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Buratai/Faruk Yahaya: Soft Sides Of Army

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Schools And Nigeria's Killing Season

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Emmanuel Onwubiko

If you are old enough to read and decipher the underlying messages encompassed in news captured by mainstream media especially in Nigeria,  you must be abreast of the fact that there are too many fragmentations in politics as played by Nigerian politicians.
Politicians of different genres hardly come into a consensus on issues of strategic national appointments.

Most times, both the ruling political party and the leading opposition party are in diametrically opposed positions on the matter of who has or has not been appointed into specific national offices of significance.

There’s now a positive exception with the appointment of the new Chief of Army staff Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya.

His appointment has attracted rare applause from a significant leader of the leading opposition party and the praises for the president who is the appointing authority came from an unexpected quarters – a Peoples Democratic Party governor.

Aminu Tambuwal is the governor of Sokoto on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party and he is the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ forum in Nigeria.

As stated, governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State commended President Muhammadu Buhari for appointing sons and daughters of the state at the federal level.

The governor noted that the appointments of the Controller General Nigeria Correctional Service and the Chief of Army Staff by the Federal Government have really attracted recognition of the state at the centre.

“We thank President Muhammadu Buhari for the appointment of our own. Importantly, I commend all of you who have been elevated to various positions for your service to the country.

“Sokoto State by this set of appointments has really attracted more recognition of the government at centre.

“Therefore, I congratulate all of you on behalf of government and people of Sokoto State for the upliftment and appeal to you to discharge the responsibility on your shoulders with passion and dedication,” he said.

There is also something that has started happening in the Nigerian Army that is reminiscent of the soft spots of the military which brings out the human angle of the usually tough looking and thoroughly disciplined Nigeria Army.

READ ALSO: Women, Democracy, And Politics

This virtue and passion is the idea of constantly visiting wounded soldiers and making provisions for their wellbeing and welfare.

This good and pragmatic modus operandi was emblematic and indeed characterized the leadership style of the immediate past Chief of Army staff Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai. Buratai was always seen dining with combatants on the war fronts of the war on terror in the North East of Nigeria for all of the five and half years that he was the Army Chief. He practically led from the front lines.

For the five years or so that Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, the Borno State born military tactician held sway as the Army Chief of Staff, he was a regular visitor to military hospitals to look after soldiers wounded in the war on terror. He erected many housing assets for the benefit of families of his operatives who were fighting on the battlefields.

One of his successors and indeed the present Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya has continued to carry through this virtuous attribute that was on display during the period that Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai was in office.

This exemplary lifestyle of visiting the wounded soldiers is also a legal tradition that is embedded in the Geneva Conventions on war and warfare.

I will very shortly give  citations from some legal scholars who took time to espouse on the essence of showing solidarity with wounded and sick soldiers.

This goes to show that the army chief who follows through with the steps is complying with local, municipal and international humanitarian principles and laws.

These experts say that the sight of thousands of wounded soldiers on the battlefield at Solferino moved Henry Dunant to initiate the process that resulted in the Geneva Conventions.

Conventions I and II are entirely given over to safeguarding not only the wounded, sick and shipwrecked, but also the support services (personnel and equipment) needed to come to their aid.

Once wounded, sick or shipwrecked and provided that they refrain from any act of hostility, even former combatants become “protected persons.”

They may not be attacked and must be respected and cared for, often by removing them from the combat zone for impartial care.
Protocol I extends this protection to wounded, sick and shipwrecked civilians refraining from any acts of hostility.

The necessary care can often only be given, however, if the people who provide it are not attacked and allowed to fulfill their task. On the battlefield this will only work if they constitute a separate category -medical personnel-, never participating in hostilities and caring for all the wounded without discrimination, and if they are identifiable by an emblem.

The idea of Solferino entails respect, protection and care for the wounded, sick and shipwrecked, without any adverse distinction.

The wounded and sick are persons who are, because of trauma, disease or other physical or mental disorder or disability, in need of medical assistance, they submitted. This covers equally new-born babies, maternity cases and other persons in immediate need of medical assistance.Shipwrecked are persons who are in peril in waters as a result of misfortune affecting them or their vessel.

READ ALSO: Air Force Pilot Whose Plane Was Shot Down Narrates Miraculous Escape

The IHL definition is however more restrictive than common parlance, because persons who continue despite their condition to commit acts of hostility are excluded from the definition and specific protection, the International legal scholars affirmed.

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Lieutenant General Faruk Yahaya began his job as the boss of the army with a visit to the wounded soldiers when he  paid his maiden visit to the Theatre Headquarters Joint Task Force North East Operation Hadin Kai (OPHK) from 16-19 June to assess the operational and welfare state of the troops.

During his visit to the hospitals, he assured troops of adequate medicare and support in the ongoing counter-insurgency operations.

The COAS gave the assurances when he visited the 7 Division Hospital and  University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital (UMTH) to commiserate with the sick and wounded in action troops recuperating at the medical facilities.

The COAS also prayed for their speedy recovery.

While at the hospital, the COAS took  time to interact with the soldiers and assured them of proper medical care and  welfare, adding that their medical care is of utmost importance to him .

He averred that the nation is indeed proud of their selfless service and sacrifices towards restoring peace to the North East region.

Similarly, the COAS visited the Mechanical Repair Group to inspect the ongoing repairs and refurbishment of vehicles at the workshop through the use of local resources.

He commended the resilience and ingenuity of the engineers and technicians in fixing most of the vehicles that were hitherto classified as ‘beyond local repairs’.

Earlier, the new Theatre Commander OPHK,  Major General Christopher Musa briefed the COAS on the operational situation in the theatre.

A statement by Col Ado Isa, Deputy Director Army Public Relations quoted the Theatre Commander assuring the COAS that all efforts would be geared towards bringing the war against terrorism to a decisive end.

The COAS appreciated the commitment and selflessness of the troops in the theatre and implored them to exhibit a high level of professionalism and ensure that all  remnants of Boko Haram and Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists would re neutralised.

Also there is a trendy story of a   Nigerian soldier which  is receiving commendations for saluting the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Faruk Yahaya, while on his sick bed.The injured trooper was captured paying respect, even in distress, when Yahaya visited wounded forces at the 44 Nigerian Army Reference Hospital in Kaduna.

It was observed that social media users are posting the photo which they say depicts the huge respect military personnel accord their superiors.

In his remarks, the COAS thanked the officers and men for their sacrifice to the nation and assured that the army would adequately take care of them.

Yahaya disclosed that all arrangements have been concluded for personnel that require medical treatment abroad.

READ ALSO: Chief Of Defence Staff To Hold Security Meeting In Imo

Those who require plastic surgery, prosthetics, among others will be flown out of Nigeria.

The Army chief announced plans to build a state-of-the-art facility in the hospital for the production of prosthetics.

The general said efforts on this have been heightened in partnership with some foreign experts from Germany.

The Chief Medical Director of the hospital, Colonel Steven Onuchukwu, led Yahaya round the wards.The Army Chief had earlier pledged to abide by the respect for the humanrightights of all Nigerians. His whistle stop visits to hospitals are surely a good step to practicalise his promise to respect and promote human rights.

The Chief of Army Staff, Faruk Yahaya, had earlier made a solemn pledge to prioritise welfare of personnel, entrench professionalism and celebrate gallantry by leading with sincerity, transparency and accountability.’

He made the promise during his maiden interaction with the Principal Staff Officers (PSOs), field and corps commanders in Abuja.

Faruk Yahaya now a lieutenant general, was appointed as the 22nd chief of army staff very recently by President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said the task ahead was enormous, urging the officers and soldiers to rise in the defence of the nation.

The COAS also pledged to provide an exemplary leadership and conscientiously follow the standing operating procedures of Nigerian army by ensuring that the army “becomes a formidable force for national defence and security’’.

According to him, for the Nigerian Army to be competitive in the 21st century, it must remain professional and seek to develop competencies that would make it ever- ready to undertake its constitutional duties.

“It is, therefore, against this background that my mission which is a professional Nigerian Army is ready to accomplish assigned missions within a joint environment in defence of Nigeria.

“To achieve this goal, my command philosophy will rest on four pillars, namely: Professionalism, Readiness, Administration and Cooperation.

“We must return to the tenets of adhering strictly to customs and tradition and ethics of our army and put in place a formidable Nigerian Army.”

Interestingly,  the gentleman has started well by promoting greater regard to the wellbeing and welfare of his men and officers who are making the supreme sacrifices to safeguard the territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

READ ALSO: 10 Soldiers Die In Military Plane Crash

However,  going forward, he needs to broaden his scope of partnership to include credible leaders and stakeholders in the civil rights organisations so the conversations begun by Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai in consolidating the structures of civil, military relations are elevated and made sustainable.

Onwubiko is the head of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and blogs @ www.huriwanigeria.com, www.thenigerianinsidernews.com, www.huriwa@blogspot.com.

 

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Opinion

Self-esteem Of The Male Child, A Tool for Peaceful Marriage

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The Futility Of A Marital Chase
Dr. Hope Nwawolo

By Hope Nwawolo

Self-esteem determines how much you value yourself and believe in your ability to succeed. If you feel confident in being yourself around others, then you likely have high self-esteem. Having high self-esteem is related to increased happiness, relationship satisfaction, and resilience in the face of adversity. Some men went through bullying in childhood or adolescence, grew into men with deflated self-esteem. 

In more recent times, the society is veering off the mindset of training only the girl child. This is because the disturbing experiences of ladies, who were trained to be submissive to their untrained husbands, have changed the dynamics of child training. Eyes have opened to realize that if you train your girl child to be an angel in marriage, she might end up with a male child who grew into a monster in the same marriage because he was not trained. 

Training has different dimensions and the common one being offered the male child is that of having a caring heart and respect for his wife in future. This is highly commendable but not all encompassing. One aspect of training that is silently being ignored is that of development of self-esteem in the male child.

Nowadays, the girl child is encouraged to look at herself as one who is wonderfully made and should not be trampled by anyone, particularly, the opposite sex. This is helping to build the confidence and self-esteem of many girls who can now stand their ground on who they want to be as they grow older. These girls grow into ladies with confidence, taking on different challenges they come across as they aspire to reach the zenith of their careers. Observably, many successful ladies are able to balance their careers with demands of the home, and succeed. Now, women have their voices and demand to be heard, instead of only being seen as it was the case in the past. 

Unfortunately this new trend seems to be breeding a counter reaction in some men. There is the growing tendency for these men to become uncomfortable in the face of the obvious confidence of their wives. Unknowingly, some of the men sabotage their marriages because they fail to value themselves as persons to match their wives’ self-esteem. This is the crux of the article, and for the need to inculcate high self-esteem in the male child to balance the training of the girl child, if and when they come together for marriage, instead of seeing her as a threat because of her self-esteem. 

Expectedly, a woman with dignity and high self-esteem, will stand out anywhere and anytime. This has nothing to do with pride and does not even give the woman the right to attempt to usurp authority from the man. In fact, such  a woman may go an extra mile to clothe herself with humility, particularly, in the presence of her husband, at home or functions. Unfortunately, many men cannot just manage the success of their wives. They would rather see them as threats. Some expect the women to be seen and not heard, forgetting that silence in dignity can attract attention from those around. Of course, men with high self-esteem, are proud to have such women as their wives.

Furthermore, it is unnecessary, particularly in the present economic hardship where the woman is almost sharing responsibilities with the man. For such a woman with financial independence, the man must be ready to witness some temper flings. And if the general admonition to women is that they should study the men and know when to talk to them, the man should also understand that the woman might be on the wrong side of her temper, due to pressure at home or work, sometimes, rather than seeing her when she is in a bad mood, as insulting him, because of his low self-esteem. 

A man with low-esteem, often finds it hard to believe that he is lovable or worthy of being respected, particularly, if he sees the woman as one who is independent to some extent and capable of taking care of herself, and sometimes, the children . Such mindset can suffocate a relationship, as it may become almost impossible to please him. Understandably, the behaviour may not even be reflective of his character but symptoms of an internal struggle, and can indeed be a cause for concern, if left unaddressed. Unfortunately, there are cases of such marriages that went sour.

However, this can be checked in adolescence or teenage years before it gets full-blown in adulthood, especially in marriage. It takes an intentional stance by parents to ensure regular self-expression by the male child, as a way of building his self-esteem to go through the rigours of life. He needs to understand that marriage should be that of partnership and not absolute subjugation of the woman, no matter her level in career and society. The man remains the head of the woman, and the home!

 Nwawolo, PhD, writes via 

hopenwawolo@yahoo.com   

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Opinion

Mohbad: When Love And Light Are Not Enough

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Dele Jegede In Conversation With Prince Yemisi Shyllon
Prof. Toyin Falola

By Toyin Falola

    I did not want to write about Mohbad until a student of the University of Babcock contacted me, asking me to lend my voice to it. The seventeen-year-old student emailed me in sentences that come with anguish and pain. I was moved by them. Nothing I write can restore the damaged emotions of this teenager, but I am glad to run this errand. The purpose of old age is to restore the broken fabric of society.

A sea of shimmering lights dotting the darkness of an evening sky is not a common sight anywhere in the world. In Lagos, Nigeria, it holds even more significance. It seems only a few months since a peaceful demonstration of young Nigerians was interrupted at the Lekki Tollgate in October 2020. As though the tragedy that would follow was scripted, solemn protesters who held out candlelights in their numbers in memory of fallen comrades were dispersed by live rounds and coercive military actions.

This time around, on the evening of September 21, 2023, the collegiate crowd, candle lights, and stars you saw were not to mourn the youths who had fallen to SARS’ brute force. This was the candlelight procession in honour of Ilerioluwa Aloba, popularly known as Mohbad, a young Afrobeat singer in his prime whose death and the events leading up to it have been controversial.

But these two nights have more than one thing in common. Just like in 2020, the concerned fans of the late music artiste had chosen Muri Okunola as their rendezvous, a park along Ozumba Mbadiwe Avenue, Victoria Island, Lagos, which is only a few minutes from the venue of the 2020 #EndSARS demonstration. Also, the candlelight procession featured youths, some with their placards with the inscription: “JusticeforMohbad,” bringing back memories from that fateful night. Just like three years ago, the candlelight procession for Mohbad ended with police action, the police dispersing “unruly protesters” off the scene. At least, the singular observation that some ill-trained, trigger-happy policemen did not kill Mohbad brings some solace. Nevertheless, murder is murder regardless of who pulls the trigger is an aphorism that admits very few exceptions.

At this point, one would imagine how a solemn event like a candlelight procession could have transformed into a protest that would warrant a dispersal of the “unruly crowd” by men of the Nigeria Police. In the defence of the Police Force, dispersing the procession was in the interest of ensuring the safety of lives and properties. For one thing, an exodus of young people with dread, tattoos, exuding palpable deviance is enough danger to the lives and properties in the surrounding communities; talk more of a rampant exodus of youths bearing weapons of mass destruction like naked fire and placards.

This is why the police had to think up their best initiative to nip the danger in the bud—quench the fire, whether candle lights or flickers of agitation. This is not unusual, especially in a country like ours where the primary security company has an unyielding aversion to demonstrations and an uncanny penchant for forceful responses to demonstrations, no matter how peaceful. Pardon me for this segue; it was necessary.

But will the young, towering late musician ever get justice? Would the enemies, frenemies, and evil conspirators he talked about before his death be brought to book? If anything, Ilerioluwa would take solace in the candlelight procession organized to send his soul home to his maker, as this symbolizes what he stood for. Shortly after announcing his departure from his former record label, Marlian Music, Mohbad announced his label titled “Imolenization.” In the Yoruba language, Imole means light or illumination. So, despite having had his light snuffed out in his prime, his soul would journey to the heavens buoyed on by an array of lights and love.

To many young Nigerians, Mohbad was a leading voice on the street. His songs, K.P.K., Feel Good, Peace, and Ronaldo 

(https://www.google.com/search?q=K.P.K.%2C+Feel+Good%2C+Peace%2C+and+Ronaldo&rlz=1C5GCEM_enUS1077&oq=K.P.K.%2C+Feel+Good%2C+Peace%2C+and+Ronaldo&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigAdIBCDE4MDhqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:1c3f2f36,vid:wB9Vym8SWmU,st:0), are not merely hits but have become street anthems. For many whose lives revolved around the trenches and suburbs of Lagos, Mohbad was also an emblem of hope. Like most of his contemporaries, Mohbad’s discography showcases deviance, survival, internet fraud, high life, and the never-say-die hustling spirit of the average Nigerian youth.

Mohbad’s music career took a different turn when he joined his former record label, Marlian Music. On the back of the label’s popularity, Mohbad’s stock rose exponentially, even attaining stardom with two successful albums and an E.P. Without dwelling much on what may have gone wrong between the musical art and his label, it was clear that his departure was not well received. In most departures of this kind, bad blood and legal skirmishes are not uncommon.

However, when bad blood brews into assaults and unending threats to life, and parties take laws into their hands rather than ply the legal route, the assailing party would be said to have crossed the line. As the elders would say, a fight is already set in motion when the handshake goes beyond the elbow. Mohbad, upon leaving Marlian Music in 2022, premised his departure on the failure of the label management to remit his music royalties and other entitlements. Months later, the late musician had severally released materials on how his ex-boss, Afeez Fashola, had been after his life. This leads to the question, what more would tilt the suspicion of the police towards a suspect than the declaration of a deceased person before his death?

The events surrounding the death of Mohbad raise many questions. First, could there be any connection between the frenemies he lamented and his death? Why was his burial hurried, even by his kin? Are the police doing a good job of arresting and interrogating prime and remote suspects? Was the government of Lagos right to have exhumed his remains to conduct an autopsy? Going by the Coroner’s System Law of Lagos State, “a report of death shall be made to the office of the Coroner and be subject to post-mortem examination where there is reasonable cause to believe that the cause of death was violent, unnatural, or suspicious”.

Matter-of-factly, even in this cruel world, the death of a 27-year-old is presumably unnatural except where the circumstances reveal otherwise. In Mohbad’s case, the circumstances seem to agree that a post-mortem examination is more than necessary. It becomes even more suspicious when the allegations of hostility, threats to his life, trespass on his person, and unending battles, as lamented by the late musician, are put into context.

Admittedly, the law books teach that suspicion and subjective opinion are not a sufficient basis for proof of facts. Hence, the need for empirical examination will further drive us to the point of certainty, at least for the sake of the deceased, whose life may have been cut short by unnatural forces. Maybe this would also provide context or answers as to why his burial was hurried.

When an unnatural or suspicious death occurs, the police ordinarily conduct a post-mortem examination, interrogate close associates, and scour through correspondence, recent contacts, and perceived enemies. This information becomes even more relevant if the deceased claims to have been bullied, threatened, or attacked.

Mohbad’s death has provoked commentaries and opinions from different quarters. While some have been more cautious in pointing fingers, others have thrown caution to the wind and have demanded the arrest of individuals like Afeez Fashola and Samuel Balogun. One salient issue that must be addressed before this momentum dies down is the need to redefine lost values in light of the infiltration of foreign values. In foreign climes like the United States, it is not unusual for bad blood of this kind to brew into assassinations. A case in mind is that of Tupac Shakur, who was murdered exactly 27 years ago in Nevada, United States 1996. Six months later, Christopher Wallace, Notorious B.I.G., was murdered similarly.

While Mohbad may not have died from gun violence, his death was no less violent, given the circumstances that culminated in his untimely demise. When viewed in light of his industry, we begin to see the impact of foreign elements in the Nigerian music world. A look through the boards shows artists with criminal histories ranging from assault, internet fraud, marijuana abuse, and sexual violence to homicide. It would seem that Nigerian pop artists have not only taken music inspiration from the West but have also taught their dark penchant for vices.

The cause of death might have been speculative, and the range of agitation could also have been built on unsubstantiated emotional outbursts on circumstantial evidence, a little bit shy of mathematical accuracy. Even at that, they have established the undisputed need to chase the issue to the root and also raised a disturbing concern that a lot has been overlooked in our complacency. Unfortunately, the police, in their usual brutes, have dispersed away such voices that would keep them on their toes like in the EndSARS period.

It begs the question that the current continuous show of love and a thousand sessions of candlelight will not fill the societal lacuna that might have occasioned his death or brought about the ugly incidences that built momentum before it. An enabling system has nourished the powers that have pressured Mohbad for months before his death and have continuously caused the demise of many of our fallen heroes, even if they are social stimulators like Mohbad.

To the young Babcock student, let me close as an elder: When someone else dies with similar circumstances, the same love and light will fall along with them. We have seen it continuously in recent history. We have seen brutality on helpless individuals and the government being continuously inconsiderate, but we have not seen an end to the circle. The love and lights are insufficient, but the nation has been too sleepy to fill the void they could not cover. May your fate be different, and may you live past 100 years. Amen. I will come to your campus and speak with you in person, sharing my story of survival as a teenager in the bush.

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Soyinka And The Gbajue Metaphor 

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Nigerian Destiny: In The Hands Of The People
Dr. Promise Adiele

By Promise Adiele

Akin Akingbesote was my roommate at Q107 Eni-Njoku Hall, University of Lagos. Akin was in 200 level studying Mass Communication while I was in 100 level studying English. Given the large number of Igbo and Yoruba students on campus then, the general lingo was dominated by code-switching straddling pidgin English, Yoruba, Igbo and other forms of slang. My knowledge of Yoruba was poor, Akin’s knowledge of Igbo was abysmal. So, we struck a deal to teach each other our mother tongue at least, to retain a faint knowledge of all linguistic strategies and slang on campus. Akin, a good-natured guy from Ondo State, suggested that the best method would be for us to come up with expressions in the opposite language and bring them to the table while the other person interpreted and analysed them. I agreed. Every day, I came with different Yoruba expressions and Akin interpreted them. He also came with different Igbo expressions and I interpreted them. Both of us sometimes played pranks and were mischievous with the interpretations. However, we managed the situation and it was fun. 

One day, I returned to campus from town and asked Akin to explain the meaning of lo toju eru e! I had seen the expression boldly written inside a bus. He explained that it means keep your load safe. Also, I asked him to explain the meaning of owo da! He said it means where is your money? I disagreed with Akin’s interpretation of owo da!. I argued that the bus conductors were wrong to use Owo da as where is your money? I told Akin that owo da could mean where is the money which I thought was arrogant and rude. I further argued that Owo da sounded like a thief demanding money from a helpless victim. Pay your transport fair in Yoruba should mean something else, more peaceful and respectful, something like san owo re. Akin laughed at me and said, “When they ask you owo da, don’t give them your money and see what will happen to you”. I told him that in Igbo, pay your money could be translated as kwuo ugwo gi, or nye m ego gi. Although kedu ego gi could be interpreted as pay your money, it didn’t quite capture the accurate linguistic potential of the expression.

One day, I returned to the room and asked Akin, “what is the meaning of gbajue”?  He looked at me intently, smiled and asked, “Why do you want to know the meaning of gbajue , abi you don join them”? His response did not make meaning to me. “Akin, please tell me the meaning of gbajue”, I insisted. Well, it means 419, he laughed as he explained. I noticed that Akin was not serious with the gbajue lecture, so I decided to contact a course mate the next day, concluding that to get the best answer, I would approach an Igbo student who also spoke Yoruba fluently, as well as any Yoruba person. So I went to George Nkwocha, the ever-smiling, peacefully disposed guy in my class. Georgie, as we called him, gave me different meanings of gbajue  depending on the context. At last, I concluded that gbajue means deception, dubiety, and all forms of criminal tendencies that are meant to mislead, confuse, and lead astray. End of story. Armed with my knowledge of gbajue, I moved on. No one would bamboozle me with the word again. 

Having learned and understood the meaning of gbajue in school, I was therefore irked when Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka used it in faraway South Africa as a metaphor to describe the activities of Africa’s most avant-garde political group, Labour Party under the aegis of Obidient movement. According to Soyinka, the Labour Party employed gbajue tactics to befuddle Nigerians, claiming that they won the last presidential elections. The accomplished man of letters avowed that he “can categorically state that Labour Party did not win the election, they came third, not even second”. Let me quickly admit that I am not fit to untie Soyinka’s shoe lace. He is a great man revered and respected across the world. I teach Soyinka’s texts every year. But I am not one of his disciples. I subscribe to Femi Osofisan’s Brecht, Marxist, dialectical leaning more than Soyinka’s ritual cleansing, tragic world view illustrated through his appropriation of Ogun, the Yoruba god of iron and the subterranean agent of self-examination. Soyinka is entitled to his explication of gbajue, although many people think he erred. Many people think he is gradually losing that invincible, iconoclastic portrait of his by consistently aligning with bourgeois, upper-class echelon against the masses. Many people also think that he is gradually eroding all the virtues and principles he stood and fought for as a young man. His “the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny” has morphed into an ideology with which he is appraised and found wanting because he continues to maintain grave silence in the face of tyranny pro max. Like Soyinka, let me also exercise my intellectual prerogative by offering a personal, surgical dismembering of gbajue, at least within Nigeria’s evanescing, socio-political environment. 

Gbajue means to insidiously submit fake academic credentials to the electoral body, serve eight years in an executive capacity and recruit foot soldiers to drum support for you. It is the indoctrination of school children who grow up knowing and answering that someone was this and that, a position attained through deception and beguiling posturing for gain. Gbajue also includes benefitting from the commonwealth having attained a glorious political position riding at the back of fraudulent academic and genealogical claims. All the wealth amassed in that process, all the people who benefitted from that deception are indebted to the gbajue phenomenon and must be made to pay restitution. 

Gbajue means when the electoral umpire promises to follow a particular pattern in an election and even goes ahead to publish these regulations in national dailies and the internet. Then, suddenly, like real gbajue-seared beings, make a complete turnaround and abandon the patterns and devices already scheduled for the elections. Then the electoral umpire reverts to its invidious, treacherous, double-dealing methods to conclude the election. The real gbajue element is when the people trooped out in millions based on the promises and assurance of the electoral umpire but only to be deceived, cheated, and abused.

Gbajue means when, during an election, the security apparatus in the country assures people to come out and vote, guaranteeing them ultimate protection and safety. Then, when the people came out, a particular ethnic group is harmed, maimed and dehumanized yet, the same security apparatus connives and looks away from these incidents even with incontrovertible video evidence. Gbajue is when some disoriented people make open threats towards an ethnic group and go on to carry out these threats while the government lapses into hypnotic paralysis only to use media outlets, radio, tv and newspaper to release sterile, hackneyed statements, “we are on top of the situation”.

Gbajue means when in a particular state in the South-South of the country, elections were openly rigged and electoral officers glaringly harassed and threatened by the governor. Yet security personnel looked away and the results were finally admitted by the national electoral body, blurred results. Gbajue is when the electoral umpire, while people of good conscience slept, announced the results of the presidential elections in the wee hours of the night. It is when a group of people representing the judiciary set aside loads of electoral malpractice evidence, chide and rebuke election petitioners as if the judiciary is an arm of the electoral body. Yet, gbajue is surely involved when Abuja is ingeniously stripped of its status as the federal capital territory but does not have a governor as a state, therefore, 25% votes there are  inconsequential. Gbajue is big. 

Gbajue is when a new government announces the removal of fuel subsidy upon assumption of office without any corresponding, well-thought-out plans to mitigate the excruciating effects of such a knee-jerk decision. Petrol now sells for N620. Pure horror. Gbajue is when a new government titillates the populace with a spurious student loan scheme which lacks any fundamental base and, therefore, crashes as soon as it is announced. Gbajue could be more. It is when a government inaugurates a falsehood industry primarily to hoodwink the people daily with unsubstantiated, misleading tales – UAE lifts visa ban on Nigeria, Mr President is the first to ring the NASDAQ bell, Mr President is the only African leader Biden accepted to meet after UNGA. Gbajue could also mean distributing five billion naira to the states for palliatives when the people received disgraceful, next-to-nothing food items, when, unexpectedly 1$ exchanges for 1,000 naira. Gbajue could be more. 

The gbajue culture is maintained and desperately sustained by a coterie of desperate felons whose motives are glaringly tied to gain and the protection of the same. Thus, Nigeria is caught in a whirlwind of different gbajue metaphors. The result of the growth of gbajue in the land is the international embarrassment the country is currently facing regarding the inconsistent academic records of the number one chief executive officer in the land. But gbajue’s comeuppance could be summarized in these words by former US president Abraham Lincoln “you can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time”. I hope the majestic Kongi agrees with my definitions of gbajue

Adiele, PhD, Mountain Top University.

Promee01@yahoo.com

 

 

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