Paying dowry/bride price, or whatever name men pay to marry their wives is called, gives them certain rights, immediately he pays your bride Price you are automatically one of his properties.

This is why they do not want it scrapped.

Below are the 7 rights men have, for paying to marry their wives. There can be more, but these are the basics.

1. Polygamy is Allowed.
   Paying, whatever name it is called, as long as it is to have the lady gives a man the right to pick as many wives as possible as long as you are rich enough to pay their bride price.
2. Cheating is Respect to the Wife.
   When a man cheats in this kind of marriage and hides it, it is out of respect to the woman. If he can pick another wife, then why is cheating an issue?
3. A man does not need the Wife’s Permission to Marry Another Wife.
   Paying to marry a woman is a formal stabilization of man’s superiority over his wife. He owes her no such explanation about marrying another wife. He does not need her permission to marry another wife because they are not regarded as partners.
4. The Children Belong to the Man.
   He that owns the slave owns whatever belongs to it. This is an unmentioned reason why both the woman and the children answer the man’s name. It is assumed that he owns them all.
5. If a woman wants a divorce, she goes empty.
   Empty she comes, empty she goes. No property, no children belong to her. Even the money in her account belongs to her husband.
6. The woman must do as the man wants.
   In such a marriage, a woman’s will is inconsequential. She does what the husband wants or she won’t be there at all. If he asks her not to get a job, then she has to stay home. He gives him sex anytime he wants, but he is not obligated to satisfy her sexually when she needs it.
7. The wife must be submissive
   Even your religion leaders agree to this. This is why they will always tell you to submit to your husband in all situations, perhaps to avoid getting beaten since he has the right to beat submission into you.

Many of you who are married may have seen your husband exhibit some of these traits, and you think it was because he is a mad man, no, he is not mad. He is just exercising his rights.

For those of you, who are not yet married, know this before you allow your family to collect dowry/bride price from your prospective husband.

By Sola Omoniyi

The way some persons are placing much focus on marriage as the ultimate achievement one can have in life is becoming worrisome, especially as it concerns women. A woman can have a successful career and awesome life, but at times, people still ask her; “why aren’t you married yet”.

Marriage, according to Oxford Dictionary is a legal relationship between a husband and wife. This suggests that two persons will be involved in the relationship and it has to be at their own convenience. These days, some persons see it as an achievement that must be done by one before one can be recognized.

Being married is not an achievement. However, it may be for those who’ve been able to marry after overcoming a number of obstacles, opposition and hardships.

IS MARRIAGE AN ACHIEVEMENT?

Walk into that home by your right-hand side, then observe and walk into the other home by your left-handed side, come out and tell me what you have noticed in both houses.

In House A
There is…
A girl being taught how to sit and dress properly.
A girl being taught how to cook.
A girl being told to sweep, to clean and put things in order.
In the same house is a boy who is at his lunch
Being taught how to greet elders properly.
Playing football.
Doing school take-home works.

In House B

It’s almost the same, just that the girl in this house has toys to play with, she has a male and female dolls and she is trying to make them live together.
~ Girls are being taught marriage and home keeping since they were born. Every day of their lives, something is implanted into them to remind them that soon, they will be married. Boys are being raised all the days of their lives to be men, they are told not to cry, not to show weaknesses, just muscles, they are taught to gang up and fight back because they must not lose.

~ Women from childhood have been taught and trained to value and esteem marriage above all other things in life as failure to do so will mean that they are wasted. They are taught to appreciate marriage and put their heads under a man to husband them because failure to achieve that will mean they have no identity in their lives. The boys on the other hand simply grow into the beard gang and six packs gang.

~ Because of this terrible and recurrent cultural landslide, the appreciation of marriage one-sided. Only a party to it wants it to work out. So, are women the only ones who ought to appreciate marriage, see it as an achievement or a life prize?

Marriage is a beautiful and amazing journey but ladies need to stop seeing it as a goal or accomplishment, because it’s neither of those things. Not convinced? Consider this:

1. ANYONE CAN GET MARRIED.
 You don’t really need any talents or qualifications to get married. Love is hardwired into all of us. You know that you don’t require much intelligence or personality to get hitched, either. Admit it — you’ve seen some of your friends’ husbands and shaken your head.

2. YOU DON’T NEED VALIDATION. 
If you’ve been single for a long time, the idea of finding a partner you could imagine spending your life with might feel like winning the lottery — something amazing that isn’t likely to happen. So when it does, you might view it as something worthy of cracking open the champagne and screaming out that you’re special after all. Whoa, wait. You sort of lost me after champagne. See, starting a life journey with someone is exciting but it shouldn’t validate you. You don’t need a marriage to feel special or realize your worth.

3. YOU HAVE MORE IMPORTANT GOALS. 
Marriage is cool but it’s not defined as a goal. It’s basically a choice between two people who want to spend their lives together. Goals don’t depend on other people — and they shouldn’t, because they’re something you achieve for your own happiness and self-growth. In other words, those things for which you do need skills and talents.

4. NO ONE IS GOING TO COMPLETE YOU. 
   Making marriage your most important goal could cause you to wait for someone to come along and make everything okay or make you feel like a complete person. It’s not going to happen. You know why? Because you’re already a complete person. You don’t need to elevate getting hitched to something that will make you special because that’s warped and doesn’t happen outside of rom-coms.
5. YOU FEEL LIKE A FAILURE IF YOU DON’T GET MARRIED AND THAT’S BS. 
   If you happen not to get married, you might think that you’ve failed or that there’s something wrong with you, and that’s just not the case. Marriage doesn’t always guarantee feelings of satisfaction and happiness — just check out the divorce stats for proof of that.

6. YOU RISK SETTLING.
If marriage is such a huge priority, you might resort to settling if you don’t find the right partner. You might think that if you don’t hurry up and get the ring, you’ll end up alone and unhappy, so you get hitched to a guy who’s sort of great but not your first choice. Why the hell would you do that? Why feel the need to prove something — and to whom? You’re only denying yourself the chance to find a really fulfilling relationship if you settle for the wrong guy and that’s really no accomplishment at all.

7. YOU CAN BE HAPPY WITHOUT THE RING. 
A woman can have a successful career and a really awesome life, but at dinner parties or weddings people will still ask her, “So, why aren’t you married yet?” This crap needs to stop. People are placing too much focus on marriage as being the ultimate achievement but it shouldn’t shadow other goals and successes in life. It should never be thought of as the recipe for happiness either because you can honestly be happy AF without it. And you can go and buy your own god-damned ring.

However, marriage was cool but it’s not defined as a goal or achievement, It’s basically a choice between two people who want to spend their lives together. Goals don’t depend on other people because they are something you achieve for your happiness. Marriage doesn’t always guarantee feelings of satisfaction or happiness.

Oyotunji African Village is a village located near Sheldon, Beaufort County, South Carolina that was founded by Oba Efuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi I in 1970. Oyotunji village is named after the Oyo empire, a pre-colonial Yoruba kingdom lasting from the 1300s until the early 1800s in what is now southwestern Nigeria. The name literally means “O̩yo̩ returns” or “O̩yo̩ rises again” or “O̩yo̩ resurrects” referring to the African Yoruba kingdom of Oyo, now rising in a new form near the South Carolina seashore.

Oyotunji village covers 27 acres (11 ha) and has a Yoruba temple which was moved from Harlem, New York to its present location in 1960. It was originally intended to be located in Savannah, Georgia, but was eventually settled into its current position after disputes with neighbors in Sheldon proper, over drumming and tourists.

HOW OBA EFUNTOLA ADEFUNMI I FOUNDED OYOTUNJI

During the slave trade era, many Africans were taken as slaves abroad. While going, some left with their culture and tradition which they continued within the foreign land where they found themselves. They continued with the culture and tradition of their fathers so as to maintain their identity.

The Yorubas in slavery are among the Africans that maintained their culture in the strange land and it was handed down to their children from generation to generation.

Many of their children, after the abolition of the slave trade, have married children of their former masters thus having children of mixed blood, that notwithstanding, they still carry on with their African culture in the foreign land since most of them cannot trace their root back to Africa.

The Yoruba culture has been one of the prominent and most celebrated one throughout the world till date. In the faraway United States of America, there is a Yoruba community named O̩yo̩tunji African Village. It is located near Sheldon, Beaufort County, South Carolina.

O̩yo̩tunji is regarded as North America’s oldest authentic African village. It was founded in 1970 and is the first intentional community in North America, based on the culture of the Yoruba and Benin tribes of West Africa.

It has survived 51years of sustaining the Yoruba traditional sociology and values in the diaspora. The village is named after the O̩yo̩ Empire, and the name literally means “O̩yo̩ returns” or “O̩yo̩ rises again” or “O̩yo̩ resurrects”. The village occupies 27 acres of land.

O̩yo̩tunji was founded by His Royal Highness O̩ba (King) Waja, O̩funto̩la Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi I.

Born Walter Eugene King on October 5, 1928, Oba O̩funto̩la Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi I, a Detroit native, began studying Afro-Haitian and ancient Egyptian traditions as a teenager. He was further influenced by his contact with the Katherine Dunham Dance Troupe in New York City at the age of 20, an African American modern dance troupe that drew from many cultures within the African Diaspora.

August 26, 1959, O̩ba Waja became the first African born in America to become fully initiated into the Oris̩a-Vodoo African priesthood by African Cubans in Matanzas, Cuba, and became known as Efuntola Osejiman Adefunmi. After his return to the United States, he formed the Yoruba Temple in Harlem in 1960. The temple, committed to preserving African traditions within an American context, was the cultural and religious forerunner of Oyotunji Village.

He later traveled to Haiti where he discovered more about the Yoruba culture. Armed with a new understanding of the African culture, he found the order of Damballah Hwedo, Ancestor Priests in Harlem New York.

This marked the beginning of the spread of the Yoruba religion and culture among African-Americans. He later founded the Sàngó Temple in New York and incorporated the African Theological Arch Ministry in 1960. The Sàngó Temple was relocated and renamed the Yoruba Temple.

With the rise of black nationalism in the 1960s, King began to envision the construction of a separate African American nation that would institutionalize and commemorate ancestral traditions. In June of 1970, he fulfilled this vision with the creation of Oyotunji African Village.

It was during this time that he also established a new lineage of the priesthood, Orisha Vodoo, to emphasize the tradition’s African roots. Today, over 300 priests have been initiated into this lineage and the African Theological Archministry, founded by Oba O̩funto̩la Oseijeman Adelabu Adefunmi I in 1966, now serves as the umbrella organization for the Village.

To further his knowledge of Yoruba culture, he traveled to Abeokuta in Nigeria in 1972 where he was initiated into the Ifa priesthood by the Oluwo of Ije̩un at Abeokuta, Ogun state, in August of 1972. He was later proclaimed Alase̩ (Oba-King) of the Yoruba of North America at O̩yo̩tunji Village in 1972.

In its early years, Oyotunji Village was home to as many as two hundred people. Today, its residential community consists of few African American families, governed by an oba (king) and the community’s appointed council.

Each family is committed to the teachings of the Yoruba tradition, which include a religious understanding of the world as comprised primarily of the “energies” of the Supreme Being Olodumare, the orisha deities, and the ancestral spirits. This religious world is maintained spiritually through rituals, chants, music, sacrifice, and annual ceremonies.

Oba Efuntola Osejiman Adefunmi passed away on Thursday, February 10th, 2005 at O̩yo̩tunji African Village in Beaufort County, South Carolina. Since Adefunmi’s death in 2005, the village has been led by his son, the fourteenth of twenty-two children of Oba Efuntola Osejiman Adefunmi, till date.

The O̩ba title is referred to as “O̩lo̩yotunji” of O̩yo̩tunji.

By Tope Fasua

ONLY GOD ALMIGHTY WILL FORGIVE OSINBAJO FOR THESE 7 CARDINAL SINS

He is sleek, debonair, smart, articulate, cerebral… a natural choice for the next president of Nigeria – if not that his duo with Mr. Muhammadu Buhari have totally ruined the economy and indeed the society. But asides from that, he has committed 7 cardinal sins that only God can forgive him for. I cannot for I am not God. Any right-thinking Nigerian equally should not. Pastor Professor and Vice President Oluyemi Oluleke Osinbajo, being one of the lucky few amongst us humans who hear directly from God himself, should therefore seek forgiveness and show contrition.

I will list and briefly analyze those sins below:

1. PUSH FOR FURTHER DEVALUATION OF THE NAIRA: Most Nigerians are bitterly complaining today about the high cost of everything in the face of their stagnant salaries (for those lucky enough to have some type of jobs), or declining sales (for those in business), because of the reality of inflation. Inflation on most staple items in Nigeria has been up between 300% to 500% since 2015. Salaries have hardly been up since then, but some of our importer-entrepreneurs have been able to increase their prices. Those who do handwork have not been as lucky. The inflation we face is multifaceted. Some comes from interventions as a result of COVID-19. Government has been spending money to help a lot of people, thus demand-push inflation has happened. But most of the inflation is from the supply side. Sellers of goods have had to incorporate the higher costs of producing their goods, or importing them, for the final consumers to bear – plus a premium. Since most of what we use in Nigeria are imported, from the clothes on our back to the materials for the houses we live in, to even some of the food on our plates, most Nigerians have been badly hit. Only a few have been able to escape. That is why poverty is higher, and more people are out of work (33% of those who should be working)

I am looking at the news around February 2017 and Osinbajo, having taken over briefly from Muhammadu Buhari who had fallen ill, was being hailed all over the world – especially in liberal economics circles – for devaluing the Naira from N199 to N306/N366. I am sure he enjoyed the praises and felt like a superstar. Whereas Buhari had prevaricated, fumbled, hesitated, and babbled around the decision about our Naira, Osinbajo was oversold to his usually young, inexperienced, externally-focused, dollar-rich, ‘ajebutter’ advisers along side smart IMF/World Bank types who cooed in his ears about the right decision to take. They usually never tell people like Osinbajo what the consequences could be and they never care about those consequences anyway. We may have left it too late in 2016/17 to have avoided a devaluation, but Osinbajo kept turning the knife in the heart of the country – after having seen (or perhaps he became so insular) the sheer economic damage his first intervention had caused in the lives of Nigerians. The first devaluation not only ruined millions of Nigerians, throwing them out of work and business and impoverishing them, it torpedoed Nigeria’s attempt to deregulate the downstream petroleum market. The increase in petrol prices from N87 to N145 (which was meant to be a full and final deregulation of that market – and which Nigerians had accepted), was rendered useless by the deregulation move. All of a sudden, Nigerians needed much more Naira to buy a litre of petrol and we are still being told today that the sector has not been fully deregulated.

To make matters worse and to solidify his sin against God and Nigerians, in October 2021, Mr Osinbajo made the following statement at the last inter-ministerial retreat:

“As for the exchange rate, I think we need to move our rates to [be] as reflective of the market as possible. This, in my own respective view, is the only way to improve supply… We can’t get new dollars into the system, where the exchange rate is artificially low. And everyone knows how much our reserves can grow. I’m convinced that the demand management strategy currently being adopted by the CBN needs a rethink, and that is just my view.”

This was rightly interpreted as a call for further devaluation, the Naira having fallen from the N360 official value to N410 (and on the streets N570) by then. People were aghast as to why Yemi Osinbajo believed that Nigerians should suffer more. It must be the insularity, as the VP is well cocooned in the Villa where all his bills are picked by taxpayers. What was more? When a ‘whole’ Vice President of a country, who is also in charge of the economy makes statements like this, traders take a position to ‘short’ the currency. In fact, this was acted out in a Hollywood series named Billions (Episode 5). The plot was that a Nigerian central bank governor had hinted of Naira devaluation. The boys positioned and ripped Nigeria off for $5 billion. The VP’s statement was a death knell for the beleaguered Naira. But Osinbajo seemed to also have been fully-programmed and so could not imagine the further effects of more devaluation on our poorest people who still have to depend on some imported basics. Evidence of this stems from his May 2016 statement, as reported by Reuters, the international financial news agency as below:

“We believe there must be some substantial revaluation for the foreign exchange policy. This would help boost foreign exchange supply and encourage capital inflows and a free flow of remittances. There has been a sharp decline in foreign exchange earnings. The executive is not responsible for monetary policy but we have made the point clearly that demand management will not take us out of the woods”

The above statement set the stage for the devaluation that came later that year, under the hand of the VP as acting president. The belief in the constant or perhaps everlasting devaluation of the Naira and the consequent suffering it unleashes on Nigerians, is not a one-off event but a long-help or programmed belief of the Vice President. For at no time did the VP cause any serious, out-of-the-box ideas to be implemented that will force productivity among Nigerians by getting us to sustainably produce what we need. On paper, he is in charge of the economy. And since his boss has not been particularly compos mentis, the onus has fallen on him as to the direction of the economy. Contrary to what his supporters say, most of the responsibility for the collapse of the economy, the failure to balance policy and consequences and thus the unprecedented suffering of Nigerians, falls on Yemi Osinbajo. But it is left for God to forgive him.

2. COMBATIVE PUSH TO INTEGRATE NIGERIA’S ECONOMY WITH CRYPTOCURRENCY: VP Osinbajo made a shocking statement in February 2021 around the subject of cryptocurrency. As usual, he got plaudits from the unknowing, uncaring crowd of fast-money chasers who have little or no belief in their country or in the dignity of labour. I hope he doesn’t actually believe in those ‘hailings’. The Central Bank of Nigeria had – like all other central banks – re-instructed local banks not to entertain cryptocurrency transactions in view of their tendency to aid the masking of corruption, criminal, and generally black money, and the fact that well, that category of pseudo assets is expected to cause the next global financial crisis. Through the pandemic, Nigeria was reported to be the second highest trading country in the world in terms of cryptocurrency – a news that was shocking itself given our very low per capita income. The CBN has gone on to create its own eNaira (which could be further developed and integrated to achieve flexibility), but Osinbajo at that time stated:

“Rather than adopt a policy that prohibits cryptocurrency operations in the Nigerian banking sector, we must act with knowledge and not fear and develop a robust regulatory regime that is thoughtful and knowledge-based… There is no question that blockchain technology generally and cryptocurrencies, in particular, will in the coming years challenge traditional banking, including reserve (Central) banking, in ways that we cannot yet imagine…So, we need to be prepared for that seismic shift. And it may come sooner than later… I am sure you are all aware of the challenge that the traditional SWIFT system is facing from new systems like Ripple which is based on the blockchain distributed ledger technology with its own crypto tokens.. There is a role for regulation here, and it is in the place of both our monetary authorities and SEC to provide a robust regulatory regime that addresses these serious concerns without killing the goose that might lay the golden eggs.”

I really do not know what golden eggs Mr Osinbajo was referring to here, given that the usual volatility that CBN and other central banks feared about cryptocurrencies has turned out to be the reality. From the time that he spoke and almost forced CBN’s hand to integrate our economy with cryptocurrencies by ‘regulating’ what has set out to kill central banking and the financial system as we know it (they call it de-central-ised banking for a reason), the price of Bitcoin, the chief cryptocurrency has dropped from $61,000 to $39,000. The Ripple XRPM which the VP spoke glowingly about has plummeted from $1.8 per unit, to $0.70 (61% drop). In short, our amiable, articulate, urbane, and intelligent VP wanted us to plug our economy into what is even worse than ‘baba Ijebu’, because it is mainly a gamble with no underlying intrinsic value. In asking the CBN to ‘regulate’ cryptos, he was basically asking us to fold our traditional banking system in favor of the ‘decentralised’. He did not consider that once central banking disappears, so does commercial banking from which government gets all its taxes. A collapsed tax system is the end of government. So, in that statement, he merely echoed what his son, Fiyin, boldly wrote in Premium Times about cryptocurrency which he appears to be trading in the UK. See https://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/442300-making-a-case-for-cryptocurrency-in-nigeria-by-fiyin-osinbajo.html.

I ask whether this is the very best our VP and de facto head of our National Economic Council can do for us? Is it about lack of knowledge, ignorance, shallowness or what? Or is he easily carried away by the flash and kleiglights? Because if we married crypto with our ailing economy in February 2021, by now three quarters of our banks will have gone belly up. In fact, we may as well be refugees in neighboring countries by now. Just last week, a report came out from the IMF which concludes that cryptocurrencies are more used in corrupt countries. See https://www.straitstimes.com/tech/tech-news/crypto-use-is-more-prevalent-in-corrupt-countries-imf-study-finds. One would have thought that Nigeria will try and shed the clinging stench of corruption rather than solidify her place as a putrid nation. Any help, Prof?

3. NEGLECT OF NIGERIA’S YOUTHS AND FAILURE TO RESCUE THEM FROM ALLURE OF FAST MONEY: I personally cannot forgive Osinbajo for neglecting our youths to their devices despite being a pastor. Instead of trying to slow them down in this new, mad quest to make money by all means and fast, by preaching dignity of labour, he appeared to have preferred adding petrol to their quests. He has been on a pursuit of unicorns – many of which, with the Flutterwave story, are turning out to be mere cowboys, or as David Hundeyin recently reported “corporate yahoo-boys”. Now, I have no problems with people making money, but the desperation in our land needs to be tapered and we have a pastor in office that should be doing that job. The idea behind reporting who made a billion dollars and stuff, is meant to drive other youths to get-rich-or-die-trying. As they go into overdrive trying to make money, no one is left to do the real work of nation-building. Where will we find smart teachers from? Or smart medics, smart engineers, architects, accountants, even lawyers like Osinbajo was several decades ago, if the emphasis of our youths, as driven by their vice president, is on who can make the most money? Is the VP not worried that we don’t make or manufacture anything tangible in this country? Should our focus be on how much money we can make as individuals or how we can help our society at this point? I scoured the internet a bit on this and found several statements, speeches (including one to you-know-who, the World Economic Forum, in January 2022, boasting about how 6 Nigerian startups have attained unicorn (billion dollar) status. See https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/more-news/496476-six-nigerian-startups-attain-billion-dollar-status-osinbajo.html. Again, as an economist, I would rather have 50 million youths in middle class status and another 10 million doing low-paying but essential work that are very central to the wellbeing of the economy until they get something better, than have 6 unicorns, a few stupendously rich yahoo boys and 33% unemployment which could translated to 30 million youths roaming the streets. Where is Osinbajo’s conscience? Or perhaps his claim to being clergy?
4. CONTINUOUS PURSUIT OF A WASTED EASE-OF-DOING-BUSINESS INDEX: I don’t know if VP Osinbajo, like his boss Buhari, does not bother with getting feedback about his policies from the public. For a few of us had written about this. The World Bank developed something called the Ease of Doing Business Report. In a previous article, I questioned who that index was meant to help, because at least 5 out of 10 factors that it measured were totally irrelevant (some will say egregious) for a local businessperson, especially the youths. Those 5 factors this index measured which I think are nonsense, include; ease of acquiring property (very few business need to bother about this before starting up), protection of minority interest (this is farflung in my view), ease of paying taxes (I don’t see how this stops someone from doing business), ease of cross boarded trade (in this information age I don’t see how this is central to the growth of local businesses in the main), and resolving insolvency (imagine that someone will be thinking of insolvency when you are starting out in business). I even questioned another of the factors it measured – ease of obtaining construction permits, because very few business have to construct from the scratch these days of adaptable production. I suggested that Nigeria think of tweaking that ease of doing business to incorporate what really matters to our local businesses. Of course, nothing happened. The VP has maintained that office till date, without innovation, despite that the World Bank has moved on, abandoning the Ease of Doing Business Report altogether. See https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/statement/2021/09/16/world-bank-group-to-discontinue-doing-business-report. Anyway, are we slaves to World Bank? Why can we not think of helping our people in ways that matter with such an index?
5. UNACCOUNTED TRADERMONI PROJECT: Regarding this one, I would like to cut the VP a slack. I believe he was merely doing the job he was sent to do. I’m hoping his office did not come up with the concept. Because even though I am a bit left of centre in economic leaning and I understand that our people need to be sometimes rescued or incentivized, I have always preached that we should try not to give something for nothing. I would have preferred a social transfer program that encourages our people to say, pick up trash in the environment for money. Or that they should plant trees. But the Tradermoni and Marketmoni schemes I understand were unaccounted for. We have not heard of any repayment and I understand that the government did not get anyone’s data, that it ended up as mere gimmick to win the last elections. As a senior lawyer, pastor and professor, the VP should have never been associated with such a scheme that will have people asking questions. Never! He will have to answer for these in future. Many reports are out there alleging frauds in the scheme. See https://punchng.com/fgs-tradermoni-scheme-enmeshed-in-fraud-allegations-illegal-deductions/. Others allege that tens of billions of naira have been lost therefrom. See https://businessday.ng/news/article/fg-cant-recover-n10bn-tradermoni-but-to-begin-2nd-tranche-disbursement-farouq/.
6. FAILURE TO THINK ABOUT BALANCING HIS TEAM ALONG RELIGIOUS LINES: Farooq Kperogi, the enfant terrible professor of Nigerian origin based in the USA managed to nail the VP on this. I initially ignored the allegations as one of Farooq’s sometimes emotional outbursts. But I then read the article and the allegations were stark. The VP’s office released a pathetic video where all the Muslim staff associated with him – past and present – spoke. I thought that was an overkill. If there was no grievous error, Farooq in my view, should have been ignored. In fact, it was the video that made me read Farooq. I found out that the VP left it too late. He apparently never thought of the balance of staff in his team. He probably forgot that his is a public office and that people talk a lot and will ask him to account someday. I find it hard to process his lining up all his pastor pals for appointment. In fact, it is not about RCCGification (a new grammar coined by Kperogi through his literary license), it is his ‘parishification’ really. I have personal friends, some of whom are pastors in Redeemed Church, who believe that Osinbajo was rather too parochial and partial to only his family and personal friends. I think he may have mirrored his oga whose only appointments are from among his old friends and their children. However, how can VP Osinbajo seek to govern Nigeria with such a limited scope? We cannot have another Buhari in this respect. The next government should be a unity government to save the soul of this nation.
7. NON-SOLIDARITY WITH KADUNA KIDNAPPED: The last cardinal sin which Osinbajo has to go down on his knees and beg God for is a live issue. As we speak, there are 167 Nigerians – all of them innocent – with kidnappers. They have made appeals by video, and just yesterday a lady whose relative is among gave a very angry statement in which she alleged that they have been left on their own to deal with the kidnappers. The incidence of the train bombing, in my view, is worse than what happened in Chibok, on the back of which the Buhari government rode in in 2015, all the while excoriating Goodluck Jonathan. In the Kaduna bombing and kidnapping, the boys who stormed the trains killed 8 people point blank, indiscriminately and in cold blood. They killed Christians and Muslims alike, men and women alike. They took children into captivity. As at the time of this writing, they have been about 20 days in captivity. The longer they stay there, the less their chances of returning because those doped out boys will start using them for target practice. In all these, I have not heard a word from President Buhari apart from the usual tosh manufactured by his spokesmen. The VP visited the scene the day after, but in his declaration speech, it was as if nothing happened. How he declared just a few days after such incidence baffled me, given that Rotimi Amaechi accused the VP of stepping down the memo for the purchase of surveillance techniques which could have saved the 8 wounded, 26 injured and 167 kidnapped victims. Rotimi himself declared even quicker than Osinbajo, and no mention of the incidence was made. No remorse was expressed. Not even a minute silence for the dead were observed at both Amaechi and Osinbajo declarations. On the other hand, I was attending the Bola Tinubu Colloquium the morning after the night terrorism act, and when Bola showed up, he simply asked us to observe the one-minute silence, prayed, and canceled the event. Now, that is leadership. That, is emotional intelligence. That, is sacrifice, for someone to casually cancel his own well-planned, super-attended 70th birthday lectures and celebration.

By Omole Ibukun

Very recently, a secular High Court in Kano sentenced Mubarak Bala, an atheist who wrote about Prophet Muhammad on Social Media, to forty-five (not twenty four) years in prison for blasphemy. Two years ago, Mubarak was arrested in Kaduna and taken to Kano by the police for making a Twitter post on which Muslims came for him promising to kill him. He was held incommunicado for a while before they brought a case against him. And after two years, he was sentenced.

Two things remain significant about the fact that a secular High Court gave this judgement; the fact that Nigeria has two kinds of courts existing side by side (a secular court with a supposedly secular constitution and a Sharia Court with a penal code operated in most states of Northern Nigeria), and the fact that a secular court could sentence someone for blasphemy. The other significant point is that for two years, no left organisation took up this case and almost none even referred to this popular case of injustice in their papers or websites. Only few individual socialists participated in the campaigns to free Mubarak Bala and this raises questions about the perspectives of the Nigerian left to religious freedom. Asides Mubarak Bala, last year August, a singer Yahaya Sharif Aminu was sentenced to death by a Sharia court for blaspheming against Muhammad by a Sharia court after he pleaded guilty (something Mubarak also did in the secular court) after a mob already burnt down his family house. June last year, it was another singer Ahmad Abdul who was detained by the police for blasphemy against Islam. March last year, it was Talle Mai Ruwa, a poor water vendor who got into an argument over his water and retorted at the person who allegedly took his water without his knowledge and that the person should not beg him with their parents or Prophet Muhammad, and his story changed. He got accused of blasphemy and the community police saved him and took him to the police station but a mob of Islamists stormed the community police station, overpowered the police and grabbed him, beat him to death and then burnt him to ashes.

Are we confused about religious freedom? Why are we relatively silent? I became an organised socialist in Nigeria because I thought that was the best space to exercise my passion of fighting every form of injustice, but for years in the Nigerian socialist circles, the only thing I have heard about religious extremism is that “Religion is the opium of the people”. The irony of this is that those who quote this recite it just the same way Christians recite Bible verses. We seem to be stuck with just what Marx said without making the maximum possible deductions from it. We seem to have made socialism into our own opium too, rather than the practical worldview that it is supposed to be. This opium is captured in Trotsky’s thought while he was in Exile when he said “Life is not an easy matter… You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.” Most socialists in Nigeria now use Socialism solely for this reason and it’s no wonder that for them, Socialism is just a religion. While Trotsky lived his own socialism practically and resorted to it as an opium once in a while, many socialists here have fallen into the mistake of practicing socialism for addictive reasons alone. This is why it’s possible for some socialist opinion leaders to remain in religion too, because why not?! They are just mixing their drugs like ‘science students’

You might be wondering why I’m emphasising ‘socialists here’ and ‘socialists in Nigeria’. It is because that is my local reality. I know socialists of other countries from the news and from media interactions but I might not be able to know them enough to write their local realities. This does not mean that socialists of those other countries do not fall into this same mistake.

The economist interpretation of Marx’s “Religion is the opium of the masses” is that people turn to religion because of poverty alone to ease their suffering, and this interpretation denies the social, psychological and political needs that make people turn to religion. This economist interpretation of socialism assumes that with a better economy, the problem of religiosity and religious extremism will be eradicated without trying to address the social conditionings of religion from the school curriculum to the legal system. People are quick to point to Scandinavian countries where a sizeable number of the population are Irreligious, and assume that it is linked directly only to their relatively good economy. We are quick to forget The United Arab Emirates and Qatar have relatively good economies but are both still ruled by Islamic monarchies that dictate everything about people’s lives.

The other prevalent criticism of religiosity in socialist circles is that Christianity, and before it Islam, was the religion used to colonise us by slave masters from Britain and Arabia respectively. Most of those who make this anti-colonial arguments take the side of African Traditional Religions without tackling the idea of religiosity and spiritualism itself. Marxists are supposed to be materialists, a direct philosophical opposite of spiritualism. African Traditional Religions (ATR) and some of its variants have been used to justify the use of women for rituals and presently the ritual killing of innocent girls have become a pandemic in Nigeria. This is the same way Christianity and Islam oppress women. In fact, the liberal gender equality bill that was recently turned down in Nigeria’s National Assembly had the following arguments as its main opposition;

1) “When it comes to socio-cultural practices, it is wrong. If they say “equity”, it is okay. But equality, no… It infringes on the Islamic religion and for that reason, I don’t support this bill.”

Senator Aliyu Magartakada Wamakko, APC Sokoto North and a former PDP Governor of Sokoto State

2) “From an Islamic perspective which is a socio-cultural practice of Muslims…this aspect of it…by equating opportunities for women and men actually infringes with the provisions of the Quran and also the Bible… I will not support the passage of this unless the word “equal” is removed.”

Senator Yusuf Abubakar Yusuf, APC Taraba Central

These bring us back to the argument that the same religions that were used to colonise us are still being used to rule us in form of neo-colonialism, but beyond this, no religion should even be used to rule us at all.

The sad part of all of these is that those who have the clarity to rise above the anti-colonial theoretical support for African Traditional Religion are, in practice, incapable to escape the effects of neo-colonialism on the left.

One major effect of neo-colonialism on socialists is that most non-profit organizations in Nigeria run on International funding because of underdevelopment of the Nigerian economy by capitalist empires. This means that socialists, who either organise as national centres of a socialist international or as non-profit groups, run mostly on funds raised abroad from the poor (in the case of socialist internationals) or from the rich (in the case of most NGOs) of those countries respectively. While we know that borders are ideally meaningless, the fact that the money flows in from the West mostly means that it is hard for these genuine socialist groups to play any tune that is too different from those paying the Piper, especially with the fact that most of these socialists are still stuck with the economist worldview that those who control the money should control everything. Meanwhile the realities of those who pay the piper can be very different on some of these socio- political issues. For example, in the United States, United Kingdom, France,etc, Muslims are a targeted and oppressed group. But in the developing nations of the Middle East, North Africa, and some of West Africa, Political Islam is a dictatorship on its own with constitutions over some sizeable geographical areas. Therefore in the West, to be a practicing Muslim you have to become radical and sometimes become a socialist activist, but in Nigeria to be a practicing Muslim might require that you will be silent about or approve of the dictatorship of political Islam. These are two different local realities, and the need to please Radical Muslim Comrades in the socialist circles abroad might make it hard for dependent socialist groups to argue against Islamic dictatorship in this part of the world. This is an important reality that is presently confusing the approach of the Nigerian left to Islamic dictatorship exemplified in the nonsensical Sharia Law in the Northern part of the country. Islamophobia is a major prejudice in the parts of the world where the funding for the radicals of this part of the world flows from and that makes it hard for radicals in this part of the world to criticise Islam for fear of looking Islamophobic. I hope we build better Socialist Internationals that are more democratic and less economist in worldview!

Now what should not be the clear position of Nigerian socialists on religious freedom in Nigeria? The position of Nigerian socialists should not be mechanical UNITY across all religions just like mainstream analysts and opinion leaders. Mainstream pundits use unity in the tone of uniting all religions under themselves for their own ambition. The Marxist approach to UNITY is that Unity is something you FIGHT for. An intellectual fight for unity is the scientific approach. This intellectual scientific fight does not give room to silence so as not to rock the boat or so as not to stand so far away from what is popular. Silence about disagreements is actually the antithesis of this scientific approach to unity. The scientific approach is for unending debate on disagreements that allows for practical actions to be carried out on points of agreement. The unity of the wolf and the sheep should not be our position as socialists.

What should be the clear position of Nigerian leftists on religious freedom in Nigeria? Our position should be a scientific unity of equals where the minority do not have their rights trampled upon by the majority, and where justice is not denied to the minorities as in the case of Atheist Mubarak Bala. Our position should be that of acceptance and tolerance – that people do not have to agree with you on everything before they can coexist with you in the same space and you can work together on the things you agree on while healthily arguing on the things we don’t agree on. Since religions are many and the population do not seem to agree on that, our position should be;

• For the Abolition of all religious laws, especially the Sharia law

• For the Abolition of all religious education, whether in public or private schools regulated by the government.

If we find it hard to make these positions, then it is because we’re still stuck with appealing to what is popular – populism.

What should be the position of Nigerian socialists on Mubarak Bala?

It is clear that Mubarak Bala is being tried on Blasphemy laws. These are laws to silence freedom of speech. They tried to introduce repression by calling some speech hate speech, blasphemy, fake news, conspiracy theories, etc. All of these are just means of bringing in the censorship that capitalism requires to perpetuate itself. If you don’t like what someone has said, say your own. If you do not like hate speech, say your own love speech. If you do not like blasphemy against your religious figure, start praising your religious figure to make up for the blasphemy. If you do not like a theorem about a conspiracy, make your own non-conspiratorial theorem. If you do not like fake news, do your own fact check and publish it.

Banning free speech especially on social media has become a major feature of this regime and we socialists are hardly found in the struggle against that. Maybe that’s because some socialists also believe in the shortcut of controlling the information that get to people rather that presenting them with the whole truth. Maybe we are also stuck with the capitalist educationalist ego that we know better than the masses by the virtue of our experience and that should translate to feeding the masses with thoughts that we have censored as pure propaganda. Maybe!

In the words of George Orwell ‘In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act’. Our position on Mubarak Bala should therefore be;

• Free Mubarak Bala and all other political prisoners

• End Blasphemy laws and Hate Speech laws, social media regulations, fake news laws,etc

Why do people need hate speech laws to defend them from bullies and haters?

There is a problem with resorting to the law when we want to fight the oppression of bullies or haters. The problem is that the bullies will just make themselves the lawmakers, and then make themselves above the law so as to continue in their bullying and phobia. In Nigeria now, Sharia is above the law because it is a religious law existing side by side with a secular law, and it is overshadowing that secular law. During the last Ramadan, eleven people were arrested by the Hisbah police for eating in public even when they claim the Sharia law only applies to practicing Muslims. They stormed secular police station to free a detained man and burnt him alive. The law is useless because Mubarak was held incommunicado for two years, tortured mentally and probably threatened with family (he has a wife and a young innocent boy) to plead guilty.

As 2023 elections draw nearer, and religion of candidates have become the main slogan of mainstream parties, it is necessary for the Nigerian left to update our perspective on religious freedom. Tinubu is hoping to appeal to the North with his Islamic religion. Osinbajo’s RCCG is mobilising a political committee across all their parishes. For an election period that traditionally features religious violence because of religionisation of politics by mainstream politicians, this is my contribution to that necessary perspective to get us out of our confusion and your thoughts are very welcome.

Omole Ibukun writes from Abuja, Nigeria and can be contacted on 09060277591

Talking about having a good partner for intimate relationship or marriage, it is now very hard for men with great dreams, but without physical cash to throw around. We suffer more rejection from women than any other group of men now living. The reason is very simple; many women nowadays do not have faith in what they cannot see. If they cannot see it; it does not exist, no matter what you say to prove its existence.

Invite a woman to your house; the first thing she does from the street is to measure you up financially. When she gets to your house, she scans it; and if what she is seeing does not suggest that you can take care of her present needs, she begins to act cold. The same woman who had agreed to a relationship with you, tells you she wants to think about it. Once she leaves, just forget it, she is not coming back.

This condition is caused by a few other things, but all of them are connected to the abuse of selfishness; willingness to get without giving. Many of these women are not impressed by your tall dreams, visions or how intelligent you are; they are not willing to give anything. They just want you to make the money from wherever you can and take care of their present needs. Nothing more.

They are liabilities, and dreamers like myself do not want them. I have a way of scanning women like that and send them away without looking back. If you do not do so, they are most likely to keep telling you they are interested in NO-SEX relationship for one religious reason or another. They know exactly what they are doing. It is not really about sex! They are not as holy as they make it look.

The truth is that they see sex as giving, and they do not want to give before trying to get, so once they perceive from their blind eyes that you do not have the material things to give them, they use sex as an alibi. They make you believe they do not like sex, but it is a lie. The truth is that you are just not rich enough for them, and they know without sex, you will eventually leave.

I have put many women to this test, and none of them have passed it. It is difficult for men like me with big dreams nowadays! Especially those who will of us who will rather invest our little cash in our dreams than spend it on different women and material belongings.

We look for help-meet; women that we can, in the future, make the CEO of the companies in our minds, not Slay Queens or parasites that we have around. Unfortunately for us, there are no too many help-meet around; women are everywhere, but there are no wives.

For a man like me to marry a woman that does not have a vision or believe in my vision enough to remain with me when the going gets tough is a disaster; it means building a dream and marrying a partner that will destroy it.

This is a form of encouragement to men like me out there. There are still good women; do not give up your search. There are still great women out there, they are just not plenty, but you can still get yours.

Do not give up as you do not give up on your dreams!

Good luck to you.Soul’e Rhymez

By Sola Omoniyi Omoyajowo

Gracing its environs with an appealing sense of aesthetics, the Lagos State polytechnic could play no better host to the various sculptures making home on its ground. From the main entrance of the school, you are welcomed by well sculpted statures, down to the Department of Arts and Design where many of the sculptures are erected.

Drums are a very essential member of the percussion group of musical instruments. They are normally played by beating with the hand, or with one or two sticks with or without padding, just like the one erected at the front gate of Lagos State University of Science and Technology to welcome students, lecturers, and visitors to the school compound.

Depending on the class of drum and the type of sound expected, various sticks can be used. They could be wooden sticks, brushes or even sticks with a soft beater of felt on the end. On the surface, they appear like instruments that are solely used for music and eventually, entertainment and for evoking happiness.

However, there’s more to drums, especially within African culture and tradition. African drums have a unique and more profound symbolic meaning when compared with western music, a perfect example is that of the one at Lagos State University of Science and Technology gate, which simply means, welcome.

Traditionally, these drums represent the soul of the community they’re found in. They are used for celebrating ceremonial events and rituals within the community. They are also employed as tourist attractions in various African countries, promoting and exhibiting African heritage and culture.

Drumming dates back to thousands of years ago. Before people developed the drum set we know today, they were already using other percussion instruments. Historians believe that human beings used to beat on objects and bodies or stomped on the ground to produce musical sounds.  Producing sound was useful for both communications and as an accompaniment for dancing. It moved people’s minds and hearts during events and religious ceremonies. The ancient desire for rhythm developed over time to the modern drum kits we have today. 

Diverse moods and messages are conveyed by the brilliant sculptors who happen to be, at some time students of the Lagos State Polytechnic. As task required in acquiring a certification in this field, they are required to sculpt a statue erected at a specific location within the polytechnic’ wall.

Welcome to Lagos State University of Science and Technology, a leading institution dedicated to quality teaching, learning, research and community service.