now be parasiting on BAT and perching on his political hunchback as cattle egrets would on the hunchbacks of malus (cows) for the crumbs of the worms that would fall to the ground from Amoda’s table.

Who are the most employers of labour in Nigeria of today? The crooks of course!

A Briton once stung me to a paralytic state when he said to me on the shop floor of a major supermarket in Britain: I HEAR YOUR COUNTRY IS RULED BY CROOKS, and another Briton said to me: “Your country is not a Christian country. It is an evil country. There are too much killings in Nigeria.”

But did anyone in that country ever believe the following journalists and academics can ever reduce themselves so low to such an almajirai and agberoic status in their defence of Amoda, or helping to launder his very irksome and detestable zero image, turning the news houses in Nigeria to their cursed laundrettes, with the foremost, being RUTAM HOUSE, where this writer once worked and shone very brilliantly:

On the list, but not exhaustive are:

• Desperate Bayo Onanuga who at all costs now wants to be a millionaire/billionaire like Dele Alake, Tunji Bello, Femi Ojudu, etc.
• Dele Alake
• Sam Omatseye
• Tunji Bello
• Dare Babarinsa
• Ray Ekpu
• Dan Agbese
• Kehinde Bamigbetan, a friend, a former student union leader and once, an ultra-radical Marxist when we were at Great Ife. KK knew what I used to tell him, and now I’m vindicated.
• Wole Soyinka
• Pat Utomi (this write’s former teacher at the Lagos Business School).
• Olisa Agbakoba
• Louis Odion, etc, etc.

And in helping to market this very notorious Grand Commander of the Fraudsters of the Republic (GCFR) is The Guardian, which before now, especially after the death of the proprietor, Olorogun Alex Ibru turned itself to a newsletter for AGIP, and now, APC/BAT Newsletter or just simply BAT VOICE!

But what all agberocrats/Tinubuites/Tinubucrats must know is that the tortoise borrowed plumages to travel to the sky but did not fly back. And whilst Mr Ogunlere is gallivanting the world seeking accolades and the validation of his very ignominious mandate, he should here be told loud and clear that the only approval and validation worth having is that that comes from God.

“SIR, THE GUARDIAN HAS A STANDARD”

Once upon a time a crack reporter with the knack for dangerous stories/news arrived at a very famous House of Accountability popularly known and called RUTAM HOUSE on the Western side of the Niger, the place of the lagoon.

“John, John, MD has been looking for you!” Announced Friday.

Just as he was about asking why, a reporter shouted out from afar: John, John, the editor has been looking for you!”

He had not been allowed a space nor had he reached the Magazine Desk to drop his bag when the MD’s Secretary arrived to give the message from the Big Boss, Gentle LADBONE (Mr Alade Bonuola), whom for his legendary professionalism, aura, awesome, but lithe frame was dread with a great trepidation. And that message was that the same reporter was wanted.

The reporter upon whom all these messages from the top notches were being bombarded maintained his natural poise and was unperturbed.

As he was heading to the Magazine Desk to drop his bag, his very close friend, brother, and flatmate, Oluremi Olaoye in his characteristic mien and enthusiasm was just coming from the Production Hall, smiling and said: “Wo, John, you are in trouble, all the Ogas, all the Directors including Chairman, have been looking for you they said you must see them on arrival.”

Added Remi: “As a matter of fact, the Director of Publications, Mr Andy Akporugo had been here to see you over your weekend story…. your nationwide analysis on the elections. It looks they have a problem with it, but I don’t know why.”

When all the Ogas, all the Directors including the Chairman in an organization are looking for their Staff Reporter, who does he first go to?

The reporter headed towards the editor’s office, Mr Femi Kusa’s. And once he was before his editor, he was simply told: “Aduma, I no longer need you.”

From the editor’s, he was ushered into the MD’s office, and the MD like the editor said the same thing.

Would this relax any reporter, no matter how radical and idealistic they were?

Not at all!

It did look they had delegated one of them – top-notches to speak to their reporter.

After he had taken his seat and began going over the daily newspapers, his Editor, Mr Obasi Ogbonnaya arrived, took his seat and after a while, said to him: “All the Directors have been looking for you.”

The reporter told his editor, Mr Ogbonnaya who was the editor of the Magazine Desk: “I had been to both the editor and the MD, and they told me they both no longer needed me.”

No sooner, an imposing and very confident man, with an unparalleled air of authority arrived at the Magazine Desk, holding a newspaper and said to his reporter: “Mr Aduma, I’m here to see you.”

The giant of a man by the reporter was the great Andy Akporugo whom the reporter grew up with his articles on The Polity with Andy Akporugo, published in the Daily Times.

By this time, his Desk editor was urging the reporter to stand up, but the reporter maintained his sitting position as the Director of Publications was pointing at the same paragraph again and again.

Noticing an argument between the reporter and the Director of Publications was getting heated, Mr Ogbonnaya through body languages was urging his reporter to be calm.

The reporter thinking the paragraph under contention was about the correctness of grammar or otherwise shot at the Director of Publications who continued to have his finger on the paragraph, perhaps wanting his reporter to see his point: “Sir, I’m an English Graduate. There’s nothing wrong with that sentence or the paragraph.”

Said the Director very calmly: “Not that there is anything wrong with the grammar or paragraph, but I’m just…

“What then is it, sir? The reporter becoming more defiant asked the Director of Publications whilst still sitting down.

At this time, Mr Ogbonnaya, his line editor was still urging his reporter through many non-verbal communications to be calm, but the reporter was not ready to listen to all his mediatory gestures.

As the reporter refused to budge, the Director of Publications, Mr Akporugo told him their exact grouse about the story: “I…We just feel that whilst others have platforms and are using them, we have one and we have failed to use it to support one of us contesting for such a very high office to become the Governor of his State, Delta State.”

Even when the reporter now knew exactly what the problem was all about, he yet would not give in. He told Mr Akoprugo: “The Guardian has a standard, sir.”

Mr Akporugo left the Desk without saying a word after his reporter had said to him: THE GUARDIAN HAS A STANDARD.

After he had left, Mr Ogbonnaya who wasn’t happy with the way his reporter had spoken to the Director of Publications chided him: “You shouldn’t have said that to him. That’s the Director of Publications. You didn’t even stand up.”

The reporter replied to his line editor: “Does The Guardian not have a standard? They make the rules, they make the policy, so they must keep to them.”

Like Mr Akporugo, Mr Ogbonnaya could not say a word.

As news spread round Rutam House about the way the reporter dealt with the DoPs, opinions were divided, some supporting him, others, that: “They will sack him.”

Northing of the sort happened!

As the reporter left upstairs to go and pursue his travel money, for the scheduled trip to as usual travel out of Lagos that week, he saw the Chairman, Mr Alex Ibru coming down the stairs and waited for him to get down, but Mr Ibru beckoned to him to come up. The reporter found this rather odd and declined the Chairman’s offer.

Still urging him to come up the stairs as he waited. On getting to where Mr Ibru was, the reporter greeted the Chairman, he answered and asked the reporter: “Are you Mr. Aduma?”

“Yes, sir” replied the reporter. The Chairman merely smiled, and the reporter afterward proceeded upstairs.

It was a habit for Mr Ibru to always wait whenever this reporter was running upstairs, even when the reporter found it odd because it was proper for him to wait for the Chairman as a matter of courtesy, Olorogun would always wait, saying: “Come, come, come up. You are preparing for production, or you are preparing to travel.”

Yes, Olorogun Ibru was humility, and humility was Olorogun!

The matter in question why the reporter was being called here and there by all the top notches was that, in 1991, when Felix Ibru contested for the post of Governor of Delta State, the reporter did not use his nationwide news analysis of the election to favour Olorogun Felix Ibru whose brother owned The Guardian. Elsewhere, this matter was serious enough to earn the reporter an automatic sack, but not so at The Guardian, for not only did we keep to the founding vision and philosophy of The Guardian, but to the best of my knowledge, even as a reporter, I can confirm that Olorogun never interfered with the running of the papers published at Rutam, nor did he ever decide the stories or editorials to be published!

In fact, I killed a story from him as a reporter and another from his wife, Mrs Maiden Alex Ibru – and when I was summoned to account for the stories, I told the MD and my editors: THEY DID NOT MEET GUARDIAN STANDARD.

In my days at Rutam House, the buzz word was GUARDIAN HAS A STANDARD…GUARDIAN HAS A STANDARD…GUARDIAN HAS A STANDARD and all the staff reporters and their editors took this as their sacred oath, call it our own version of the HIPPOCRATIC OATH if you like, in addition to striving to be different, independent, and balanced.

So, it grieves this writer that The Guardian of today under Martin Oloja has degenerated or should I say, lowered that standard as to now become the mouthpiece of any Government in power (AGIP), and the newsletter for the highest bidder!

At a time when The Guardian is supposed to be pointing the light and opening the eyes of all Nigerians and the world through very powerful editorials, opinions, analyses, the team have been publishing the trash from the Concord Gang to launder the image of a man who just recently was officially confirmed and certified as the Grand Commander of the Fraudsters of the Republic (GCFR).

Oloja and his team must know that on all the search engines The Guardian is never first, nor second, but fluctuating between 3^rd position on a few times, and many, many times, far, far below in ranking on the search engines, and sometimes, the last on the page or you would find it on the second or third page – some years back on the 7^th page or further down in ranking!

In fact, some years back, the ranking was such that I had to call Mr Emeka Izeze, my former editor and MD from the UK to express my sadness at the state of The Guardian.

Mr Izeze during my conversation with him said: “That’s why people like you should be writing for The Guardian.”

And I replied that there was an arrangement for me to write by some editors, but some elements at Rutam House said: “John’s articles are too radical. We can’t publish them here.”

Also, Oloja and his team must be made aware that as a Staff Reporter, I killed two stories coming directly from Olorogun Alex Ibru himself, and one from his wife, Mrs Maiden Alex Ibru.

And when I was asked about the stories, I told my editors and the MD that the stories did not meet Guardian standard.

Martin, Alabi and other colleagues of mine at Rutam House must know that I’m still part of The Guardian, so still do feel very passionate about it – and the team under Oloja and Williams have the zeal and capacity to make us all, the nation, and all humanity proud once more – and I personally believe all of you can do it!

Conclusively, the masquerade is not but by sailing!

A Very sickly-looking Amoda and Kash, accessed: 28/05/2023.

Photo credit: The Guardian.

THE GUARDIAN SHOULD BE ASKING QUESTIONS AND ANALYSING ISSUES OF CONCERN, BOTH NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AND NOT BE DOING PR…. A SORT OF KESKE/EGUNJE JOURNALISM

Sources: Renewed hope dawns as city boy marches to Aso Villa | The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News — Politics — The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News, accessed: 28/5/2023 @ 6.00 a.m., UK Time, uploaded by Rutam House at 4.10 a.m. of 28/5/2023.

https://guardian.ng/politics/bayo-onanuga-knowing-the-tinubu-brand-very-well-made-it-easy-to-market/, accessed: 28/5/2023 @ 10.39 UK Time, placed by Rutam House at 4.12 a.m. of 28/5/2023.

Pray, if a person thinks their action is just, why do they need to globe-trot seeking validation and appealing to all the world to congratulate them? Fellow Nigerians, see what guilty conscience can do?

The sad tales of pre-eminent journalists and scholars who have abandoned their gatekeeping role to be following and milling like flies and cattle egrets around a man no better than themselves whom their own very names conjure up a more higher spirit than his; a man of no known discernible ideology, no fixed address and of zero identity, country; morally deficient with no integrity, decency and dignity; identified only with street morality, having no self-ideas – totally destitute of ideas with not an idea of his own nor native wisdom nor intelligence, and ever like the tortoise, asking for plumages to be donated to him so he can reach the sky; a man who never stands for anything - (moral, social, political, cultural, religious, diplomatic, economic, ethnic  principles nor national and ethnic, cultural, social, political and religious sensibilities nor anything other than scopophilicism and kleptocracy!

OMO WA NI SYNDROME (OWNS) AMONGST THE YORUBAS

But excepting Olu Obasanjo, Boy George, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, Sinatu Ojikutu and a few others, where goeth all the anti-establishment, social and political crusaders that the South West/Yoruba usually prides themselves of with all their self-acclaimed sophistication – the Falanas of this world, the Adegboruwas of this world, the Kutis of this world, the South West/Yoruba Press, Obas, Yoruba opinion moulders/leaders, Ishaq Akintola and his MURIC, pastors, and imams of Yoruba extraction that were wont to be criticising Nigerian leaders of from other ethnic nationalities and leading gullible souls to the streets in the name of demo, you see what I mean, OMOWANISM/OMONILEISM, but can anyone in that country remember how all these elements were by the jugular holding to account the minutest intransigeances of the Gowons of this world, the IBBs of this world, the Shagaris of this world, the Buharis of this, especially during his first coming, the Abachas of this world, the Abdulsalamis of this world, the Jonathans of this world; all because, all these are not Omo won.

SILENCE IS CONSPIRACY

This type of silence when your own is in power, but you start hurling ballistic missiles and throwing stones to smash the glass houses when it is not your sons and daughters living there in, was what informed my critical theory of journalism and criticism – The Pyramidal Analysis. The theory came into being, noticing that my colleagues of the Yoruba stock in all the newsrooms in the Lagos/South West Press Hub were like a cocoyam leaf very soft on President Olusegun Obasanjo whilst living in the ‘glass’ house in Aso Rock, whilst in bygone  eras, they were all without exception very hard-hitting on Alhaji Shehu Shagari, then Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, IBB, Sani Abacha, with the same Bayo Onaguga now behaving Agbero hurling himself against Abachas HS2 train; then Abdulsalami Abubakar, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and worst, more that very hard and very hostile to Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, one of the very reasons that gave Muhammadu Buhari a jolly ride to power the second time, this time as a civilian President between May 29, 2015 – May 29, 2023, in the worst of the worst of the worst ad infinitum political odyssey that has cost Nigerians and their country so much in hardships, poverty, in blood and international reputation, with Nigeria now at the back of the queue in international arenas, and Muhammadu Buhari’s departure, the fastest growing ‘industries’ are corruption, banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, murdering, especially as carried out by his herder-kinsmen, Islamism/jihadism/terrorism, disinformation, suicides, lawlessness, religious bigotry, arsons, etc, etc.

AND we are now about to enter another era of praise-singing of OMO WA NI by the South West/Yoruba Press Hub as The Guardian again led the way today: Renewed hope dawns as city boy marches to Aso Villa | The Guardian Nigeria News - Nigeria and World News — Politics — The Guardian Nigeria News – Nigeria and World News, accessed: 28/5/2023 @ 6.00 a.m., UK Time, uploaded by Rutam House at 4.10 a.m. of 28/5/2023.

https://guardian.ng/politics/bayo-onanuga-knowing-the-tinubu-brand-very-well-made-it-easy-to-market/, accessed: 28/5/2023 @ 10.39 UK Time, placed by Rutam House at 4.12 a.m. of 28/5/2023.

One Nigeria indeed!

Huh-huh, Nigeria, we hail thee.

But need I once more, especially having done so many times without number and across decades remind all my Yoruba compatriots and all Nigerians that Nigeria has been turned by the Fulanis/Hausas and the Yorubas to their personal estate or an exclusive socio-politco-econo cultural club for these ethnic nationalities since 1966, such that all national doors of the Nigerian Federation, having been shut against the other ethnic nationalities, numbering over 488, they both have since these long years been exchanging the baton of governance between themselves to the detriment of our collective divine and national destiny.

Again, all Nigerians, home and in the diaspora are invited to reflect and reason with this writer as he once again reminds his fellow country men and women that (our) Nigeria by its design is not a bipodal construct but a tripodal, tricentric construct. And not many words, but just one should be enough for the wise!

AWONLOKAN

Therefore, all justice and peace-loving Nigerians, particularly our Yoruba compatriots, and similarly all friends of Nigeria and all humanity must be made aware that the Presidency is not about a reward for one’s membership of the NADECO nor is it about exploiting hapless young Nigerians, instead of being an Awo or Maria Sokenu to them; it is exploitation sending them to imperil their lives snatching ballot boxes to get a foreigner in the person of the Nigerien, Muhammadu Buhari into power, including sending them to burn down all Ndigbo shops in all Lagos and elsewhere, and then turn round to pester him (Buhari) every time to honour the agreement, and later cried out: EMILOKAN against implied constitutional arrangements, even the party zoning formula – written or verbal, thus placing self/vested interest above the overall divine and national destiny of our country, but it is however, about inclusivity as against exclusivity, cutting off all Ndigbo many times over from the governance of our country, Nigeria; also, it is about acknowledging, accepting and respecting our natural diversity, and about the nation’s reps on behalf of the governed arriving at a very workable arrangement that is humanly possible, which also aims for peace, justice, equality/egalitarianism and inclusivity in an atmosphere of peaceful co-existence of national and human brotherhood, eventuating in national integration and cohesion.

Thus, to be drawn and concluded from this otherwise simple wisdom is not Emilokan nor Awalokan nor Iwolokan, but AWONLOKAN – the turn of Ndigbo in the South-eastern Geopolizone of Nigeria.

Again, a word should be enough for the wise, for at the end of the day, a nation, a people get/s the type of peace that they deserve and work towards.

It is therefore, to be reasoned here that it is the peace you want that you work toward, and such is the peace that you will get (at the end of the day).

Again, I say: AWONLOKAN!

Let us pray: May no man that is unworthy of the presence of God ever dare step into that hallowed ground of service, for it is holy onto the Lord.

EWA JEUN: COME TO ABUJA, COME CHOP, FOOD IS READY….ANI KE WA JEUN, FOOD IS READY, ONJE TI WA READY!

Owambenomics & Bullionvanomics:

The situation is such that the so-called public intellectuals, academics and journalists now follow politicians like cattle egrets, leeches, and parasites, doing more “Blessings sah”, bowing down and prostrating before politicians with flies-filled bowls in their hands, asking their political masters: KI LE JE KU SAH(?) as they daily hunt for every FOOD IS READY joint in that City of Vultures/Locusts and ELESWHERE in the Nigerian Federation.

Fellow Nigerians…. the tale of the next generation of desperate choppers, set to be the most dangerous in comparison with all the previous generations of the national cake partakers!

WRITE DOWN THE VISION AND MAKE IT CLEAR

And when General Olusegun Obasanjo took over from his late boss, Ramat after his gruesome death on February 13, 1976 in the Lt. Col Buka Suka Dimka-led abortive coup, it was like a man heeding the voice of the Excellent Glory: “….Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it,” (Habakkuk 2:2) and so did Olu determinedly and faithfully ran with that vision of his former boss, and made all Africa proud, and Olu himself till the very present breathes, thinks, does, says and walks Africa, in addition to being inside out, the quintessential African in whom there is no guile – nay, the very African of no mean continent!

Thus, in tandem with that vision, first of Yakubu Gowon, and then Murtala Muhammad, General Olusegun Obasanjo lived that vision and was totally true and undoubtedly committed to it in more than a trillion ways, practically and demonstrably, both in words and in deed, culminating in the FESTAC ’77 (2^ND WORLD BLACK AND African Festival of Arts and Culture).

As a former barracks boy, living at the Airport Headquarters in Ikeja, this writer can personally attest to and confirm this indisputable truism as he personally witnessed and saw at closest quarters, virtually all the Heads of State and Governments – Presidents, Primes Ministers, Chancellors trooping to Nigeria one after the other as if Nigeria was a sort of Holy Land, and they on pilgrimages; for as one was departing, another was landing in such rhythmic pleasantness to the unparalleled pleasure of this writer’s boyish curiosity.

In fact, there was hardly any President/Prime Minister/Emperors/Kings - Heads of State of the nations that visited Nigeria that that aspiring and very inquisitive lad would not strategically position himself to see them face to face and at very close quarters, right from the tarmac as they alighted at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, now Local Airport, Ikeja, passing through the front of both the Arrival and Departure Halls.

At this time, the now Murtala Muhammad International Airport was just being constructed, and it was then a playground for this lad and his playmates.

From the end of the Departure Hall, General Obasanjo would lead his guests to the Presidential Lodge, another place of regular visit for this writer as a kid, wherefrom he so much derived inspiration whose memory and spark have lasted till date, as when it was not hosting the VIPs of the status of Presidents, Prime Ministers, Heads of State and Governments of the nations of the world, I would be allowed in by the soldiers from the Elite Brigade of Guard guarding it 24/7, some of whom were from our barracks and the Military Cantonment, Ikeja.

For instance, I was strategically present there when Jimmy Carter, President of the United States of America visited in 1978; I was there when the following visited, Nigeria: Sir Dauda Jawara; President Kenneth David Kaunda (KK), Zambia; Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere of Tanzania; Gnassingbe Eyadema of Togo, Field Marshall Idi Amin Dada Oumee and a host of others, too numerous to list here.

And I can here recall that when Field Marshall Idi Amin Dada visited Nigeria, I must confess, I over indulged myself by going and following too, too close to him and his host, General Olusegun Obasanjo, members of their entourage/welcoming team right from the tarmac to the discomfort of the soldiers who were given me warning signs at intervals, lifting up their guns and asking me to move back, but my stubbornness, doggedness, determination, temerity and incorrigibility prevailed.

When we got to the front of the Arrival Hall coming from the tarmac, an officious soldier who decided to cure me of that boyish inquisitiveness, curiosity, unparalleled boldness and defiance received a gentle wave of the hand from General Obasanjo, the very man who as civilian President was to later after 25 years stop all state functions to receive that barracks boy, a young man then as Chairman Editorial Board of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc, but in his capacity as President, representing his NGO – Movement for African Renaissance and Universal Brotherhood, promoting national rebirth/orientation, on the 14^th of October, 2001.

It must here be documented for posterity that in another dimension, it was the former President’s wife, the late Mrs Stella Obasanjo, who when some Nigerians wanted my name to be removed from the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on the Illegal Trade in and Smuggling of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora insisted against all protestations from these jealous so-called eminent Nigerians that “John’s name must be included.”

Their grouse as I was to later learn was that “John is a small boy.” But unbeknownst to them, it was the findings of “the small boy’s (my) environmental investigations on the subject matter round the country that led to the setting up of the Presidential Panel.

As I was to later learn through a Minister, their grouse was that “John is a small boy” and should be removed from the list of the eminent persons.

But as I was later told by Otuekong Titus Okopido, former Minister of State for the Environment, that our First Lady, Mrs Stella Obasanjo put her feet on the ground – Ogbonge woman/woman pass man and insisted that “John’s name must be included on the list.”

“Don’t thank me, go and thank the First Lady, and not me, some very powerful people said your name should be removed because you are a small boy, but it was the First Lady who insisted that your name must be there.”

After 50 years, I take advantage of this opportunity to thank His Excellency, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo whom I was to later share a mutual mentor with in Chief Samuel Olatunde Fadahunsi, OFR, CON for prevailing on the officious soldier to leave that very stubborn and very inquisitive lad who chose to ignore all protocols to be following our Head of State, his visiting guests, the well-dreaded Field Marshal Idi Amin Dada so very closely.

IDI AMIN DADA AND ALL THE MYTHS

But why did I take that exceptional interest in Field Marshall Dada of Uganda?

As a boy, stories I heard about him made me to take him as a god of some sort, descended from the sky to the earth to help rule Uganda!

As part of that myth that was growing around him or rather constructed about him, it was said he could fly to the sky without an iron bird; that he had mysterious power to disappear and re-appear; that he eats human beings (cannibalism); that he dwells amongst predatory beasts like lions; that he could kill lions and other predatory beasts with his bare fists(!); that all the world dreaded him; that he could print money as much as he wanted; that the whole world, including white people deified him like a god of some sort; and did not cousin Oko Adoga told us he challenged the white folks to meet him in the air for a fight, and that that offer was turned down by the cowardly white folks who reportedly quaked and quaked and peed into their under wears before Idi Amin like a bedraggled rabbit during a heavy downpour?

I have gone to the past to show the place of Nigeria in Africa and in the world under General Olusegun Obasanjo, then Head of State of the Federal Republic of Nigeria culminating in the hosting of the 2^nd All Africa Festival of Arts and Culture in 1977.

Lamentably, after General Obasanjo, successive governments after him began to tilt that Africa-centredness of the country’s foreign policy towards the Arab world, and away from all West for reasons none other than religious (Islam) and Muslim Ummah (brotherhood) as very much manifested in the regimes of General Muhammadu Buhari (1983-1985, Ibrahim Gbadamasi Babangida (1985-1993) with the enlistment of Nigeria in the OIC (1986), and later, General Sani Abacha (1993-1997), forcing D-8 membership on the Nigerian state in 1997 just as IBB did without consultation, leading to the untimely exit from the military of his deputy, Commodore Ebitu Okoh Ukiwe; General Abdulsalam Abubakar (1997-1999) – the trio moved Nigeria farther and farther from Africa (Africanism/Africanity) to the East (Easternism, Arabism and Orientalism), that erroneous shift of which has brought us to where we are now and since all those years of the erroneous shift in foreign policy to the utter disregard of the nation’s constitutionally entrenched secularism, nationwide insecurity occasioned by the ongoing Bacchic fanaticism/fundamentalism/Islamism/jihadism and zangoism/rugaism – territorial expansionism, whose fervency will sure worsen in the coming years, including the ongoing ravaging banditry, both rural/bush/forest and urban/political and elite banditry, whereupon, Nigerians and their country are hemmed in left and right, back and rear and sideways, caged and besieged.

Again, this is sure to get worse no matter who eventually becomes the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as it tops the priority list in the deal with the cabals (the ultra-conservative hawks – the Fulani irredentist cum other Northernists – the Arewaites/Gamjites), amongst others, leading up to the concession of power person to whom the Fulani, and all their willing tools/accomplices in the hegemonistic agenda – the Hausas, the Kanuris, the Middle Belters/Midlanders/Heartlanders together with their treacherous cronies – the metropolitan elites/leechees in other Geopolizones (SW, SE and the SS) would use and rely on to further their pecuniary and Islamist interests!

THE 21^ST CENTURY SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA

Sankofa, a mythical bird in Akan folklore. The next legitimate Nigerian President must have the image of Sankofa on his desk.

Photo credit: College of Liberal Arts | Southern Illinois University (siu.edu), accessed: 24/05/2023.

Fortunately for the nation, the second coming of Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999 saw the revival and subsequent re-packaging and re-inauguration of Pan-Africanism/Africanity in Nigeria, where once again, Africa became the centre-piece of our foreign policy, whilst keeping close to his chest, an entirely new foreign policy which also, tilt a little away from Arabism toward core Orientalism – the East, this time round, the place of the Dragon.

This folly by President Olusegun Obasanjo and other African rulers of the time, moved and subsequently weaned the continent away from the West, eventuating in the official inauguration of the Chinese Empire in Africa, especially with the gathering of all 53 African rulers in China in 2005 in the name of the Arica-China Alliance (ACA), thus marking another era of official slavery in Africa – this time, by the Dragon from the East, leading to all sorts of infrastructural development in Africa by China, especially the Belt and Road Initiative by the Chinese, including all sorts of loans which the Chinese have used to enslave generations of Africa/Africans perpetually through the so-called Built, Road Infrastructure (BRI) just as the Chinese under similar arrangement have used such baits to pillory all Asia!

Of the new enslavement of Africa by the Chinese, Robert Mugabe ignorantly and gleefully taunted the West thus: “…the sun has set in the West, and we are moving towards the East, the place of the rising sun.”

Even though on January 26, 2016, Mugabe in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia  during the opening ceremony of the 26 Ordinary of the African Union Summit, whilst blasting the West for always reducing their relation with Africa to that of master-servant, master-slave, Lord and serf, said: “Tell them, tell them we are not ghosts, that we also belong to the world … part of the world called Africa, and Africans shall no longer tolerate a position of slavery, slavery by any other name. By denial of rights, slavery by being treated in a manner we regard as not equal to the manner in which they treat themselves,” it is by the reckoning of this writer a truism that Sinoism/Chinaism and Arabism (Orientalism), singly taken, is worse than Westernism/Europeanism and Occidentalism.

And it is also a fact of history that the Arabs, it was who started the enslavement of Africans and the plundering of their resources and the subsequent destruction of the African civilization, displacing the dark-skinned people from all the regions in and around the Nile – all Egypt and all the Maghreb – all North Africa, before moving downward (West Africa) in the 8^th Century B.C.!

More, what happened to the generations of Africans that ruled China, having at least two emperors ruling Africa?

Any inquisitive reader of mine who wants to know why, needs to read the so-called re-education of the Uyghurs by the Chinese and their subsequent brutalization, displacement, and actual extermination of them by the Chinese imperialists’ agents.

YAR’ADUA AND THE RETURN TO ARABISM/ISLAMISM AFTER OBASANJOISM

When Musa Umaru Yar’Adua took the baton of administration from his boss, Olu Obasanjo, he did not waste time to return our Nigeria back to Arabism as did the other Arabists, Islamists, and jihadists before him – Buhari, IBB, Abacha, Abdulsalami.

The facts of his death in faraway Saudi Arabia, rather his hospitalization and all expenses paid by the Saudi authorities, and subsequent ‘death’ in Abuja, Nigeria attested to his avowed or sworn Arabism and Islamism.

Goodluck Ebele Jonathan who took over from Yar’Adua, courtesy of the Doctrine of Necessity could not wean Nigeria from Arabism, and generally, orientalism, a practice that was later to be perfected by the bigoted Nigerien, Muhammadu Buhari with medievalist-style Fulanism, Arabism and Islamism, whose end is territorial expansion through rugaism, zangoism and Walaism (adoptionism), aiming to assimilate and Fulanised “treacherous prodigals” like Amoda Yekini Ogunlere (alias Bola Ahmed Tinubu) and his cohorts, including the band of Alleluia Boys like ‘Bishop Onagaga’, the supreme pontiff of Alagbadotican, and the highly depraved metropolitan-food-is-ready-come-chop-(ewa jeun)-political office-seeking ‘cattle egrets’ – the neo-colonial buffoons, who are now warming up and facilitating the recolonization of Nigeria, and indeed, Africa as the hawks are already hovering round all Nigeria!

The bunch of these rotten figs who like Esau has sold their birth right, all Nigeria – in fact, all ECOWAS and all Africa are Yoruba outside, but Fulani inside!

ABIKE DABIRI AS THE REAL MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFIAS (AFFAIRS) AND ITS POSTER GIRL

Up till now, this writer does not know the usefulness of Geoffrey Onyeama in that exalted office as the Foreign Affairs Minister.

Sometimes, one is at a loss as to who really is the Minister in charge of that Ministry, between the notorious usurper Abigirl (Dabiri).

As a matter of fact, the idea of a Diaspora Commission came from my writings over the years, which before now, I was posting to her and other lawless law makers, but only had to stop because they were all using my ideas to make speeches, and their media aides, using them to issue press releases as coming from them without crediting source - me.

In my various articles calling for the establishment of the Diaspora Commission since the time of Olusegun Obasanjo, I clearly spelt out the roles of the proposed DC, warning against potential areas of conflict and clashes between the Commission and the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs, what has been happening exactly, with Abike, having advantage/upper hand, not just because she is of the media confraternity, but due to the conscious bias and prejudices of the South West press hub toward – a sort of kinship or Umunna Journalism/reportage, and the preponderance of the press hub within the Lagos/South West axis.

SIDON LOOK FOREIGN POLICY - FOREIGN POLICY REDEFINITION: BETWEEN OBASANJOAN PROACTIVENESS AND BUHARIAN DO-NOTHINGNESS/SIDON LOOK

With most of the ongoing untowardness/ontological disequilibria in neighbouring West Africa and all Africa, were Olu Obasanjo in power, all these crises, some of which had actually metamorphosed into to wars would have been nipped in the bud, for he has the unparalleled knack for, and proactive approach to diplomacy; for peace making; crisis and conflict management and actual resolution of same because of his legendary magnetic force to magnet all warring parties to the round table, and achieving immense results, whether within continental Africa or outside of it.

For example, were Obasanjo still in power, he would have immediately intervened to nip in the bud the ongoing crisis likely to spill into war in Sudan.

Unfortunately, that rabid Nigerien hater of Ndigbo and an avowed Arabist/Fulanist and clan priest of Daurageria, Muhammadu Buhari is so bigoted that excepting the Arab/Muslim world, he does not care a hoot about anything untoward happening to/in our Nigeria, and in our immediate neighbourhood – the ECOWAS, and indeed, all Africa, unless it be his native country Niger, and the Muslim majority Chad, Mali.

This is the dilemma we now face in our now thoroughly messed up foreign policy suffering unparalleled identity crisis as our Nigeria no longer knows or sure of where to head; who to identify with; who to lean on; who to depend on; who indeed her true and actual friends are in the comity of nations.

NATIONAL REBIRTH AND THE REVOLUTION OF THE NEW GENERATION…. TOWARDS THE RE-ORIENTATION OF THE NATIONAL PSYCHE

That crisis of identity and political kwashiorkor and paralysis of will, leadership and power are such that her much-trumpeted “Giant of Africa” by which she prided herself from the 60s through the 7os has been changed to the “the Heart of Africa!”

But even a knave knows that a rotten head cannot lead nor a disordered mind, hence the Holy book enjoins all of humanity: “…and be not conform to the methods of this world any longer but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

This is therefore the reason why the mind is the first place, wherefrom our national restructuring ditty should start, for the nation’s problems going by the diagnosis and the findings after  my personal dissection, is first and foremost not that of leadership or geographic restructuring or balance of power, but mind disease, which automatically means what the Nigerian people need first and foremost is the healing of that mind disease – re-orientation of the national psyche which crusade this writer started as a Corp Member between 1989 and 1990, now in book form entitled: The Diamonds are Here.

This was to later be followed by a national rebirth blueprint titled: National Rebirth and the Nigerian Dream (Being a Blueprint on National Orientation Submitted to His Excellency, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which I personally presented to President Olusegun Obasanjo when I paid him a courtesy call on October 14^th, 2001, with 22 of my books: The Diamonds Are Here (2002, Nigeria) and national rebirth messages on giant gold-plaited plaques.

The same national rebirth blueprint was presented to President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, published in full on our two magazines – Vigilance – The World’s Leading Security Magazine and Scorpion News Corp for the Government of Muhammadu Buhari, in addition to posting that publication to the President’s aide, Femi Adesina and through the State House official email address and to selected Senators and Legislators, and the Brethren at New Estate Baptist Church, 27 Adisa Bashua, Surulere, Lagos, calling them to act as witnesses should the Government of Muhammadu Buhari fail to perform/deliver or fail woefully as it has.

THE ACTS OF MAHDI MUHAMMADU BUHARI

And failed very woefully they have, and all their ignominious acts have been recorded for all the world and humanity as the worst Government in Nigeria, for Buhari came, saw, but did not conquer and took Nigeria back to the 6^th century AD!

Buhari’s small mind and his 97/5 Doctrine could not harness the beauty of our diversity nor was he able to help the Nigerian people, particularly the youth realize their potential.

He and his very highly depraved and ignominious apostles are not going to leave Nigeria, a nation in comatose, but a destroyed, scattered and highly divided/polarised nation with a poisonous chalice of hatred distributed to every Nigerian, thus pitting one Nigerian against another.

And at the foreign policy level, Buhari and his cohorts are descending the stage, leaving the nation with an embarrassing and very shameful/woeful record – so shameful that things/events happening in our backyard and in wider continental Africa, will quickly get the attention of the hawks, donkeys, polar bears and the dragons, all who first and foremost, were the instigators of such crises in Africa West or all Africa, with their eyes on Africa’s resources as in the past and not necessarily because, such interventions, peace move or mediatory mission are convened or put together because of their love for Africa and Africans and all persons of African ancestry.

Lamentably and worse still, Buhammadu Muhari and fellow jihadists and Fulanists are leaving the stage with many countries of Africa in tatters/crises and in some cases, in actual war with each other, with the most recent being Sudan – and because Nigeria under Rehoboam and Xerxes of Niger Republic did not show leadership when it mattered, we saw many Muslim majority nations meddling in Africa and things African, not only politically, diplomatically, culturally, but religiously too.

And this explains the reasons for the relocation of the headquarters of ISIS to West Africa from Raqqa and the many invasions of Africa by the Babylonians and Philistines and the Ishmaelites as terrorists/Islamists/Jihadists, killer herdsmen, bandits all scrambling for territorial spaces, cultural, religious, political, economic, and educational spaces cum the soul of Nigeria and indeed, all Africa.

What is more, under Buhari, Nigeria having been pushed to the back of the queue, courtesy of the unparalleled ineptitude, lack of leadership, general lack of confidence and inferiority complex as manifested in Buhari himself and his team, Paul Kigama of Rwanda, whose country is still battling with both the blood and the ghost of the 1990s (1994 particularly,) genocide, has become the poster face of Africa, with smaller countries like Ghana and Kenya taking the front rows in international arena!

It therefore, behoves the next administration, whoever will lead Nigeria after Muhammadu Buhari, certainly not that rotten fig, Amoda Yekini Ogunlere (a.k.a. Bola Ahmed Tinubu), must not only reset/rejig/re-invent/renovate/re-engineer our Nigeria, our national psyche as well as our foreign policy to become once again, AFRICA-CENTRED; for at the heart of all the untowardness, ontological disequilibria, absurdity and bizarre tendencies of the polity currently – Boko, Ansaru, ISIS West Africa, other international terrorists/jihadists/Islamists, killer herdsmen, banditry, kidnapping and many more Islamic activists in our country, ECOWAS region, the Maghreb and indeed, all Africa, is the current policy shift/redefinition tilting towards Fulanism, Arabism and Orientalism.

And then I fell into a trance and a voice said to me concerning the next dispensation, write: OLD WINE IN OLD WINE’S SKIN!

God bless our Nigeria, All Africa, and the world.

EPILOGUE

There is a revolution coming.

It will not be like the revolution of the past.

It will originate with the individual and

With culture, and it will change

                 the political structure

                only as its final act.

It will not require violence to succeed,

                      and it cannot be successfully

                                        resisted by violence.

• Charles A. Reich.

POSTSCRIPT:

• Restore the glory of the civil service beyond what it was before Ramat Murtala Muhammed and Olusegun Obasanjo killed it.
• Re-arrange the Nigerian society: resurrect the middle class which IBB killed, making Nigeria a society for the very, very, very poor and the very, very, very rich. We need a sandwich class to reduce the current level of stupendous corruption, but Amoda is sure not the person to do it as he needs to do restitution before talking about fighting corruption in that country, whether as President-rejected or not.
• Kill the sandwich tier of Government, the state as it is a money guzzler and a mere drain pipe fuelling endemic corruption in our country. Therefore, let us have a two-tier system – Central and Local Governments.
• Don’t tamper with the Nigerian Labour Congress to make Emu Cee Oluomo as the National President of the New Labour Congress.
• Let us go Parliamentary.
• Three things happening in the North Central Geopolizone of Nigeria – jihad, jihad, and jihad, so not just herdsmen or unknown uniformed men! The Fulanis in collusion with international terrorists/Islamists/jihadists are out to take over that GOSHEN, so Benue, Plateau, Kaduna and others, wake up! Wake, up! Wake, up, Ho!

• JOHN ODEY ADUMA, British Chevening Scholar, publisher of Vigilance – The World’s Leading Security Magazine, Scorpion News Corp, and author of the bestseller: “Be a Beacon of Hope in the World: A Message to Young Britain” was formerly Executive Secretary, Foundry Association of Nigeria, (1997-2000), National Coordinator, The Pastoral Resolve, (General Muhammadu Buhari’s Pastoralists NGO; and Chairman, Editorial Board of the Daily Times of Nigeria Plc, 2000-2003.