“A child”, the elders of my place say, “only knows when he takes the oath of loyalty but is never aware when he breaks it” (Ojó tí omodé bá mu ilẹ̀ lo mo; kii mo ojó tọ́ bá da). They did not stop there. They go a bit further to talk about the consequence of treachery. Their judgement is a grave one. They submit thus: “Ilẹ̀ ní pa òdàlẹ̀” (The earth kills the one who breaks an oath). Now listen. When you hear the word, “ilẹ̀”, my elders are not by any means referring to the solid surface known as…
Author: Ayodele Suyi
“How many governors are in Oyo State?” The question was directed at me by an Abuja-based senior journalist. He is equally a friend. I was confused. Rather than answer, I put a call across to him. “Bros, what type of question is this?” He laughed. He told me that someone played the same prank on him, and he chose me as his own victim too. Then I understood what he was driving at. We discussed other issues, and I terminated the call. But ever since, the question has refused to go away. How many governors are indeed in Oyo State?…
I was just about five days old in Benin as the Edo State correspondent of the Nigerian Tribune when I thought I had run into a turbulence. I got a traditional summon. “You are the new correspondent of the Tribune?” Chief Nosakhare Isekhure, asked. I said Yes, sir. The old man was the Chief Priest of Benin Kingdom. He looked deep into me and continued: “I called you here to welcome you and to also encourage you. I read the story you did on Lucky Igbinedion and the teachers. That is how to work, and that is what the Tribune…
At the funeral service for late Chief Adekunle Ajasin on Saturday, November 15, 1997, this is what the late Primate of the Anglican Communion, Abiodun Adetiloye, said about Nigeria and its leaders. The fiery Anglican priest told those who gathered to honour the former governor of old Ondo State, at Saint Andrew’s Cathedral Anglican Church, Owo, venue of the funeral rites, why, despite the natural resources God blessed Nigeria with, the people live in abject poverty. In the congregation on that fateful day was the equally now late General Oladipo Diya, who was then the Second-in-Command to the expired tyrant,…
If I were President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, after the Thursday, October 26, 2023, affirmation of my election as the winner of the February 25, 2023, keenly contested and equally controversial presidential election, by the Supreme Court, I would call my diviners and offer them praises. I would call on Títírí lorí ogbo (the aged one). I would summon Bììrìpé lomi okòó dà (the water that drifts the canoe are both ways). I would ask Dídà lomi okòó dà, omi ókò kii yi (the water that drifts the canoe simply waves, it doesn’t overturn) to come in haste. I would remember…
Sheikh Ahmad Gumi called Mr. Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, “satanic”, last week. He could be right. Gumi is a Sheikh, and all Sheikhs are spiritual people. Some of them see the heart of God; at least they make us think so! He did not stop at that. He went ahead to ask Wike’s appointing authority, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to remove the former Rivers State governor as the Minister in charge of the FCT. He also did not stop at that. Gumi spoke like someone with authority. He does not issue ultimatums without spelling…
The food you give to a slave is not to make him grow fat, but for him not to die (Oñje tí a ñfún erú, ki i se ki o baa sanra, ki o ma baa kú ni)! That was the closing remarks of Òsúntúndé, a character in the Yoruba epic drama, “Efunsetan Aniwura”. Òsúntúndé, one of the male slaves of Efunsetan Aniwura, the Iyalode of Ibadan, gives this line while discussing the parlous conditions of the slaves in the household of Efunsetan. Most of our leaders are just like Efunsetan Aniwura, or even worse than the legendary Iyalode of…
There are people known in Yoruba worldview as Àkàndá (special beings). Everything about them is a mystery (Àdìtú). They get away with everything that would easily consume other mere mortals. Two of such men are from a state in the South-West of Nigeria. They are almost agemates, but perennial enemies. One is a retired soldier, and the other, an Alákòwé (a lettered man). Both had on many occasions in the past, survived the ‘bullets’ of the enemies – physical or metaphysical. There was also another man I knew, who died years back. He was the oldest in his village. He…
At 63 years of independence, Nigeria is either under the knife of a quack doctor, a certified but perfidious organ harvesting doctor, or a know-next-to-nothing illiterate who uses his or her brother’s certificate to organise a medicine store that doubles as drug exchange point! “Suyi, we are losing our humanity.” That was from an elderly fellow. It was a telephone call. I kept quiet at my own end. He continued: “I don’t know what to call this. We have gotten to a stage where we cannot trust our hospitals not to harvest our organs!” Still no response from me. Then…
May the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, live long on the throne of his fathers. But, how about my illustrious Ijebu people having Fuji musician, Wasiu Ayinde, as their oba one day? That is what I see in the current drama of some Ijebu obas and others paying homage to him inside an ‘ipebi’ (seclusion). So, let me be the first outside Ijebuland to pay homage to the latest ‘oba’ in Yoruba land. Long live, Kabiyesi, Alayeluwa, Oba Wasiu Ayinde, the Olori Omooba Akile of Ijebuland. May you reign long on the throne of your forebears! Wasiu has…
At the installation of an oba in Yorubaland, he is given a list of taboos and red lines he must never cross. One of them is that he must never eat in public. I once attended a royal banquet in one of the palaces in the South-West, where I saw two foremost traditional rulers eat in public. The two of them are the biggest masquerades in the pantheon of natural rulers in the land. The host oba is also one of the most respected obas in Yorubaland with a deity-like figure. His oriki (panegyrics) says he is the òrìsà of…
Pray, how does a man tell his friends that his wife beat him the other day? How do men who suffer serious beatings in the hands of their wives in the day raise the wives’ skirts later at night to demand conjugal benevolence? Do such men get aroused anymore? Do they beg their wives to do what husbands and wives do? How do such men, for instance, come out of the house to go about their normal daily chores after the bashing from their women, knowing that their neighbours knew what happened? What about their children? Do those innocent souls…
I was away from the church on Sunday, September 3, 2023. When I came back, I was given an account of what happened. The teenagers’ class staged a playlet as part of activities for the September Thanksgiving Service. According to the report, the young boy who anchored the playlet asked the congregants to enjoy their presentation. In doing so, the boy used the language his generation understands. He was said to have asked “you guys” to enjoy the playlet. I was told the older generations in the church gave a sound that showed their disapproval of being called “guys” by…
The appointment of Hannatu Musawa as Minister of Art, Culture and Creative Economy by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the latest impunity and I-don-care-attitude any leader can display. Musawa has been in the eye of the storm in the last one week or so, when the news broke that the young minister is still a serving member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), observing the mandatory one-year service to Nigeria as prescribed by the constitution and the NYSC Act. Since the news flew to town that the ‘Honourable’ minister still has some four months to go for her to…
“My friends all, like the sonorous proverb do we drum the agidigbo; it is the wise who dance to it, and the learned who understand its language.” These are the opening words of the apologue, “The Forest of a Thousand Daemons”, by Wole Soyinka. The weird novel itself is the English adaptation of D.O. Fagunwa’s “Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmole”, which was first published in 1950. Agidigbo drum is one of the Yoruba’s surrogate instruments for language. Among such instruments with tonal peculiarities that can be translated to speeches are the talking drum (Gangan), Iya Ilu (Mother of all drums,…
Something is happening in Edo State right now. It is a big lesson in infidelity. As you read this piece, the rope which strapped Governor Godwin Obaseki and his deputy, Comrade Philip Shaibu, together in the wake of their joint political annihilation of their estranged godfather, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has snapped. As it stands today, Shaibu is holding on at the mercy of an Abuja Federal High Court, which asked the parties in the suit he filed to stay action. Shaibu, rightly, or wrongly, in the said suit, claimed that his principal, using the House of Assembly, had put in…
Nigerians Need Grains Not Bullets The Niger war has not started, but an iron wall has been cast across Africa. As I was writing this, the Daily Mail of the UK, and the Independent of the UK, said that the crisis in Niger had affected global aviation. On Monday, August 7, 2023, the newspapers reported that flights across Africa, Europe, and the Middle East experienced cancellations, delays, or diversions, traumatizing passengers and their families. In its headline, “British Airways forced to do a 10-hour ‘flight to nowhere’ as Niger suddenly closes airspace,” Independent UK reported that commercial aviation can’t operate…
As you drive on our roads, spare a moment to look at the people standing by the roadsides. Also check out the faces of those in your neighbourhoods. What do you see? You will see frustration written all over them. Husbands, wives, children; the old; the young, the able-bodied and the physically challenged, they are all united in frustration and despair. Things that we would have overlooked before are what people fight over these days. A sudden screeching of the brakes attracts hisses. A little splash of water from puddles on the road gets you the bitter “are you blind”…
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a Muslim. His wife is not just a Christian, but a pastor of one of the biggest Pentecostal churches in Nigeria. I encourage Pastor Mrs. Remi Tinubu to impress on the president the implications of King Saul’s consultation of the witch of Endor as contained in 1 Samuel 28:7. Whoever sold the idea of the N8,000 palliative to the president is a “familiar spirit”. Saul lost the kingship after taking counsel from a familiar spirit at Endor. If Tinubu goes ahead to implement this scam called palliative, he will lose more than his ‘goodwill’, he…
“This is not the type of student you expel. His records as presented by the principal show that he has a bright future and expelling him can destroy such a bright future. The fact that he did not deny responsibility also shows character on his part. This aspect of today’s discussion should also be expunged from the minutes of the meeting. We don’t want to keep any negative record about a student the school authority said had won many laurels for the school in debate and quiz competitions.” That was the verdict of the Chairman, Board of Governors, Araromi High…
In the last two weeks or so, Ifa, gospel songs and singers appear to be on trial in Yorubaland. People who shout Oludumare every day now say it is wrong to use other words from the same source to praise God. First it was Oluwo of Iwo, who attempted to throw Ifa under the bus in a newspaper interview. Then came latter day Christians who think they know more than their fathers. A video of a ministration in a church by the female gospel singer, Tope Alabi, went viral. In the video, the singer used certain words that are considered…
Not long ago, multi-millionaire militant, Asari Dokubo, in an interview with Arise TV, had this to say about his own ancestry: “I don’t know whether IPOB is Igbo. Even though I have Igbo blood flowing in my veins. I am not an Igbo man today. My great ancestor was originally an Igbo man from Abam (in Abia State). His parents moved to Obosi in present day Anambra State. From there, he came to Kalabari… and he became a Kalabari man.” In another breath, the same Dokubo spoke about his identity as a Nigerian. He denounced his Nigerian citizenship and claimed…
Yoruba Governors Are Ifa Priests Onibara consulted the Oracle to know what the future held for him. Ifa warned him that a strange, but beautiful woman would approach him for marriage and that he should decline. To ward off the emergence of the strange woman, Onibara was asked to make sacrifices, which he bluntly refused to carry out. Shortly thereafter, a beautiful woman came to Ibara and declared her love for the king. Palace functionaries who were privy to the Ifa divination, reminded the Oba and he refused all entreaties. He eventually married the woman. The problem with the new…
I am personally scandalised by the news coming from Ondo State about Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and the state of his health. This piece, I must confess, tasks my humanity more than anything I have ever written on this page. I however decided to do it because of the way I feel about it. Without any intention to disparage anyone, I make no bones saying that if the matter were to be about any other governor, I would not have bothered to dwell on it. Arakunrin Akeredolu occupies a position in the history of constitutionality in Nigeria such that we cannot…
“From tomorrow, don’t pity me. I applied for the job, I campaigned for it, and I got the job, no excuses, I must deliver….” I chose to begin today’s piece with the words of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was sworn in yesterday as the President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces. He spoke at the Presidential Inauguration Banquet and Gala Night held at the State House Conference Centre in Abuja on Sunday, May 28, 2023, a few hours to his inauguration. Even as I sat down to write this, the ceremony was going on in Abuja, and I could hear…
I travelled to Edo North over the weekend. On our way, the cab I boarded had a flat tyre shortly after Ikpeshi in the Akoko Edo area. I was shocked to see that the first two occupants who jumped out of the vehicle and started hurrying back towards Auchi were the two female passengers at the back seat. They just hurriedly alighted and without a word to anybody, headed back to Auchi. I found that behaviour strange; no empathy for the driver who lost a tyre due to the bad road. Suddenly, it dawned on me that that was the…
The Benin people of Edo State salute themselves as Ugievbudu (someone with a bold heart). Two Benin indigenes spoke about our economic situation as a country in an interval of two weeks. The two of them occupied very vantage positions that we will ignore the alarms they raised at our own peril. One is a Vice Chancellor (VC) of a university. The other is a governor. The two of them are subjects of the Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II the Oba of Benin. I have lived among the Benin people for a quarter of a century now.…
The president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is a lucky man. Next to him in luck is Senator Dino Melaye, the PDP governorship candidate in Kogi State. Melaye will be lucky if he heeds the instructions of those who have given him their own version of ‘Expo 2023’ for the governorship election slated for November 11, 2023. If I were him, irrespective of my faith in the Lord, I would do what he was asked to do. Don’t doubt my spirituality, folks. I remain in the Lord. I am only just being circumspect here. After all, our Lord Jesus Christ, when confronted…
My first and only physical encounter, at least at a close range, with the Great Guru was on Tuesday, August 3, 2004. I had gone through two stages of interview for a job in his Globacom telecommunication outfit. The message came on Friday, July 30, 2004, that the final interview with Mr. Chairman was slated for Monday August 2 at 4.00pm. Monday came, and another message came, postponing the interview to August 3. There were about 23 candidates. We waited at the Saka Tinubu HR Department of the company. It was one of the longest waits for me. By 6pm,…
Crime and criminality are not gender biased. Nigerians should have no doubt about it. Whatever a man can do, a woman can do better, goes the saying. The veracity of the age-long axiom came to life in Yola, capital of Adamawa State on Sunday, April 16, 2023. That was the day the NTA beamed live to us, the ‘victory’ cum ‘acceptance’ speech of Aisha Dahiru, who is also known as Binani, the candidate of the APC in the March 18 inconclusive governorship election and the supplementary election held on Saturday, April 15, 2023, in some local governments of the state.…
