• 

Suddenly, it is all quiet on the eastern front. No street heckles or flag waving or mooning over a yellow sun, no hooting or baying in public. The rabble no longer raves. Few wonder what happened to the Nnamdi Kanu crowd. Some may wonder if they are withering?

The answer is before our eyes. The Biafran babblers are alive and well. They just swapped icons, rechristened the shrines and rewrote the rites. They left the prophet for a secular priest. They have had a switch of battle gear.

Maybe it is not quiet. We can hear and feel the cacophony. The chants and caterwauling are everywhere, especially on the phones. The twitter bees, the Instagram grimes, the Facebook freaks. They are alive and well, but they have not been at war at the side of their icon, who is griping in detention.

It’s farewell Kanu. Welcome Obi, at least until the new priest peters out. They are at his worship. They embrace it because it does not, for the first time in years, feel like they are outside the mainstream. They are not falling foul of the law, not howling from the fringes. They have Peter Obi as their man. He is mainstream. He belongs, not to the MASSOB, or Kanu’s assembly called IPOB. They can say they have a legitimate tribe and rhetoric. They may pretend to love Nigeria. They may claim to embrace INEC, cling to a political party no one in the police or DSS will harangue.

But that is where it stops. They have transferred the temperament of their former master into the new. And they have not spared any incoherence, any lack of finesse, and threats and tantrums, any show of rabid, primitive cants, or any ululations. They have abused, cursed, thrown imprecations. They have hugged lies about their candidate. They have pelted lies about others. They have distorted material.

Obi has turned out to be an excuse for even closet Biafrans to betray open emotions about Biafra without being accused of it. This includes intellectuals who did not show mercy to him while he reigned in Anambra as a pharisaic chief executive. It is like wearing a colour beneath another colour. Obi has become a shelter for both miscreants and activists of the crowd.

Obi knows this. He is happy to be their catharsis, to be their excuse for unfurling their bile at the system, for acting like revolutionaries. He is playing to it by acting as though he is the saint of Nigerian politics. Perhaps the purists of the Biafran cause are unhappy, and they unleashed a past video clip of Kanu on the social media. In it, Kanu lashes out at Obi as governor and stated what this essayist wrote about him over building a NEXT supermarket while still the governor of Anambra State. The video clip referred to him as a sort of sexual being on the fringe. You can imagine an Aso Rock sweltering with romps of the evil flesh. His so-called Obidients know this. But it counts for little.

They also know that this is the same Obi, whose emissaries were intercepted, while a governor at Apapa, by then police chief Marvel Akpoyibo with over 200 million cash. The matter became a cause celebre with impeachment dangling until the timid state house of assembly was on the take. This is the man they call stingy because he dared to spend on himself and his family, his wife being accused of spending N1.5 billion on tours. The man that admitted he placed Anambra money in his family account, and was not ashamed to confess when confronted. He did not follow due process. This is the man who is speaking from both sides of his mouth for maintaining an offshore account while a governor. This is Obi, who claimed he saved money, while pensioners were looking desperately at their graves.

I can excuse those who think that being stingy is good for the economy because they are looking at how they run their family and personal finances. But no economy works in history by saving money. It stifles the economy. He has not been able to tell us how he will do it, and whether he has done it. We have no landmark in Anambra State to attribute to him, no enduring legacy.

But this essayist can understand why Obi knows that the crowd that adores him will not question him. He is therefore using religion as a bait. He is now on a weekly pilgrimage to churches. Jonathan did the same. The pastors, ever opportunistic, see him as a darling. He is visiting a sectional hue of pews. This is the man who divided the church in Anambra State in his time between Catholics and the others. He is trying to push himself as the Christian candidate of the south while his messengers foul the air with sanctimonious growl about Muslim-Muslim ticket. I am sure Kanu will chuckle in his cocoon, especially when he contemplates what he alleges as his sinful romps in hotels.

There is a divide here. He is pushing himself as a southern candidate. His core followers are advancing him as the Igbo candidate. But how do we reconcile the Biafran with an Obi, who even MASSOB, has denied has anything to do with them? Obi is taking a Machiavellian attitude to the matter. If Biafran impulse will propel him, he will take it. The Biafrans on board believe Obi is their best revenge on the Nigerian state. They can take over the zoo by acting as members of the zoo.

But this psychology is nothing new. The private man and public man may not always cohere. In their huts, they are Biafrans. On the frontlines of battle, they are Obi. It is like Mr. Mani in A.B. Yehoshua’s novel who calls himself a Jew but does not believe in Jehovah. He embraces the culture but renounces its mystery. One of 20th century’s top philosophers, Hannah Arendt, obsesses over this schizophrenia in his opus, The Origins of Totalitarianism. The Obi followers accept Biafra but reject Nigeria. They abandon the mystic of the cause, Nnamdi Kanu, and have followed Obi, its inauthentic saint. It is the pragmatism of the cause. Kanu is the unarmed prophet, sulking behind bars. Obi is out in the open, a bird in hand. Machiavelli warned against the unarmed prophet, who fights without power. Elijah was armed against his foes. So was Jesus until he was crucified. They see Obi as armed with electoral quest. It is their own version of the Trojan War. Obi is the Greek Gift that they will ride in the battle for conquest.

They have now evangelised others from outside the southeast to give a regional legitimacy to their cause. They call themselves Obidients but they obey only one call: the sound of the east. Those in south-south have been seduced as by the cooing of Obi’s voice as by evangelism of the Biafrans. Mind you, they have not abandoned Kanu. But their icon has no power for now. Obi is like Zik, Kanu like Ojukwu. One is a flair, the other a flare.

While Obi hops from church to church and beclouds the hypocrisy among political pastors, the nation watches as his sectional army taunts and harangues others. But Obi will do nothing to restrain his rabble because he knows they are doing a good job in keeping the faithful within their own bubble where they reinforce their own self-delusions. That will last until their last call at the polls. This is not the time to properly interrogate in details the false intimations of Obi’s agenda and hypocrisies. But it is safe to say one thing. Before he peters out and hurtles towards an electoral Obi-tuary, the country knows the content of the crowd and its origin. They are a caterwauling group trying to seduce, without much success, those outside its ethno-religious tent

• 

Is Hypocrisy a Natural Human Flaw?

The term ‘hypocrisy’ is said to derive from the Greek words ‘hupokrasis’ and ‘hupokrinesthai’, the former meaning ‘acting a part’, and the latter meaning ‘to act on a stage’. 

What is Hypocrisy?

Hypocrisy is defined as the practice of claiming to have moral standards or views to which one’s own behavior (or the behavior of people in our family or tribe) does not meet. It is a pretense of morality that cloaks our inability to meet some predetermined moral code.
We accuse one person of doing exactly what we are doing but believe that it is somehow “different” when that person does it. It is typically caused by an inflated sense of ego and self-righteousness, coupled with an inability to be humble.

According to experts, it is a form of projection, which is a common defense mechanism that takes root in adolescence. It is a way to protect ourselves from harm. When a teenager is accused of some wrongdoing, he/she might claim “well my brother did it too!” Its purpose is to avoid personal responsibility and to gain control over a situation without admitting any wrong responsibility.

What Causes Hypocrisy?

At the root of hypocrisy is fear and low self-esteem. We use hypocrisy to avoid looking at our shortcomings and figure out our part in it. It typically stems from a sincere belief that we should not be held to the same standards as others because we have better intentions. Our belief is juster, nobler, and sincerer.

It feels good to be morally superior to someone else. It helps us to avoid humility, which is a very painful emotion. Even the best of us use hypocrisy when we feel attacked. For example, in the workplace, we may enjoy gossiping about our coworker’s poor performance but are secretly concerned about our own job performance. It’s a deflection to avoid dealing with our own problems because we don’t want to be judged.

At the root of hypocrisy is a strong desire to be loved and accepted. The fear of humility and judgment is so powerful, that we use doublethink and cognitive dissonance to avoid facing ourselves.

What is morality? Where does it come from? According to neurophilosopher Patricia S. Churchland in her book Braintrust (Princeton University Press, 2011), morality originates in the brain. She argues that over time the human brain evolved to feel social pain and pleasure. As humans evolved to care about the well-being of others, they also developed a sense of morality.

Robert Kurzban believes that we are all hypocrites. But not to worry, he explains, hypocrisy is the natural state of the human mind. In his book Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind (Princeton University Press, 2011), Kurzban asserts that the human mind consists of many specialized units, which do not always work together seamlessly. When this harmony breaks down, people often develop contradictory beliefs.

How is consciousness possible? In Soul Dust: The Magic of Consciousness (Princeton University Press, 2011), psychologist Nicholas Humphrey, a leading figure in consciousness research, proposes a startling new theory. Consciousness, he argues, is merely a magic show we stage inside our heads. This show has allowed humans to become aware of themselves and their surroundings.

Being a hypocrite is one of the worst things you can be called — you’re someone who criticizes others and yet does the same sin yourself. I have not seen a single politician who isn’t a hypocrite.

According to Dr. Susi Ferrarello of Psychology, hypocrites in ancient Greece were actors “who on stage had to pick the right words and right tones to give shape to a writer’s fantasy.” They had the work of interpreting or judging what to say behind a mask, and became known as work as a two-faced person.

Actors were, by nature, hypocrites. They played different roles that they themselves didn’t live by — and how is it much different today? Actors are paid to be someone they’re not, and they do it realistically and brilliantly.

The etymology of the word “hypocrite” comes from the words hypo and krinein in Greek — meaning “under” and “to sift, decide” respectively. The etymology means that actors could sift through or decide upon the right words to use, but the decision came from “under” a mask of the source.

In Greece, it was a technical term, and now, it’s a dirty word in politics and in interpersonal relationships. But in rhetoric and debate, hypocrisy was interpreted as a way to understand the other side, to give more space to a different argument to understand it better.

“In that case, paradoxically, the mask’s function was to create a closer contact with others without being dominated by one’s own inner tyrant: the ego,” Ferrarello writes.

She notes that being in contact with someone else means being a mask, mediating between oneself and others.

Hypocrisy, actually, didn’t have a bad meaning until hypocrisy met politics in the 4th century B.C. Demosthenes made fun of Aeschines, a famous Greek politician who was also an actor, basically the Ronald Reagan of his time.

So are the most sincere and “honest” people actually hypocrites? Are all human beings hypocrites?

Well, yes. As Ferrarello notes, hypocrisy comes from a fluidity, and an embrace of the fact that we can have a multiplicity of the psyche and the ability to be multiple characters.

T.S. Eliot, as Ferrarello points to, once said that Tiresias was the best hypocrite — as a person pretending to do something he cannot. Tiresias is someone who shows that life is ambiguous and incoherent. He is a living paradox — the blind man who is a prophet, who sees better than people with sight can see. Tiresias spent seven years as a woman for stepping on a pair of mating snakes, described by T.S. Eliot in “The Waste-Land” as an “old man with wrinkled dugs”. He is both liar and honest, accepting the paradox of his life as someone genuine as a hypocrite.

Eliot describes Tiresias as “blind, throbbing between two lives,” a unifier between the ancient and modern worlds, embracing his pained role of being many different people at the same time. He is a living paradox, wearing many different masks.

So are we, too, hypocrites? Are we also condemned to live with the multiplicity that Tiresias was doomed with? Are we natural deceivers and actors that play many different roles? Is being a hypocrite just, well, human nature?

I would argue that if we weren’t hypocrites, we would be perfect. And Lord knows that no human is perfect, that no human can maintain the utmost standard of purity and perfection in whatever respect. We preach to “love your neighbor,” but how often do we fail to love our neighbors? How often do we let our friends get away with the things we condemn others for?

We are all hypocrites, then. I don’t think there’s a single person that hasn’t said to do something and then acted in the exact opposite way they preached.

Summarizing the words of Pattie Huggins Deitrick;

We give ourselves passes on standards we hold others to. We give advice we don’t follow ourselves. We say we love connection and friendships and simultaneously express a need to isolate ourselves. We tell people how important it is to be vulnerable when we can’t do so ourselves.

Every human being is an unfinished work in progress. It’s not like we shouldn’t aspire to be less hypocritical and more aware of our shortcomings and ways we don’t live up to what we preach. Even when we call others hypocrites, we, too, are hypocrites. We should judge less knowing our own shortcomings — and yet it’s a constant back and forth, a constant fluid and dynamic struggle.

All of us are hypocrites. There’s nothing we can do to change us, as well as others. Hypocrisy is engrained in our biology and DNA — our cognitive dissonance wants to elevate ourselves and people in our own in-groups as righteous, others as not righteous.

The lesson we should take, perhaps, it to more forgiving of hypocrisy — for ourselves and for others. All of us fall short of our own moral codes and standards, and we spend our whole lives as works in progress. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, and since we’re all hypocrites, let’s be comfortable with the life of being a hypocrite, one that’s flawed and multifaceted.

The human condition is one of going back and forth, and we, always, will be going back and forth as hypocrites. Maybe we should stembrace it.

How Can We Stop Being Hypocrites?

To stop being a hypocrite, we must first examine our own moral code and determine whether there are any contradictions in it. Objective morality is the best tool to help us overcome hypocrisy. Objective morality is the belief that meaning is not open for interpretation, and that something is true regardless of who is involved in a situation. In other words, stealing is wrong in and of itself. Abuse is wrong in and of itself. Hurting someone’s feelings is wrong in and of itself.

We must also stop pretending to be anything other than human. We must admit that we are imperfect beings who are prone to make mistakes. We must learn to laugh at ourselves and look at our own shortcomings less seriously. We must recognize that every one of us is prone to wrongdoing.

Putting ourselves in other people’s shoes can also be helpful. Learn about others. Get to know your enemies. Think about where they are coming from. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. Think about how much it hurts to be accused of something that you are doing yourself. Putting ourselves in other people’s shoes can also be tremendously helpful in decreasing our inflated ego and self-righteousness.

Other tips include –
· Ignore what other people are doing and focus on yourself

· Stop condemning others so quickly

· Pinpoint context and how it alters the way that you think/believe

· Start paying attention to your cognitive dissonance

• 

Arguably, there is no greater scientific mystery than the brain. The brain is nothing but water and fat— about 40% of water and 60% of fat. It weighs not more than 3 pounds (half gallon of milk).

Yet it’s the brain that produces our consciousness, thoughts, memories, and emotions. It governs how we interact with the world, and it runs our body.

Here are 7 more facts about the brain

1. Our brain is made up of billions of neurons (or nerve cells) that communicate in trillions of connections called synapses. It has been generally agreed that our brain is one of the most complex and fascinating organs of the body.
2. The brain’s storage capacity is virtually unlimited. This shouldn’t be a surprise if you consider that there are about 86 billion neurons in the brain. Each neuron forms connections to other neurons. And all the connections could add up to 1 quadrillion. When the neurons combine, they increase storage capacity.
3. It’s not true that we only use 10% of our brain. We actually use all of it. We’re asleep we even use more than 10%.
4. Though it’s the brain that interpretes pain signals, the brain itself doesn’t feel pain. You should get angry next time someone says: “e be like say brain dey pain you, abi?”
5. As you get older, your brain gets smaller.
6. The human brain begins to lose some memory abilities as well as some cognitive skills by your late 20s. This is why you must teach your kids relevant stuff and help them develop their genius when they are still really young.
7. There is a type of headache called brain freeze. Medically it’s called a sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia. You can’t pronounce it? Let’s move on.

Brain freeze happens when you rapidly eat or drink something that’s extremely cold. As you take in the cold content quickly, it chills the blood vessels and arteries in the very back of your throat, including the ones that take blood to your brain.

The coldness causes everything to shrink. Once your body produces heat, they begin to expand again, and as they expand, they cause you pain.

apotheosisofknowledgefacts

NIGERIA’S DOLLAR DEMOCRACY – AN EVOLUTION OR A PERMANENT CURSE

Written by Tope Fasua.

• 

Party primaries have come and gone, with the famed distribution of dollars to delegates. The PDP primaries were particularly loud in that respect as people were regaled with the dollar war between Messrs Atiku and Wike. Atiku prevailed. Some of the other contestants were said to have also spent within their powers, evoking the imagery of dollar rain on lucky delegates. The APC primaries were more subtle in this regard, perhaps because it was postponed several times, and there was a massacre punctuating it in Owo, Ondo State. Still, we hear that some delegates spent several tens of thousands of dollars per delegate. In all of these, there is no hard evidence of dollars being spent. However, we have seen several failed contestants at different levels – e.g Namadi Sambo’s son – openly collecting their monies back from delegates who had deceived them. Apart from these, it looks like social media warriors have readily deployed the dollarization of delegates freely against contestants that they don’t fancy. Ordinarily, there is no way of knowing accurately how much a particular person was given in such secret arrangements.

As usual, Nigerians have taken the news of dollarization of the electoral process as another reason to give up and call for the dismemberment of the country. Everything now forms a basis for the dismemberment. But there are some psychologies at play. Exposure to cheap media publicity via social media has done some things to us; it has made us certainly more impatient, exposed our frequent preference of untruth, and the fact that many of us chase clout at the cost of Nigeria’s unity or even the veracity of what we put out. Everybody has seen the possibility of how others have ‘blown’ by being the first to post the news in an age where everybody has become cable news network. There is also the egotism behind this; we live in a world where 10 years old who are yet to figure anything out in life, have 10 million followers. Teenagers who don’t know where they are going now have millions of followers. It’s incredible. And it is difficult for folks not to allow pride and ego rule their hearts with that exposure. I mean, how can you have 10 million followers when even you don’t know where you are heading?

Before young Nigerians blow up their nation because of several of our issues, I invite them to study history. Even many educated and old folks know nothing about history. I wonder sometimes what that is like. They say ignorance is bliss. But ignorance is Hell in our climes. There is a dire need for us to know a lot more about history, and the incoming government could help out. They say a people’s history not only tells them where they are coming, but why they are where they are, plus where they are supposed to be heading to – they and their predecessors. Whereas we shouldn’t be tolerant of many of our shortcomings – like the dollar-for-vote issue – we also should mind that we don’t achieve pyrrhic victories by our reactions to what perhaps every other societies have patched through in the past and learnt from it. We should also be very careful of how we put our nation, ourselves and our unborn children down in the comity of nations. That is very key. We needn’t be arrogant at all. We should learn how to stoop to conquer, but we should achieve silently like other wise nations have.

Politics is a game of sheer numbers. It is also about pragmatism. You don’t have to have created the problems in society but you engage with society the way you met it. And if you are truly out to make a change, you must remember that you are trying to change society from how you met it, into the vision that you have for society. So, indeed you cannot relate with the society as if you are looking down on the people. You cannot have a different idea of how your constituency is, that is so much at variance with what is on ground else you will be regarded as an outsider. As much as we term our politics to be dirty, it is a truism that a politician may not be able to rig an election except he is popular. The people on ground are very instrumental in covering up rigging and other malfeasance. It is also a truism that a truly hungry person may not be able to listen to any other thing except the hunger is first taken care of. On many occasions too, our people exaggerate their hunger. There is social capital as we dig deep down into the inner recesses of our communities, meaning that people share what they have. Our lack of investment in education over the years, and the total ignorance by leaders of how fast the rest of the world is developing, has led to a situation where most of our people are not very productive in the new economy. We could have engaged this people in the grassroots economy but greed and myopia on the part of our leaders have also prevented that. At the end, you have millions of poor people at the grassroots.

As said above, there are many who are poor in spirit and mind. There are those who are hungry in their spirit. There are those who take all the wrong decisions with money. A politician who wants to help them will inherit these problems. However, you have to secure and hold their attention in order to do the needful after you may have been elected. This is why generosity is important in politics. You cannot campaign to truly hungry people. I know this from my attempt in politics. On many occasions, a politician has to go bearing gifts – clothes, caps, raw food, and even cash. That way, the people categorize you as a ‘nice oppressor’. A lot has been broken in our society. No amount of fine oratory can change the scenario. Our challenge is to then sit on governments and the politicians who run them, to remind them of their promises, and ensure that they indeed inch forward the development of our society and people, so that we begin to see a gradual decline of this money-driven politics. I doubt that we have option.

Can our politics mature faster than our economy? That will be nigh impossible. Our politics will always reflect the state of our economy. That said, all I am saying is we should stop running down our nation. And we should develop a sense of history, not to remain in the past, but to situate our nation in its trajectory, and hasten to catch up with those who are ahead of us. That is what thinking nations do. They don’t tear themselves apart, and destroy the little they have built. They guide themselves and their anger, towards a more glorious future. Many of our youths today are reactionary, waiting for the next opportunity to go out and vent their anger – often leading to another round of burning and looting like we saw during EndSARS. They don’t know that funds meant for their betterment will be used to rebuild the assets they burn, and corrupt politicians will still loot even more. They also ignore the fact that with the twist in our polity, most of them will be worse than those they condemn if in office.

To close, let me share this snippet I found in an article titled HOW WHITE MEN RIG ELECTIONS. It is basically some historical perspective of electoral frauds that have happened in the past – in America from where party politics flowed down here:

As Republican Sen. Timothy Howe of Wisconsin put it in 1875, “They could cheat Republicans in three ways: First, by receiving Democratic votes from illegal voters; second, by refusing Republican votes from legal voters; third, by allowing turbulence and tumult to deter Republicans from offering their votes”. Part of the tactics is to stuff ballots (and) there are many ways to use violence to intimidate voters. There was the physical blocking of polling places by armed groups, as happened in several precincts in a contested South Carolina election in 1880. There was beating of black voters in the weeks before the election in an attempt to scare them out of trying to vote, as was ubiquitous (for example) in Louisiana. There were assassinations of local Republican politicians — black and white alike — as happened in Alabama in 1875. Often, the violence was conducted by organized clubs like the Knights of the White Camellia — designed not to engage in wanton racial terrorism, like the Ku Klux Klan, but specifically to suppress the Republican vote. Sometimes intimidation worked. When up to 200 black Louisianans were killed in the “Opelousas massacre” of September 1868 (at the end of a chain of events that started with the beating of a white teacher for registering black voters), Ulysses S. Grant’s reelection campaign pulled out of Louisiana and Georgia entirely. Sometimes it didn’t, and the results were bloody. When black Americans mobilized to vote en masse in Eufaula, Alabama, in 1874, white terrorists shot into the unarmed crowd, killing seven people and wounding dozens. Even winning an election didn’t guarantee safety from violence. Local elections in Louisiana in 1872 were so contested and fraud-riddled that black residents of Colfax had to station themselves outside the courthouse to protect the Republican county judge and sheriff from being forcibly unseated by their Democratic opponents. Eventually, a white insurgent group of 300 took the whole courthouse by force, and 100 black citizens were killed. The Eufaula massacre of 1874 was followed by the murder by a white mob of the son of a local judge — who was a “scalawag,” a Southerner who took part in the Reconstruction government. The judge fled the state. (The mob also burned a ballot box.) In Mississippi in that same year, white militants drove a county sheriff out of the state in advance of the election, then murdered, among others, a black state legislator.)

Again, my point here is not to justify electoral fraud, rigging and violence, but to enlighten us with snippets from history and rebuff anyone trying to say we are subhuman. We only need to catch up with best practices. We can see that the Democrat Party (which was an enclave of racists and extremists), were accused in the article of being at the forefront of these bad practices. Is rigging and electoral violence part of the democratic journey? Remember that that system of government is often fatally flawed. Are we allowed to find an anchor in history to explain where we are without justifying it, but to understand where we must now get to and to evolve more rapidly? Or are we condemned never to look back but be led like sheep to slaughter, without an opinion? Is it not said that a people must understand history, in order to know why they are where they are and where they must now be heading? Many questions. The ball is in our court.

• 

SEE WHAT TINUBU DID TO LAGOS. You Cannot Love Nigeria and Wish A Man Like Bola Ahmed Tinubu Become its President.

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not a stranger to Nigerians. The man has been around a long time. He is a paras!te that takes over everything his hand touches.

The following is what Bola Tinubu did to Lagos State:

Number 4, Oyinkan Abayomi (Formerly Queens) Drive, Ikoyi – Valued at N450 Million
A 5-bedroom detached house on one acre of land was Lagos State Governor’s guest house since 1979
Certificate of occupancy was signed and released to Tinubu by Fashola in 2007

26 Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi – Valued at N600 Million
Originally claimed to be by Oando Plc Guest House, it was later acquired by Tinubu from Oando
Lagos State Government paid to rebuild and renovate, it then purchased it from Tinubu for an undisclosed sum.
Subsequently, the State handed the property back to Tinubu under the Pension Bill he signed into law shortly before Tinubu left office in 2007.

Annex of the Lagos State Guest House in Asokoro, Abuja – Valued at N450 Million
Bought by the State Government in 2006 to protect the main house from security breach.
Shortly after Tinubu left office, the property was transferred to him under the pension plan he signed into law before leaving office.

250-Hectares of Land Ajah Junction, Lekki Road – Valued at N35 Billion
Initially meant for a General Hospital, Eti-Osa Local Government
Tinubu confiscated and handed it over to Trojan Estate Ltd – a company owned by Deji and Wale Tinubu
Trojan Estate used the land to build the Royal Garden Housing Estate at the expense of the taxpayers of Lagos.

1,000-Hectares of Land Located at Lakowe, Near Abijo, Ibeju-Lekki Local Government – Valued at N75 Billion
Given to Lekki Concession Company owned by Tinubu and Fashola
Developed as golf course and housing estate by Assets and Resource Management Ltd

157-Hectares Prime Land with 2.5km of Atlantic Beachfront – Valued at N10 Billion
Appropriated by Tinubu from the communities of Siriwon, Igbekodo, Apakin in Ibeju-Lekki Local Government
Tinubu gave it to Ibukun Fakeye, one of his many cronies

3.8 Hectare of Land in Victoria Island Next to Institute of Oceanography – Valued at N3 Billion
It belonged to Lagos State Fisheries office, but now owned by Bola Tinubu

Fishery Landing Jetty at Badore – Valued at N500 Million
The Ilubirin fishermen were to be relocated here
It’s owned by Bola Tinubu

Entire Ogudu Foreshore – Valued at N5 Billion
The scheme initially earmarked for a low-cost housing scheme
Now owned by Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Ilubinrin Housing Estate – Valued at N2.5 Billion
Used to house Lagos State Civil Servants and Judges up till 2007
It’s now owned by Jagaban

Former Julius Berger Yard at Oko Orisan, Epe – Valued at N450 Million
This property belonged to the Lagos State Government
It’s now owned by Bola Tinubu

Lagos State Polytechnic near Toll Gate
Bola Tinubu kicked the Polytechnic out in 2006
Took over the property to build the headquarters of Television Continental (TVC) owned by him

Critical Care Unit, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja
Built and equipped with Lagos State funds
It now belongs to Bola Tinubu and run by his cousin, Dr. Sikiru Tinubu
The Care Unit generates revenue from fees paid by the State Government on behalf of patients referred there by its General Hospitals.

14-Hectare Parkview Ikoyi Estate Foreshore Land
Reclaimed by Lagos State Government
Now belongs to Bola Tinubu.

Strabag Yard Next to Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja
Tinubu took it over while in office

You cannot love Nigeria and wish a man like BAT become its president. Don’t tell me you have the interest of Nigerians at heart if you want to entrust their fate and future into the hands of a man who is a Bermuda Triangle that sucks in everything in his vicinity.

May God help Nigeria if this man ever becomes its president.

By Akin Ojumu

• 

HIJAB: WHY THE SUPREME COURT OF NIGERIA ERRED AND WILL REVERSE ITSELF . BY CHIEF MALCOLM EMOKINIOVO OMIRHOBO

In a majority decision of six in favour and one dissent, the apex court of Nigeria on Friday in Abuja. affirmed the rights of Muslims Female Students in Lagos state public primary and secondary schools. to wear Hijab .

The supreme court erroneously held that wearing the hijab was an Islamic injunction and an act of worship required of Muslims and consequently the banning of female Muslim students from wearing Hijab to school is a violation of their fundamental rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion, dignity of human persons and freedom from discrimination .

The supreme court heavily relied on section 38 of the 1999 constitution which guarantees every Nigerian citizen the right to freedom of thought , conscience and religion. The justices failed to see the rights contained in section 38 of the constitution as private rights that must be exercised privately in our homes , place of worship , community , religious schools and not in the public or public schools for that matter funded with tax payers money .

I respectfully submit that the Supreme court’s decision allowing female students to wear Hijab, is a flagrant violation of section 10 of the Nigerian constitution which provides for the secularity of Nigeria by prohibiting the Government of the Federation or of a state from adopting any religion as state religion . The justices ignored the secularity of Nigeria in section 10 of the constitution which has mutilates and/or whittle down the individual right of every Nigerian citizen to freedom of thought , conscience and religion as contained in section 38 of the constitution . The supreme court.’s decision I respectfully submit tantamount to its encouraging the adoption of Islam as State religion and this I humbly submit is an error .

It is sad and disturbing that the justices of the supreme court failed to see how our public schools will look if students from white garment church family background like Celestial Church of Christ and Cherubim and Séraphin Church sew their uniform in sutana style covering all their bodies from neck to toe with cap to march and go to school bare footed because it is a Christian injunction and an act of worship required of them ?

How will our public schools look like if the children of traditionalists come to school with white powder on their faces and necks with charm bracelet on their arms and cowrie’s or life tortoise tied around their necks ? How will our public schools look like if children from Rastafarian families leave their dreadlocks unkept or wear their Rasta cap or tam in line with their religious believes.

It is unfortunate and regrettable that the justices of the supreme court failed to see that public schools are established by government with public funds and by virtue of section 10 of the Nigerian 1999 constitution are secular . Our public schools are suppose to be centers for learning and not worship centers and therefore students must be helped to focus on their studies at school not religion because religion is a personal thing that must be practiced privately .

Whether we admit it or not the supreme court’s decision will give rise to the identification of students’ religion by their dress code which in turn will bring about discrimination , favouritism , nepotism , victimisation , disunity and distraction in the public school system

I appreciate the fact that the judgement of the supreme court is final and must be complied with nevertheless I find solace in the fact that the supreme court do reverse her decisions when it finds it expedient to do so especially after it has erred in an early decision and this case is one of such occasion .

I want to specially thank the justice that dissented in this case for his courage, independent mind and level of intelligence to apply the law to serve its purpose And for the other six justices who erroneously gave the judgement, I urge them to be ready to reverse it at the slightest opportunity because it is a bad decision in a multi religious / secular country like Nigeria

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Buhari, Give Tinubu The Special Ambode Treatment

Let me make myself clear from the get-go. It is wrong for General Buhari alone to singlehandedly pick the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress. It is undemocratic.

However, his statement that he should be allowed to pick his successor is not just undemocratic, it is treasonable. Buhari works for Nigerians, not vice versa. Even if he can arm twist his way into picking the APC candidate, Nigerians will pick his successor!

And if his threat is predicated on repeating the massive rigging he supervised in 2019, then my response to him is to repeat what he (Buhari) said on May 15, 2012:

“They either conduct a free and fair election or they go a very disgraceful way.”-Muhammadu Buhari.

What nonsense is that? A man of low mentality, who has reduced Nigeria from the third fastest growing economy in the world on May 29, 2015, to the world headquarters for extreme poverty today, is now saying he will produce his successor as if the electorate don’t count?

Let him try it. But before he does, he should also remember what happened during #EndSARS. That was an unprecedented people movement sparked by government’s oppression of the governed. And if Buhari tries a repeat of the shameful rigging that happened in 2019, he should prepare for EndSARS part 2!

The reality is that Buhari is not even politically savvy enough to anoint his successor. Look at what happened in his own state. His nephews were defeated at the APC primaries. His in law was roundly trounced in Kaduna. In Kano, his aides were defeated. And in 2023, his candidate will be defeated by Nigerians!

Without the APC Governors, Buhari is a toothless bulldog. He can bark, but he has no bite. The real power in the party belongs to the Governors. And even they are fed up with Buhari. Their allocations from the federation account has been the worst in history under the ineffectual so called General!

But coming back to Bola Tinubu, why is he now subtly attacking Buhari and insisting that he must be the Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress because he supported Buhari? Why is he sulking and agitating against Buhari’s stated intention to pick the APC’s candidate?

I really don’t get why Bola Tinubu’s people are complaining that Buhari can’t choose who the APC candidate will be. Who chooses who becomes candidate of the APC in Lagos? Is it not solely Tinubu? Who stopped Ambode from being re-elected? Was it not solely Tinubu? Did Ambode not pay for an All Progressives Congress Gubernatorial form in 2019? Did the APC not collect his money and refuse to refund him after Tinubu rejected him?

Did he not go and gather his brother Governors to beg Tinubu on his behalf? Did Governor Bagudu of Kebbi, who is the chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, not prostrate to Tinubu on Ambode’s behalf? Not that I support the imposition of candidates. However, what is good for Lagos APC is also good for national APC! Or should I say what is good for the Greece is also good for the Uganda.

I am a student of history. I recall clearly that Samuel Doe relished slicing the flesh of his political opponents while they were still alive. However, when Prince Yormie Johnson arrested him on his way to seek safety with the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group, ECOMOG, Johnson gave Doe the special Doe treatment.

So, if Buhari decides to give Tinubu the special Ambode treatment, history justifies it! Tinubu cannot expect Buhari to treat him better than he, Tinubu, treated Ambode.

If Ambode was the Governor of Lagos on October 20, 2020, instead of Sanwoolu, maybe the #LekkiMassacre of peaceful, unarmed #EndSARS protesters would not have happened. But Tinubu denied him the ticket. So, Buhari can deny Tinubu just as Tinubu denied Ambode. No one will cry foul!

Tinubu says he made Buhari President in 2015 and expects to be supported in 2023. That may or may not be true. But what is true is that Afenifere made Tinubu Governor in 1999, and he not only abandoned them, he also fought them. One bad turn deserves another!

The thing about Tinubu’s argument is that it is not about Nigeria, or her peoples. Watch his video in Ogun state while he was campaigning for delegates on Thursday, June 2, 2022. He said he made Buhari President and as such Buhari should suppprt him. He played the same emotional blackmail against his host Governor, Dapo Abiodun, saying:

“Dapo that’s sitting down here, could he have become Governor without me? We were at the stadium, they tore all his posters. Even the party flag, they didn’t want to hand over it to him, I was the one who brought it.
If he wants to meet God at the right place, he must know that without God and me, he would not have become Governor.”

Nothing about what he would do for Nigerians. He is appealing to Buhari instead of Nigerians. So Nigerians should remain onlookers in his quarrel with Buhari. Let them fight and destroy their party the way they have destroyed Nigeria.

And the curious thing is that Buhari has not yet cheated Bola Tinubu, and Tinubu attacked him. Why did he not wait until after the primaries before attacking Buhari? Now, he has given Buhari an excuse not to support him. I thought Bola Tinubu knew how to play politics. I was wrong. Very wrong!

Look at his petty complaints? Buhari did not give me ministerial slots. Buhari did not give me contracts. Me, me, me! Like a spoilt child. Nothing about what Buhari has done to Nigeria, a country he met as the third fastest growing economy in the world, and is leaving as the world’s headquarters for extreme poverty!

Tinubu was not even ashamed to say that Buhari did not want to contest, and had retired from politics until Tinubu went to Daura to beg him to contest in 2015. In other words, it is because of Tinubu we are suffering from the worst government in our history!

And hear him! I deserve to be President because I made Buhari President and it is my turn. Look at the egotistical entitlement! Nothing about what he did or would do for Nigeria or Nigerians. What kind of cult language is that? That he made Buhari President is precisely why Tinubu should not be President!

Tinubu is letting tantrums spoil what could have been a home run for him at the APC primaries. How can you call a Yoruba Governor ‘eleyi’ to his face? Yoruba that love respect? Vice President Yemi Osinbajo must be dancing with his RCCG political directorate!

Tinubu is just behaving like Tonto Dikeh and Nkechi Blessing. Like a woman who was promised marriage and jilted and is now exploding and exposing the jilter. Buhari don buy market. He either builds another ‘other room’ for Tinubu, or marry him as promised!

When he was doing Ambode, he did not have mercy. Now that Buhari is doing him he is shouting ‘eleyi’ all over the place. First to do e no dey pain. Jagaban to to di jagajaga. It is just that he did not buy a form. If not, I would have said Buhari should give it to Ambode!

Dr. Goodluck Jonathan did not accuse Tinubu of betraying him. Akinwunmi Ambode did not accuse Tinubu of betraying him. Afenifere is not accusing Tinubu of betraying them. Yet, after a political lifetime of betrayal and backstabbing, Tinubu is surprised with the breakfast he got served?

Because of Buhari, Tinubu insulted former Presidents Obasanjo, and Jonathan. He insulted Yoruba obas. He insulted #EndSARS protesters. And after all he has done, Buhari wants to do him ‘I go chop your dollar’! Ah! Aiye! This life no balance ra ra!

Tinubu portrayed ignorance of elementary rudiments of power politics. If you want a reigning king to anoint you, do not remind him of what you have done for him. Kings hate to be indebted to their subjects. Instead, remind the king of what you can still do for him in future!

With what I watched in Ogun state, if the NDLEA perform drug tests on all Presidential aspirants, as recommended by its Chairman, Buba Marwa, I seriously doubt that Bola Tinubu will pass it. Nobody throws stones like that unless they are stoned!

Bola Tinubu fall my hand, as the young people say. How can he expect a former coup plotter, who overthrew a democratically elected President, to keep to agreements? Shagari was a Fulani Muslim like him, yet Buhari overthrew him. If Buhari could overthrow his own brother, who is Tinubu that he can’t betray?

And to further indicate his political naïveté, Tinubu proudly released a photo of him seating in a chair in a mosque, to greet His Eminence, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto.

But who is advising Tinubu? How can you follow Sarkin Musulumi, to a mosque and he will sit on the floor and you will sit on a chair? If you are too old to sit on the floor, like other Muslims, then you don’t attend with the Sultan. Or maybe you stay somewhere else until Jumat is over. Buhari also sometimes sits on a chair because of old age, but NEVER in the presence of Sarkin Musulumi!

The Queen of England is the official head of the Church of England. Her official title is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England, AKA Fidei Defensor (Defender of the Faith). Even the Archbishop of Canterbury cannot seat in her presence, until she sits.

The Sultan is the spiritual leader of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs. That photo, that Tinubu is proudly displaying, won’t go down well in the North! It is like Osinbajo seating and Adeboye standing while both of them are having a one on one conversation!

Anyway, let me conclude with somewhat of a parable. Elections are very expensive in Nigeria. It’s not every time we will be paying for advert. Sometimes, we just buy free advert by deliberately shaking some predictable tables so that we will get an echo and the biggest media will carry stories that they’d have otherwise asked us to pay for.

If you don’t use this ogbon, you will just spend ₦1 billion, that you don’t have, buying up full page ads in papers and 60 second slots on TV. Instead of wasting money and energy, just create a wave and surf it until you get your message across

TableShaker

Reno Omokri