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Stop This Absurdity, Let Kids  Enjoy Their Innocence

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BOOK REVIEW: Ayo Joan Olatoyosi's Thesis, Antithesis And Synthesis Of Life

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Grace Ego Omoni

Education as often been  asserted is a process of cultural transmission, a phenomenon that trains the individual to develop spiritually, socially, economically, intellectually, emotionally as well as politically. Edward Thorndike  propounded some educational laws. These are the law  of exercise,  the law of readiness and  the law  of effect. He  also states that  the stimuli that occur  in the individual after a behaviour is exhibited have an influence on future behaviour. I am particularly interested in the first two laws. The law of exercise is based on the premise that practice makes perfect. This implies that when  an individual  engages in an activity over and over again, there is every likelihood for that behaviour to become permanent in that individual. The second is  the law of readiness. This states that an individual must be mature physically, emotionally and intellectual or mentally for him or her to actually learn and assimilate a concept. These educational laws are vital to the issue in this article.

Student’s unionism is a popular organisation in the school system. It was initially  instituted to help students enjoy fellowship with one another. However, today it has a multi-purpose agenda. History has it that  it was first established by Ladipo Solanke in 1925 as a West African Student Union to promote friendship and brotherliness among West African students, which campaigned against  colonial exploitation, political repression, racism and social inequalities. In Nigeria, it first started at the University of Ibadan and it  is  now known as the National Association of Nigerian Students( NANS). Since 1956, the activities of this association have had great  impacts, positively and negatively on Nigeria’s educational, social and political systems. Student’s unionism in our educational system is no longer the exclusive prerogative of students. It has become a phenomenon attracting the high, the low, school authority, parents, the government, non-governmental organizations, traditional administrators, religious bodies, politicians, children,  adolescents, adults and the school dropout! In those days it was basically a tertiary institution affair. Later, it came into the secondary school system where it is known as student’s Representative Council. Nowadays, school’s unionism has meandered itself into the primary schools and here lies my worry. The worry stems from the approach  being used in electing pupils as representatives for the entire pupils’ body. Thus, this article is most interested in the way unionism is being handled presently in some primary schools. It calls for caution. The article will briefly look at unionism in higher institutions of learning, the secondary schools, the advantages and disadvantages and deliberate on  that of the primary schools  ; election process at this higher level and as practised in some private primary and secondary schools, and counselling implications.

Students Union Government:

It is also called Students Representative Council or Students Organization and is mostly found in higher institutions of learning such as universities, colleges of education and polytechnics. It is a body of  elected  officers by the students themselves in a particular institution. The purpose of this body is to represent fellow students  within  the institution on matters affecting them as well as externally, locally and in matters of national issues. It is established to provide a variety of services to the student body. Offices are keenly contested for and people   are duly elected following the electoral constitution of the body. In the secondary schools, what is  in vogue is  that the school constitutes a committee. Prefects and class monitors are then  selected by this committee who nominates students for different posts using  criteria designed by them. The nominees identified  by the teachers as having the qualities in the prerequisite qualifications so specified  face screening  through rigorous exercises and closed-door interviews.  It is after these interviews that the committee does  the final selection which is presented to the school management  of that particular school for endorsement. The Student’s Representative Council  meets with the school management from time to time to discuss issues bothering the school and their fellow students.

In higher institutions  the choice of officers  is often   made through election and it is often a very serious affair.

READ ALSO: Why I Love Kids

The purpose of the union is the same with any organization. It is mainly to represent the interest of the entire student body; to be the go-between for the students and the management on issues affecting the institution in terms of school fees, accommodation, relationships, social activities, pegging of departmental dues, school  facilities, teaching and learning process and other matters.

The advantages of the Student Union Government or Student’s Representative Council cannot be overemphasized.  These can be summarized as follows:

1) sharing and working together in harmony;

2)  it is a nursery for   future  leadership;

3) creates tolerance for differing points of view;

4) helps students to learn to agree and disagree on diverse issues;

5) teaches how election works in the larger society;

6)a major agent of political learning. Helps students to have practical knowledge of civic education;

7) a predictor of adult political future engagement;

8)  there is a relationship between participation in school elections and intended political engagement after training in the school;

9) participation in voting in the school prepares the students to show interest in voting in the future. It serves as a beneficial experience in the preparation of students for life as active adult citizens;

10) helps in running the school  services and learning the languages as well as practising in activities such as meetings, discussions, debates and decision-making;

11) improves students awareness and experiences in relation to how politics works in the larger society;

12)it brings about changes;

13) moulds leadership qualities in the students right from young age;

14)provides opportunity for the students to constructively make convincing view points;

15) helps the students to know  their strengths and weaknesses, where they stand in the school community and  how capable they are in  maintaining discipline and their ability in coordinating  in areas of accomplishing tasks.

The Election Process and the Danger Involved:

Election  in choosing representatives for the Student’s Union or Student Representatives Council is the process through which people can express their political opinion. The students express their opinions through voting to choose their leaders. It is a formal group decision making process. It is a vital democratic pillar using an electoral system which helps to identify those who are qualified  to contest and those to vote. Candidates compete by campaign to woo the electorate to vote them in with the use of posters, manifestos, and supporters. In our days in the university, it was all fun and exciting.  Nowadays, it has become dangerous,  vicious and expensive. The real politicians have polluted the system so much so that credible candidates can hardly win. The school authorities secretly fight genuine candidates and at the end of the day, votes are compromised. Many  good people are apprehensive of school elections and of the opinion that the schools are now breeding grounds for dirtier  future politicians. It is an open secret that some engage cultists to threaten would-be competitors while some others pay off those indicating interest to step down.  This means that there are ulterior motives for getting involved. It is more than aspiring to serve! This also implies that  future politics in our nation  is bleak.  The school is no longer a training ground for great authentic and patriotic leaders ! The  beautiful ones are not yet born!

Electoral Process in Private Primary and Secondary Schools:

As mentioned earlier, the main  focus of this article is  to expose the menace in  the selection of prefects in some primary schools in this country. A friend of mine narrated how her daughter bitterly complained about the conduct of the school management in electing pupils as prefects. Here, the pupils are made to pay for forms, campaign, get parents to  sponsor and assist their children and wards by  getting and buying votes from other pupils. This means that children whose parents have the money and are popular among their colleges stand at advantage to become prefects and not the choice of the teachers who know the children’s abilities and capabilities better. At first, I was not convinced by the story. So I did a random survey and found out  that many private schools in the cities are involved in this practice. However,in the public primary and secondary schools, it is not so. In the government public schools, a committee is responsible for the selection and it is non-partisan. The selection of prefects is purely based on merit and not by campaign or buying of votes.

READ ALSO: Am I Really The Dad?: Paternity Matters

Disadvantages:

1) it fosters the spirit of negative competition;

2) it is not based on merit but by who is who and the highest bidder

3) involving parents in this type of politics is not the best for the children;

4) it breeds bitterness. The children will begin to harbour anger against their schoolmates, teachers and parents;

5) it is a way of destroying the political system in the near future because children are being taught how to play dirty politics at a very tender age. In a video which has gone viral, a child was asked what he would like to do in future. Guess his reply?  To kill! He asserted!  Teaching children at this tender age to campaign for positions has negative effects such as favouritism, lying, lobbying, assuming positions in which one is not qualified for,  bribery and corruption. It is absurd and destructive;

6) remember that these are children still in their formative years. Habits once formed are had to break. These are innocent children but this style of election can lead to manipulation, polluting their minds into believing that leadership is by power and lobbying;

7) hard work and dignity of labour will be downplayed;

8) the morale of many of the children will be truncated. Many will no longer have confidence in themselves;

9) this propagation of low esteem among those who could not make it because they could not get the needed political support may cause poor academic achievement;

10) it might lead to disruptive and delinquent behaviour, a dangerous trend for both the school and the larger society;

11) it will increase hooliganism, cultism, untruthfulness, partisan politics, ethnicity issues and division in the school and the larger society;

12) children in the primary schools are still immature to be involved in such intrigues. Such an exercise will pollute their minds.

READ ALSO: Of Second Class And Non-second Class Citizens

Counselling Strategies

1) school’s management where such election process is practised should stop this method of constituting the school’s representative council;

2) the ministry of education should condemn this system. The children are too tender to get  involved in this rigorous and dirty method of choosing their leaders. The supervisory unit of the ministry of education should ensure that such practices are stopped in the private schools;

3) children in the primary schools are still in their formative years and should be guided. Schools should put into practice Edward Thorndike’s educational laws;

4)parents should steer clear in decision making about who should represent pupils. It should purely be a school affair;

5)civic  and citizenship education should be taught in schools. Here mock elections can be role-played indicating acceptable conduct;

6)the idea of campaigning to be voted for, for leadership positions in the primary schools should be discouraged;

7) children should be taught skills for decision making and not through lobbying and throwing money about to win the hearts of others;

8) counsellors should be posted to the primary schools to assist pupils in acquiring the right behaviour that will make them accessible and being accepted by others;

9) mentorship should be encouraged;

10) election criteria should basically be directed towards academic achievement, positive behaviour exhibited by pupils, obeying school rules,  manifesting discipline and comportment. Rewarding these by selecting such to lead must be encouraged.

The focus of this article is on the  absurd electoral process being practised in some private primary schools in appointing prefects and monitors. The opinion of this writer is that the kids in primary schools are still in their formative years. They are still immature to understand the damage being done to their personality.

Therefore, subjecting them to compete for positions using the process similar to the national electoral system which has plunged the country into underdevelopment, bitterness, hooliganism and all forms of  evil will  further increase the  negative elements in the society. Let adult matters be left for adults and allow the kids to enjoy their innocence. The school is meant to build and  not to destroy ! Stop this absurdity in our school system

 

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Opinion

Religious Mumu

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

By Toyin Falola

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.” – Galileo Galilei

Religion remains a much-debated issue, especially in Africa. It is one of the determining factors of our identity. It determines who we are, our beliefs, actions and reactions, and even our thought processes. Africans had their own culture and traditional religion until the advent of western civilization, which brought with it the ‘gift’ of Abrahamic religions—,Christianity and Islam—and judged African traditional religious practices as evil, pagan practice and witchcraft. The missionaries did a thorough job of making people believe that their religion was superior and righteous. Africans accepted these imported religions, and their traditional beliefs began to fade. Christianity and Islam are now the new order, and people are extremely devoted to these newly found Gods. 

The Toyin Falola Interviews recently played host to music composer and songwriter, Beautiful Nubia. The question of Beautiful Nubia’s stance on religion pops up during the interview. He is known to promote African spirituality but has also defended foreign religions as advantageous. In response, he talks about his ancestral line: his paternal family were Olu Orogbo devotees (the Yoruba god of letters), and his maternal family were Ifa priests and Esu devotees. He said, “religion has always fascinated me like it gets people’s minds.”  He opines that spirituality ties into what gets people so much into religion. Although he no longer practices religion, he affirms that these religions have positively influenced people to do good and show kindness to their fellow human beings.

He states, “Any organized religion has a set of dogma or doctrines they use to guide you to put you in there. You are there; it is like a strait jacket to keep you on the straight and narrow. Why I said religion is a good thing is because the purpose of this is to ensure that you stay on the straight and narrow, that you do good things.” We can agree that religion has contributed to the rise of morals to a certain extent, as the fear of God keeps many people from doing evil. It has curbed wickedness and negative traits inherent in humans and made many people see the world in a new light. Religion has spread the message of doing good and becoming a better human being.

                                        Beautiful  Nubia

The issue, however, is not the practice of these religions but the ability of leaders to sway people easily. Although imported religions have helped to stop the extremities of African religious practices, it has only accentuated people’s gullibility. Beautiful Nubia further states, “What is wrong with religion is that it gives certain people the power to use their followers. It is not the religion itself; it is the human beings who run these religious organizations who use their power to extract money from them and push them in the wrong direction.” Owning a church is one of the easiest and quickest ways to get rich, particularly in Nigeria. All that is needed to succeed in this business is to be a good actor, have nice clothes (suits, particularly), can win people over with words and give yourself an extraordinary title such as Rabbi

It is common knowledge that the major reason why people attend church and Jumat services religiously are that they seek solutions to their problems. As much bad governance is enough to seek God’s intervention for various human issues ranging from terminal illnesses, protection, promotion, unhappiness, barrenness, unemployment, and marital problems, to poverty, which is an average African’s motivation to seek God’s face, also cause people to become staunch believers. To get swift, miraculous answers to these problems, many people fall prey to the traps of “men of God”, who only look to fill their pockets and bellies. This explains why a “pastor” would shut down his church after winning a 100 million Naira bet.

Pastors and Muslim clerics are considered mini gods who can do no wrong. The Bible verse, “touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm,” is an ever-ready response by Christians in defense of their highly revered pastors who would not think twice before taking advantage of their desperation to get their problems solved. They forget that a “man of God” is first a man. Religion has rendered humans gullible to the extent that they excuse things their religious leaders do that are not even in tune with what is written in the Holy books. How do you explain a pastor who sleeps with a woman looking for the fruit of the womb and says his sperm is the anointing that will cause her to have her child? What do we say to a pastor who instructs his congregation to bring a greater percentage of their salaries to him so that God can answer their prayers? Should the man who claims to be an alfa but has exploited so many people in the name of being a ‘wonder healer’ be left alone? Churches and mosques nowadays see the desperation of people and feed off it. Many people come to church for prosperity and get ripped off the little they have, all in the name of miracles, signs and wonders. You could be in a church service and then suddenly hear the pastor say, “I see seven stars. I need seven people who will give the Lord Seven Hundred Thousand to come out now at the count of seven. One, Two…Seven!” You will be amazed at the number of people who will run to the altar to give the ‘Lord’ that amount of money in this present economy. Unsurprisingly, some borrow money to give to their pastors to receive blessings, then struggle to pay back the borrowed money. Monkey dey work, Baboon dey chop.

These men of God add false doctrines to their fraudulent, shady activities. Beautiful Nubia quotes his mother, a Christian singer, as saying, ” any church where they are a lot of people there, you know there are telling them lies there.” He made an example of a Muslim cleric who tells his followers that every other person is evil, an infidel and a pastor who tells his congregation that their Jesus is not a Jesus of poverty, that He died for them to be wealthy. It is now rare to find churches that preach about the kingdom of God and how to live a life that pleases God. Churches today entice and then mislead people.

Sometimes, people realize all these things are wrong but lack the courage to question these atrocities. According to Beautiful Nubia, “…as a child, you are fully indoctrinated, and as an adult, you are scared to question these beliefs.” Asking a pastor why he preaches only prosperity and how to get rich as a Christian would be considered as seeking the wrath of God because the pastor can call down fire to consume his ‘enemy’. Questioning an Imam on why he sleeps with young girls will only attract curses from the Quran on such a person, followed by “who are you to question God’s prophet? The ways and dealings of God are mysterious”. Really, who dares question these men of God? The fear that has been unconsciously programmed into your mind from a very young age holds your voice and makes you look away from the evils of these religious leaders.

This is not to say that there are no genuine men of God, but there is a plague of greedy religious leaders who, because of their power over their members, influence them to bend to their will while satisfying their greed and lust. “We should not focus too much on religion being our enemy. We need to focus more on ourselves, fix ourselves, and we can use traditional wisdom to do that”, says Nubia. The way we question and demand accountability from the government should be the same way we question our religious leaders. Not every “God says” is true. The Bible in 1 John 4:1 says, “Beloved , believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” Many religious leaders are gods of their bellies and are only out to exploit people to put food in their fat stomachs and live expensive lifestyles with their poor congregation’s money. Child of God, shine ya eye!

This is Part 1 of the report on the interview with Beautiful on March 19, 2023. The extensive interview, which has received millions of views across different platforms, talks about the role of music in society. For the transcripts, see:

YouTube

https://youtube.com/watch?v=7fyHlf1QIsI

Facebook

https://fb.watch/jn7id9OeYd/

 

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Opinion

Death At Dawn, Rebirth At Dusk 

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

By Toyin Falola

 

I

Death

Twilight-zone, Afterlife, What-Mays, and Whatnots;

Questions that transcend mortal thoughts.

Uncertainties plucked by the hands of certainty

pondering life beyond the galaxy.

 

Philosophies, religions, and sciences; 

Ancient lenses to dissect and ponder.

Beliefs, opinions, and standpoints in their multiplicities;

Scalpels that open the heart of certain death

Blazing free the skins of uncertainty.

 

Science, a nobility I revere,

But it stammers answering to the afterlife.

For science is knowledge and knowledge from experience 

But the dead neither speak, nor take records.

 

Their journeys, ordeals, triumphs or woes?

No one bears witness.

But as dead, we must all be witnesses;

witnesses that testify not.

So, for now, we survive the knowledge of death.

 

II

On my Agbàlàgbà head lies my Ọ́kpụ́ Ágwụ́

With eagle feathers, rare and honorable

Adorning it for three scores, a decade, and some more days.

I had flipped my Kente given by the Gaa

And danced to crescendos from Gàngàn drums

 

I have been celebrated and celebrating 

For the miracles, I have worked with pen, paper, keyboard, and brain

I have taken the tales we tell in my village square beyond the Atlantic

Changed the songs that disdain us into appraisals

I have called my brothers not to point to our fathers’ house with their left hands

 

I have honed Africa and beyond

To answer the calls of the people’s need

I have reached the thinkable and done the unthinkable

So, I danced and keep dancing. 

 

Suddenly, I felt a touch on my host?

Electrifying my hand, leg, brain, and my whole

Telling me that my jur from the Dinka people awaits me.

That my hourglass tells of crossing the bar.

 

I thought I knew what it was like,

But my grasping convictions of approaching jur were perceptions

Just surviving the death of the knowledge of death

So, arms wide open ready to abound

 

What was there to fear?

No catacomb of secrets

No palm oil-drenched white garments

I have taken many to my gourmet

To feast and to see.

 

What was there not to fear?

With medicine men and women,

Syringes, lights, water, ECG, Oximeters, voices, and touches

Hovering around me like a sacred etutu

Making conversations with me and beyond

 

I was thrown into a pool of reminiscence

one leg and a part of me were already in the boat

It beckoned but I heard another. 

 

A loud voice like my mother’s.

Who takes a journey without locking his home?

Who takes the jur with unpatched palm fronds on his hut?

While the thunder rages up the sky?

The walls are broken and Balogun journeys?

So, I left the sea to clear the cobwebs and light up the night lamb.

 

The past few weeks have opened new lights of understanding to me. I now see the world from different hills and have helped to reach new resolutions. I know I have written about “transitioning to nothingness,” but my emphasis was on the “nothingness” with lesser attention on “transitioning.” I think we need to continue to ask questions. Philosophies, religion, sociology, psychology, science, and other ramifications are mere perceptions and we are uncertain. The transitioning occurs when death becomes an angel to hug not a beast to fear. We do not know what it entails but one must always endeavor to go with clean hands. 

My recovery from an illness may have offered me a fresh opportunity to shout some more, point to societal needs, and settle unfinished businesses. No, not those caused by my personal undoing, but rather those of the people who would be left unguided, and for matters untold about life, society, and individuals. I can say I have passed through the lessons of tantra transfiguration, to use an elegant phrase that I recently came across, to move from secular to sacred activism. No one survives death because of its finality, but when it seems that you did, it is a renewed quest, offering a new purpose.

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Opinion

Professors On INEC’s Will (3)

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Readers’ Showers Of Encouragement
Prof. Tony Afejuku

By Tony Afejuku

The debate has progressed well so far. Our professors, whose strokes have centred on their fellow professor’s manned INEC have tried as best as they could not to confine their impressions solely to the prism of subjectivity. Even when their impressions seem to be subjective, they still make allowance for contrary views, for opposing views. This obviously gives clarity, objectivity and logic to the subject at hand. Is the will of INEC of a professor minder and mincer of words’ control the will of the people or of the masses? On whose side are the Professors who are as concerned as almost everybody is with what is going – or with what has gone on – primarily about our Presidential 2023 elections? Our Professors who are debating the subject constitute the courageous and prophetic Nigerian voices of our day. Their authentic and responsible thoughts are not restricted to the local or regional. They are also not confined to electoral duties and responsibilities expected of the umpire and the will that belongs elsewhere. The truth about the quality of leadership about our country and elsewhere is also told in the debate of the literati.

Professor (Mrs.) Razinatu Mohamed in her submission, in her salvo-cum-explosion actually, drew attention to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s explosive explosion in the presidency. If Professor Osinbajo had provided the right vice-presidential leadership there would not have been the need for him to explode as he did as per a viral video Professor Razinatu Mohamed referred her fellow debaters to. “What has he been doing in the eight years of their administration? Irritated my foot; he is complicit.” Not done, Professor Razinatu drew attention to the kind of leaders that Nigeria and Africa need: “Leaders that understand the rudiments of modern socio-economic development and systems; Leaders that understand the crux of requirements for economic growth. Leaders that could demonstrate to the rest of the world that just as the world needs Africa, African countries need the world in a symbiotic relationship and partnership context where assistance becomes a dual role…..” 

Razinata’s concern is clear. Nothing in Nigeria will climb out of its hollow hole. In fact, the will of the people will remain hollow so long as a hollow mincer and minder is in charge of its electoral affairs. 

Professor Da Sylva perhaps responds better to Professor Razinatu Mohamed’s algebraic stroke. “Unfortunately, Nigeria’s democracy is trapped in its primordial self-made ethnic and religious sentiments and so, standards, merit, competence and pedigrees are measured by their curious divides of religion and ethnic inclinations. Until we all come to realize that heavens help those who help themselves, Nigeria ain’t going no-where – meeen!” 

    But below is Professor Da Sylva’s sledge hammer response to Professor Razinatu Mohamed’s Osinbajo hammer blow:

“Prof Osinbajo’s office demands he does what he did. Besides, it shows maturity and spirit of sportsmanship on his part. Every loser in a game “healthily” contested, is naturally expected to do the same. The only difference which again shows Osinbajo’s magnanimity is that in this context, the contest under reference was neither healthy nor just. The umpire seemed compromised and merely worked to a prepared answer. Yet the gentleman did the needful. I guess, brothers and sisters, that we should put all that behind us, and work for our common good, and the wellbeing of the country, provided the mythical Aso cabal will let the President-elect be, and let the masses be, and as such, they should not create any cause for us to think otherwise, lest they provoke our sense of patriotism to take appropriate action! I guess that those were the reading or feelings of the dirty-minded Aso Villa cabal. People that kill with sword never wish that any folk should pass a sword over their heads, a wise saying goes in Yoruba. The human principalities simply suspected that should they allow PMB to give the VP the intended latitude, they might not be able to control him. I remember on his return from London, he commended the efforts of his VP while he was away. He said he would still continue acting while he would still have some more rest at home. The following day everything changed, PMB decided to take charge as the President. I suspected some back door politics was playing out. My co-debaters, quite naturally, you’ll agree with me that, it is not over-ambition or sheer opportunism as you might insinuate for any deputy in an office to aspire to the next higher office, in a legitimate manner, there is nothing really unusual about it, and it would amount to killing a mosquito with a sledge hammer, should Oshinbajo be crucified for that, if at all. And as for his wishing Buhari’s non-recovery, I think that, again, like my Sister R, is a little unkind and not fair to the gentleman who I know to be a servant of God. He knows as much as I do, by our true Christian orientation and Biblical injunctions that, should he ever wish Buhari’s death or wish him any form of misfortune in those trying periods of the President, God Almighty who we serve would deal mercilessly and ruthlessly with him. That is what Psalm 41:1-13 is all about. So rule that out, because it is not, and could never be in his character. I can vouch for him. Rather, I saw him in those times that he acted for his principal, as someone zealous and appreciative of the trust his principal invested in him, and as such he tried to do his very best to merit the trust and the opportunity! I know and I am also sure that this is what an IBK, or a Razinat, would have done too had they found themselves in a similar situation! It does not amount to wishing one’s principal any evil, not at all. Not everyone can be like Chief Obafemi Awolowo who resigned his position under Gowon when the regime became financially reckless shortly after the civil war. Awolowo also gave very profound argumentation to justify convincingly his actions. He also turned down some other appointments including the “49 Wise Men of the Constitution Drafting Committee.” Oshinbajo couldn’t have resigned, normally, and naturally his principal, PMB should have supported him as a capable successor, but again, the President’s ethnic and religious bigotry took the better part of the President. Besides, PMB’s mind was long poisoned against his VP, a clean job by the Aso Villa cabal. IBK, Lady R, until the faceless cabal is permanently silenced the wheel of Nigeria might continue to go round in a circle, and to nowhere in particular”.

And Professor IBK takes the floor: “Prof. DAO, yours is a powerfully convincing submission, at least in a large measure. Now I am willing to hold a slightly different opinion about Osinbajo. Yet, I cannot fathom why he chose to run against Tinubu, days or weeks after the latter had begun his campaign in the party primaries. There’s much we don’t know about why OSBJ decided to run against BAT. Nothing is wrong with that politically but a little problematic from an Ethical or, at least Moral, point of view. Osinbajo did a poor job of it and came out a distant 4th in the primaries. I think he didn’t read the situation correctly and was probably misled by some cabal of sorts. Either way Osinbajo made a politically fatal error in this regard. Perhaps he must have sensed, or was told, that BAT was not the anointed candidate, or that BAT would be crippled by some ill-health or a medical condition. I remember the party’s screening committee publicly recommending that only younger contestants would be recommended to the NWC or such. Clearly there was an attempt to sideline BAT. Whatever the explanation, Osinbajo make the error in his campaign of promising to be more Buhari than Buhari. A man despised by whole sections of the northern population, a man whose reputation for laziness and incompetence was on the ascendant. Anyway, all is now history and Osinbajo has not given a good account of himself in this particular case. Prof DAO, I think your concept of the Trickster should account for Osinbajo’s situation here. FULL DISCLOSURE: a very close family member of mine was drafted to head Osinbajo’s campaign effort in Kano. We discussed extensively about Osinbajo’s pledge to carry on with Buhari’s policies. There was bewilderment and shock within the members. A week later half of the membership resigned on account of Osinbajo’s increasing identification with Buhari’s policies. Many mistakenly thought that Osinbajo was Buhari’s anointed one! I could go on…”

Interestingly interesting and intriguingly intriguing, dear, dearly dear readers: this debate.

To be terminated by the columnist-terminator and terminator-columnist next week after Professor Olu Obafemi’s summation of the debate he presided over.

Afejuku can be reached via 08055213059.

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