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Leke Abejide: A home in Yagba, a heart in Okunland

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By Tunde Olusunle

Come Monday October 10, 2022, Leke Joseph Abejide, Member Representing Yagba Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, will be conferred with the title of Maiyegun of Egbe. Egbe, a major town in Yagba West local government area, (LGA), Kogi State is host to a number of historic institutions. The famous Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) Hospital, was established in the community in 1952, by the iconic Canadian missionary and surgeon, Frederick George Campion. The medical facility has since metamorphosed into the Evangelical Churches Winner All, (ECWA) Hospital and remains a major health institution, serving patients from the contiguous Kwara, Kogi, Ekiti, Ondo and Niger states. Late founder of the Synagogue Ministries, Prophet Temitope. Bamidele Joshua did testify, that his mother was delivered of him at the ECWA Hospital, Egbe, after he had spent 15 months in her womb. Before that auspicious time of his mother birthing him, she had been taken around several clinics and hospitals, without a solution.

Egbe is also the host community of the renowned Titcombe College, established in 1951. The institution has been at the core of knowledge impartation for thousands of youths from across the country, into the seventh decade and still counting. Notable graduates of the school include Adeyinka Adeniyi, who hails from Egbe, and who retired as a Major General from the Nigerian Army. So was the late Ibrahim Kefas, an Air Commodore who served as military administrator of Cross River State and Delta states, respectively. There are also Bayo Ojo, SAN, former Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, and Samuel Afolayan, a retired Vice Admiral and former Chief of Naval Staff, (CNS), who both served in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.

Olu Obafemi, Emeritus Professor of English and Dramatic Arts, and 2018 recipient of the Nigerian National Order of Merit, (NNOM), is also an alumnus of Titcombe College, Egbe. So was Pius Adesanmi, the Canadian-Nigerian distinguished professor of literature and public intellectual, who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash of 2019. Former Director-General of the National Institute for Security Studies, (NISS), Toyin Akanle, (PhD), and the incumbent Agbana of Isanlu, Oba Moses Babatunde Etombi, are both products of the college. This is not forgetting Solomon Adebola, Professor of Management Sciences, University of Ibadan, (UI).

Abejide’s installation with the “Maiyegun of Egbe” title, will be conducted by the *Elegbe of Egbe, Oba Ayodele Irukera, a revered royal and retired university bureaucrat. It will be the most recent of a string of honours and recognitions he has received in recent years and months. His previous investiture as Asiwaju of Alu his birthplace in Yagba East LGA, was attended by Abubakar Badaru, governor of Jigawa State. His more recent recognition with the title of Asiwaju of Yorubas in Kano, was graced by the Kano State chief executive, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje. All of these speak to the deep affiliations and broad network of a man, whose career is rooted in the catacombs of time and space.

Abejide came unto the political scene in Yagba federal constituency, the single largest sub-Okun sociocultural bloc, a green horn, a total neophyte. He ventured into a terrain which had hitherto been dominated by the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), with a fleeting glimpse of the All Progressives Congress, (APC). For the avoidance of doubt, beginning from the return of democratic governance in 1999, the PDP has produced three out of the four preceding members of the House of Representatives, the position he desired. Sola Ojo, an attorney from Mopamuro local government area, (LGA); Tolorunju Faniyi, an investment and management consultant, (Yagba East) and Samuel Bamidele Aro, a businessman, (Yagba West), all contested and won under the umbrella of the PDP.

They all served for one term of four years each in the “green chamber,” the way the House of Representatives is commonly described. This was in consonance with the mutual agreement between all three local government areas in the constituency, to this effect. Backed by the billionaire Jide Omokore who hails from Isanlu, Sunday Karimi, a businessman from Yagba West who vied for the position in 2011, did so on the platform of the APC. He ran against the established rotational template, which ordinarily, should have seen a candidate from Mopamuro, fielded for the office. Karimi would subsequently leverage his incumbency to take a second shot at the position in 2015, in total dismemberment of the preexisting “single term per LGA” arrangement.

Our subject in this instance, however, seemed to have been properly guided by the crippling socioeconomic situation in Yagbaland, in the run up to the 2019 general elections, before pitching his political tent. He desired to serve his people as their voice, their eyes and eyes in the green chamber. But he was ranged against two dominant political parties which could be a hard nut to crack. He zeroed in on the knowledge industry in Yagbaland, which like its brother subsets in Okunland, is the biggest preoccupation in the federal constituency, when juxtaposed with subsistence farming.

At the last tally, full professors from Isanlu, headquarters of Yagba East, for instance, were 40 in number. In recent years, unfortunately, globally respected professors like Pius Adebola Adesanmi from the same community, very painfully, passed on, depleting the numbers. Pioneer Vice Chancellor of Bingham University, Abuja, Felix Anjorin, another distinguished professor from Isanlu, also departed a few years ago. About a dozen other academics from the same community, are very senior associate professors, awaiting substantive elevation to full chairs. Statistically, the Yagba sub-country has a total of 70 secondary schools, spread across the three LGAs which constitute the federal constituency. There are 47 government-owned, and 27 privately established. This is testament to the subsisting hunger and thirst for literacy and education in the constituency. This is the catchment area Abejide desired to serve.

The salaries of civil servants and teachers in government employment who constitute the bulk of the rural intelligentsia, were paid in distinguishedly erratic, phenomenally miserly, even preposterously inconceivable percentages by the state government. There was palpable apprehension that thousands of students in year three of the Senior Secondary School, (SSS 3), may not be able to write the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations, (SSSCE). Looped to this was the fact that these same students would not sit the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination, (UTME) in their quest for placement in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. The SSSCE is a major prerequisite for consideration for admission into higher institutions.

Enter, Abejide, a little-known young economist and businessman. He had hitherto lived and worked in Kano, the famous epicentre of commerce in Nigeria’s idyllic North. He had made a name out there in shipping, logistics, oil and gas, including venturing into cross-border business. Abejide in 2018, offered to foot the SSSCE bills of all the students, in all government-owned secondary schools in Yagba catchment. It was an unheralded precedent. A few people from his political sub-zone who were visibly better endowed in their time, never conceived of, nay implemented any such human resource development schemes. By this singular stroke, Abejide won over not just the admiration of the benefitting youngsters, he equally touched the hearts of their parents. They had been saved the shame of obvious incapacity to see their children and wards through a most critical phase of their academic development.

By the time Abejide announced his decision to contest for the Yagba House of Representatives seat with the approach of the 2019 general elections, he had become something of a household name. The fact that he opted to fly the flag of the rather strange and unknown African Democratic Congress, (ADC), was no obstacle. The electorate who had previously been schooled and stuck with the “umbrella” and “broom” logos of the two bigger parties, seamslessly acceded to very swift and noteworthy political reorientation and adaptation. It was going to be the party with the “handshake” this time around, and not any other. Abejide triumphed over his opponents from the PDP, James Fabola, a seasoned attorney from Yagba East, and Henry Abimbola of the APC, from Mopamuro.

In the green chamber which has 360 members, Abejide is something of an “orphan.” He is the singular, sole and only member of his party the ADC in the entire parliament. But recognition came quickly for him. Following the inauguration of the House in June 2019, he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Committee on Customs and Excise. Following the unfortunate demise of the substantive chairman, he was in March 2021, upgraded and confirmed the chairman. Such acclamation as a green horn in the parliament, and a non-member of the ruling party, is a rarity.

Abejide, however, has served Yagbaland, and indeed Okunland with distinctive verve and diligence, since his first day in the parliament. From the rehabilitation of roads, bridges and culverts, through the provision of potable water for his people; from equipping hospitals, through the construction of classroom blocks; from rural electrification projects, to electricity infrastructure; from the construction of facilities for security operatives, through support for enhancing agricultural productivity, Abejide has been untiring, his imprimatur in virtually every pie. The traditional homeward drift of individuals and families during the last yuletide for instance, was facilitated substantially by Abejide’s interventions. The Iyamoye to Igbagun, the Igbagun to Ife-Olukotun, Omuo to Igbagun and the Alu to Igboero, the Iluhagba-Mopa-Isanlu roads were either rehabilitated or built anew by Abejide.

Elsewhere, Abejide has directly facilitated the absorption of almost three dozen Yagba youngsters, into various federal ministries, departments and agencies, (MDAs), thereby providing lifelong livelihoods for them. He has continued to empower his constituents in various ways, including the provision of 100 motor vehicles; a combined 100 tricycles and motorcycles; 200 water pumps and 500 generators. Determined to accentuate the permeation of information technology to his people, he is building a 300-capacity ICT Centre, and has made available 100 brand new laptops for starters. This is besides placing about 50 students of tertiary institutions on his direct scholarship.

In conjunction with the National Directorate of Employment, (NDE), Abejide has anchored vocational training programmes for youths in his catchment.
Recognising the criticality of agriculture in the socioeconomic sustenance of his people, he is powering the construction of an agricultural research centre in Yagbaland. Each farming cycle, he distributes fertilisers and seedlings to farmers, and has also opened access for his people to agricultural loans provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria, (CBN). He has been credited with the distribution of over 20,000 palm and cashew seedlings across his homeland, in an effort to revive agricultural production. So variegated and impactful are Abejide’s undertakings that it will take a while by aspirants to his seat, to approximate or better his milestones. It has indeed been suggested that except if Abejide is deploying his personal resources to augment the multifaceted uplifting of his constituents, he might have unwittingly exposed representatives who never went half the mile he has gone.

A few months back, Abejide as Chairman of a fundraiser for the development of an Okun Unity House, domiciled in Kabba the traditional headquarters of Okunland, made an initial donation of N20 million, to the project. He had noted inter alia at the event, that Okunland is too big and too sophisticated not to have a central sociocultural address. He has equally promised to be more pan-Okun in the immediate future, in underwriting the examination expenses of students in all secondary schools, public and private across Okunland and indeed Kogi West.

Leke Joseph Abejide was born May 8, 1975, in Alu, Yagba East local government area, Kogi State. He schooled at the Alu Community Secondary School, graduating in 1991. He obtained a bachelors degree in Economics from the Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU), Zaria, and a masters in Business Administration at the Bayero University, (BUK), Kano. His area of research interest was “entrepreneurship development.” He developed a passion for business and commerce while still an undergraduate which helped to define his future career path. He established and nurtured a non-governmental organisation, the “Leke Abejide Foundation,” which enables his structured interventions in the mediation of the challenges of the less privileged. He has been active in his own way, on the floor of parliament, moving motions and contributing to issues of communal and national interest. He has been honoured with several traditional appellations for his service to his people. Notably, he is also the Asiwaju of Yagbaland, a title invented and bestowed on him, by the agglomeration of royals from Yagbaland, at a ceremony in Mopamuro LGA. L to has been ordained as an “Elder” in Christ Wisdom Church, Kano and is happily married with beautiful children.

Tunde Olusunle, PhD, poet, journalist, author and scholar is a Member of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, (NGE).

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Opinion

The Hypocrisy of Power Game Between The North and South: The Time To Talk Is Now

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The leadership of the Yoruba Council Worldwide (Igbimo Apapo Yoruba Lagbaye); the apex umbrella body for all Yoruba indigenous people globally is highly concerned about the recent devastating effects of the Northern quests and aggressive desperation for power ahead of 2027 or through any other irrational means before the ripe of time.

We are seriously concerned to witness all manners of unprecedented barrage of fireworks of incendiary rhetoric issued from different Northern elites as emanated from Prof Ango Abdullahi of the Northern Elders Forum seeking to call for an end of Nigeria based on the 100 years expiration of 1914 treaty after 10 years which lapsed in 2014.

To Alhaji Rabiu Musa Kwankanso’s crudity, unverified lies and tale of discords against the South: “Lagos colonising the North”, was his biased statements!

Hence, we must expressly express our dismay and disappointed on such insensitive rhetoric and by that laconically detest such an unflattering statement from chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, for intentionally misinforming and misleading Nigerians about President Tinubu’s Tax Reform Bills before the National Assembly.

Sadly enough, Alhaji Kwankwaso’s comments while addressing students of Skyline University during their convocation in Kano recently, demonstrated either a lack of understanding of the tax reforms or a deliberate attempt to politicize President Tinubu’s positive visionary and Renewed Hope initiative.

It is evident that Senator Kwankwaso is still grappling with the fallout from his abysmal performance in the 2023 presidential elections. This lingering disappointment seems to have influenced his repeated reliance on divisive rhetoric and unfounded accusations against the administration of President Tinubu.

While the 19 Northern States Emirs and Governors provokingly demanded their Senators and Reps to reject, end and fight the present Administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s tax reforms bill to a halt, in which one of the arrowheads: Senator Ali Ndume said the “TAX REFORM Bill is Dead on Arrival.”

Rather than engaging in constructive national dialogue or offering meaningful contributions to national development, Kwankwaso, Ali Ndume and other co-travellers appears to have chosen a path aimed at inciting division between the North and the South, and casting aspersions on initiatives being painstakingly designed to benefit all Nigerians.

Such actions are not only unhelpful but also risk undermining the unity and progress of the country at a critical time when inclusive leadership and national cohesion are paramount to stability, progress and prosperity of our dear nation.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s tax reforms are a necessary steps toward addressing the economic challenges facing the country and ensuring equitable development for all Nigerians, including those in the north especially the President’s initiative to tackle the disproportionate distribution of revenues from the Value Added Tax to all 36 states of the Federation and the FCT.

In strongest term we are not oblivion of the ongoing despicable threats bothering on excessive interference and high powered conspiracies to disrupt and hijack power from the South with the systemic and surreptitious renewed onslaught recruitment of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo as one of centrifugal forces being radically committed through his offensive and disparaging statements being deliberately orchid in running the current Administration down by all means possible.

Moreso, as reflective of his self styled selfish act and hatred for Constituted authority, his megalomaniac inclination and inordinate ambitions against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu led government, especially having lost power through his proxy kid Peter Obi via the ballot in 2023 Presidential election.

We hereby warn former President Olusegun Obasanjo to refrain from making statements that is capable of undermining Nigeria’s unity, peace and progress.

While we reiterate and assert our absolute confidence, that the country is functioning effectively under President Bola Tinubu led Federal Government, though with some surmountable challenges, still as they postulated, peace is what matters and not a all manner of provocative statements within the polity, because there will be light at the end of the tunnel, God’s willing.

To set the record straight, hence, it is necessary to respond and react appropriately to Chief Obasanjo’s recent keynote address at the Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum at Yale University in Connecticut, USA.

Wherein in his address, Baba Obasanjo criticised Nigeria’s leadership, describing the country as being a failed state of “state capture” and urging Nigerians to prioritise credible leadership for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure electoral integrity.

Regrettably, former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s language of the war on peace time is a disaster and unpatriotic move in calling for anarchy, which is quite an anathema to the status of an elder statesman in his referential eldership.

The vituperation of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s lecture or better defined as tantrums Talk show, as the Chief harbinger of our worsening state of hunger and hardship was full of energy to condemn the current Administration with utter hatred of his avowed “do or die” mentality that has been infamously reputed to be offensive disappointing and disgusting as the only salvo that can be fired from a despotic and totalitarian personality only found to be hypocritically and deceitfully projected himself as a true democrat.

It was in record how he levelled the land of Odi with deadly precision and mortality even without any Justice till date, he removed Dariye and Fayose through illegitimate means of declaration of state of emergency all because he lacked the receptive mind for criticism and tolerance.

Now we must reiterate and state emphatically in admonishing the Northern elites to think twice on their incendiary staments and spiral bombardment of attacks through sponsored protests, media adverts or careless statements as well as the links such as: the #EndBadGovernance which started by some Northern youths, that was latter aggravated further and taken over by the #DayofRage led by thier proxies.

Unfortunately, this furtive and clandestine motivated underwater currents are largely engendered and orchestrated towards a obvious suspected Northern quest and desperation for power by all means ahead of 2027 Presidential elections.

How do we rate a situation wherein throughout the 8 years tenure of the former President Muhammadu Buhari, the entire Northern elites do not consider ending Nigeria treaty of 1914 only to wake up at the 99th hour of a Southwest Presidency to rage all manners of brimstone?

Hence, we warn in strongest term that this premeditated plan and well marshalled evil agendas to cause disunity, mayhem and strive among the citizens must be stopped once and for all for the betterment of our dear nation.

We vehemently frowned at the spurious and unverified lies, especially devastating propaganda actions targeted at the minds of their Northern kinsmen and women to hate and wish the President dead, this we unequivocally resist and condemned in its entirety.

This hypocrisy must stop now, wherein we lost lots of our brave minds to unbearable brazing manipulations and desperation in the past; Chief Obafemi Awolowo and MKO Abiola are proven records of similar antecedents of Northern hypocrisy and Power mongering.

It is hightime we talk truth to ourselves at a National Confab after each regional dialogue on the way forward, for if the North continuously hold the cliché of the “North are born to rule” ideology at the expense of the South, that means the rest of us are meant to be treated as their “slaves”, that are not safe in this country.

Have we for ones queried why the Northern Nigeria has more political advantages compared to their Southern counterparts: More state Governors and State House of Assembly members and Speakers, local government Chairmen and counsellors, Senators and House of Representatives members and more Federal institutions and employment opportunities and placements to mention a few.

This was why the Northern elites are eager to shut the tax reform bill down through their Northern Senators if the bill is brought for deliberation without having a concise dialogue with the rest of us.

If the Southern tax regime money is good to construct good roads and railway line to Maradi Republic of Niger, why now that the tax reform which is the best for the country is being campaigned against brutally, using legitimate means to commit illegality.

It is high time we are all captured into the ongoing comprehensive tax system, wherein both the citizens in the Northern and Southern parts are taxed eqaully , while the need to undermine this great efforts of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is highly condemned.

We are bold to say that the need and quests for power must be done with absolute decorum and human face.

2027 election should not end in Ethnic wars and civil strives, we can discuss No Holdbar on all issues of our Nationality without hurting ourselves.

In conclusion, we would not tolerate any capture of Power through coup or any other means of manipulations, or whatsoever in causing instability.

We use this medium to commiserate with the families of the late Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Taoreed Lagbaja, while as a matter of necessity we call for a detailed investigation into his cause of death and other surrounding circumstances, which calls for concern having witnessed recent threats of coup.

We implore President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to remain steadfastly committed and focused on ensuring good governance to the greatest benefits of greatest numbers.

We have emphatically and unapologetically spoken!

Signed:

Prince Isaac Aderemi Ajibola,National Publicity Secretary, Yoruba Council Worldwide.

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Day Mamman Vatsa welcomed Ken Saro-Wiwa to his Abuja Village

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Tunde Olusunle

By Tunde Olusunle

He reincarnated in the form of a cream coloured, two-storey building in the bosom of the boulder-braided, writers’ commune, in the rocky delight of Abuja’s Mpape district. His happy host, like him an erstwhile member of the tribe of wordmongers was despatched over a phantom putsch one decade before him. But he rolled out a carpet of dry laterite with the steady onset of northerly harmattan, to receive his new guest and kindred spirit. The air was sedate, the biosphere alluring and serene as his name echoed from the signage hoisted in front of the structure. This, henceforth, will be the haven of scribblers from across the globe desiring genuine solitude to commune with their muses in the very intricate venture of creative expression. Not too many of the young writers who enthusiastically witnessed the recent commissioning of the *Ken Saro-Wiwa International Writers Residency* in Abuja, however, knew enough about the martyr who was so canonised, nor the nexus between Ken Saro-Wiwa and his figurative “host,” Mamman Jiya Vatsa.

As part of the activities commemorating the 43rd International Convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (ANA), which held between Thursday October 31 and Saturday November 2, 2024, a newly built edifice christened after Saro-Wiwa, was scheduled for inauguration. Ken Saro-Wiwa remains one of Nigeria’s most multitasking and most productive writers of all time. He lived for only 54 years but left behind an authorial legacy which continues to challenge the prolificity of successor writers. Saro-Wiwa was a compelling novelist, an engaging essayist, a consummate poet, an arresting dramatist, and a fearless public scholar.

Regarded as Africa’s very first purpose-built writers village, the expansive hilltop project in Mpape, Abuja, was named after Vatsa, an army General who was a Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT), under the regime of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. Less than seven months into the Babangida milieu in March 5, 1986, Vatsa was executed by firing squad for alleged “treason associated with an abortive coup.” He was 45 at the time. I had the privilege of meeting Vatsa’s only surviving biological child, Aisha, at the “World Poetry Day 2024,” hosted in honour of her father in March 2024, at the same writers’ village. Vatsa was a writer who reportedly published about 20 anthologies of poetry. These include: *Verses for Nigerian State Capitals,* (1972); *Back Again at Wargate,* (1982); *Reach for the Skies,* (1984), and *Tori for Geti Bow leg and other Pidgin Poems,* (1985).

The renowned literary scholar, critic, polemicist and Emeritus Professor, Biodun Jeyifo, was perhaps the first notable intellectual to engage authoritatively with Vatsa’s works in the primordial *Guardian Literary Series, (GLS),* published by *The Guardian* newspapers of old, in the 1980s. The essay is published in *Perspectives on Nigerian Literature, (Volume 2, 1988),* edited by Yemi Ogunbiyi. Vatsa as FCT helmsman, it was, who allocated the generous swathes of hitherto pristine land with scenic views upon which the writers village is sited today. The complex is deservedly named after him in eternal gratitude by the writers fraternity.

Ken Saro-Wiwa was the fourth President of ANA. He succeeded the renowned dramatist and Emeritus Professor of theatre arts, Femi Osofisan, in 1990, and was a very energetic personality, famous for the tobacco pipe which was permanently seated on his lip, drawing parity with that of Ousmane Sembene, the famous Senegalese frontline African novelist and filmmaker. Saro-Wiwa had a multitasking career which saw him as a university lecturer in his earlier years; an administrator and public servant, and an environmental activist, at various times. He was leader of the *Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People,* (MOSOP), which prosecuted a nonviolent campaign for the protection of Ogoni land and water resources from devastation by oil multinationals.

He backed up this enterprise with regular interventions in the public space as a writer and columnist for a number of authoritative newspapers. He consistently drew attention to the despoliation of the natural resources of his people and wrote regularly for *Vanguard* and *Sunday Times,* among other publications. He was a regular, long-staying guest of the gulags of successive military governments, through the administrations of Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha. In 1994, he was arrested and charged with instigating the murders of four Ogoni leaders, May 4, 1994, on a day he was indeed barred from accessing Ogoniland. Saro-Wiwa and his eight “accomplices” were executed by hanging at the Port Harcourt prison where they were held and convicted, on November 10, 1995, exactly one month after his 54th birthday on October 10, 1995.

By some uncanny calendrical coincidence, the *Ken Saro-Wiwa International Writers Residency,* was inaugurated early November 2024, the very same month he was despatched 29 years ago in 1995. Global outrage trailed the killing of Saro-Wiwa and his compatriots, with the Commonwealth suspending Nigeria for three years, among other sanctions. The death of Sani Abacha in June 1998, the subsequent acceleration of processes which returned Nigeria to civilian rule by Abacha’s successor, Abdulsalami Abubakar, and the enthronement of the Fourth Republic in 1999, gradually tempered the world’s coldness towards Nigeria.

At least three dozen book titles are credited to Ken Saro-Wiwa’s name. These include novels, novellas, anthologies of poetry, plays for radio and television, memoirs and diaries, and so on. His works have received some international attention and have been translated into German, Dutch and French. His authorial oeuvre includes: *Tambari,* (a novel, 1973); *Tambari in Dukana,* (a sequel to *Tambari,* 1986); *A Bride for Mr B,* (a novella, 1983), and *Songs in a Time of War,* (poetry, 1985). Ken Saro-Wiwa also wrote *Sozaboy: A Novel in Rotten English,* (1985); *A Forest of Flowers,* (1986, short stories); *Prisoners of Jebs,* (a novel, 1988) and *Pita Dumbrok’s Prison,* (1991), which like the former is very biting political satire.

*On a Darkling Plain: An Account of the Nigerian Civil War,* (memoirs, 1989), a war which he witnessed firsthand, is also one of his very gripping works of prose. Saro-Wiwa’s public engagements are aggregated in several volumes of essays notably *Nigeria: The Brink of Disaster,* (1991); *Similia: Essays on Anomic Nigeria,* (1991) and *Genocide in Nigeria: The Ogoni Tragedy,* (1992). Even in his final days, weeks and months of his sojourn on this side of the divide, Saro-Wiwa “remained incredibly productive.” Posthumously, his family, foreign concerns and nongovernmental organisations continued to call-up manuscripts from his personal library to publish new works by him. A personal diary he kept while he was in incarceration before his eventual annihilation was published with the title *A Month and a Day: A Detention Diary,* in 1995. Over 20 years after his demise, some of his essays were assembled as *Silence would be Treason: Last Writings of Ken Saro-Wiwa,* and published by Daraja Press in Ottawa, Canada, in 2018.

The *Ken Saro-Wiwa International Writers Residency* is one of the first major physical projects delivered by the leadership of Usman Oladipo Akanbi. Fortuitously, Akanbi’s deputy, Obari Gomba, winner of the 2023 *NLNG Prize for Drama,* is from Saro-Wiwa’s Ogoni country. He must have felt gratified by the honour done his *countryman,* whose trajectory he followed as a much younger writer. The eventual breaking of the ice, the decisive commencement of the physical development of the hitherto forlorn and controversial expansive hectarage of ANA property was consummated under the leadership of Denja Abdullahi in 2017. Obi Asika, Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, (NCAC), commissioned the *Ken Saro-Wiwa International Writers Residency.*

The ceremony was witnessed by an impressive array of writers, headlined by Emeritus Professors Osofisan and Olu Obafemi, both former Presidents of ANA, as well as Nuhu Yaqub, OFR. Yaqub holds the distinction of being the only Nigerian scholar thus far to have served as Vice Chancellor in two federal universities, those of Abuja and Sokoto. Other literary greats at the event and the main Convention included: Professors Shamshudeen Amali, OFR, former Vice Chancellor, University of Ilorin; Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo; May Ifeoma Nwoye and Sunnie Ododo, all Fellows of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, (FNAL) and the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA).

There were also Professors Joe Ushie, a Member of ANA Board of Trustees; Emeka Aniagolu; Udenta Udenta; Maria Ajima; Al Bishak; Mabel Evwierhoma; Razinat Mohammed; Vicky Sylvester Molemodile and Mahfouz Adedimeji. Immediate past ANA President, Camillus Ukah, Emeritus diplomat and writer Ambassador Albert Omotayo, featured at the Convention. Canada-based writer, scholar and Professor, Nduka Otiono who served as General Secretary of the association under the leadership of Olu Obafemi, was admitted into the College of Fellows of the body. Chairman of the *Abuja Chapter of ANA,* Arc Chukwudi Eze, was the resident host with compelling responsibility to stay through all events.

Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja

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That ‘fake’ Sanwo-Olu vs EFCC suit: Whodunit? Who sponsored it?

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By Ehichioya Ezomon

Strange things happen in Nigeria, one of the latest being a suit purportedly filed by Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, to prevent the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from investigating, arresting, detaining or prosecuting him or his aides after his eight-year tenure of office in 2027.
However, the Lagos Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Lawal Pedro (SAN), has debunked the widely-publicised suit, saying Sanwo-Olu neither sued nor authorised any legal practitioner to file a suit on his behalf concerning the matter, adding that the EFCC isn’t investigating the governor and hasn’t invited him or threatened to arrest any of his staff, domestic or otherwise.
The odder and curiouser angle to the alleged pre-emptive writ at the Federal High Court in Abuja is that it’s filed in June 2024, almost three years ahead of Sanwo-Olu’s terminal governance of Nigeria’s commercial capital, the richest State in the Federation, and the fifth largest economy in Africa as of 2022 GDP figures, which Sanwo-Olu’s pledged to advance further by 2027.
Thus, the suit is a new one on Nigerians, as the proverbial bridge is way too far off – 36 months to Sanwo-Olu’s end of tenure – to attempt to cross before getting there! Snapets from EFCC’s moves against outgoing governors are telegraphed a few months or weeks before they bow out of office, so giving them the jitters. They either begin to express being squeaky clean, alleging political witch-hunt or daring the EFCC to carry out its threat to make them account for their stewardship.
Since democracy returned in Nigeria in 1999, a few ex-governors have escaped overseas and were forced to return to Nigeria to face prosecution; many have remained in the country to face the EFFC and years of legal ordeal; a couple of them, such as former Ekiti State Governors Ayo Fayose and Kayode Fayemi, have presented themselves to the commission for interrogation and/or prosecution.
Some former governors have engaged in a hide-and-seek, for instance, Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, who’d gone underground for months only to unexpectedly show up at the EFCC headquarters in Abuja in October 2024, and yet wasn’t booked, interrogated, or detained having been on the wanted list of the EFCC and the courts; two have been tried, jailed and served their sentences; one was tried and jailed but his sentence overturned on appeal and was released from prison; while one was tried overseas and served his sentence before returning to the country.
Lately, the EFCC threat to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute former governors has become mostly academic, and the norm rather than the exception. It appears some ex-governors now relish being dragged by the EFCC, at least, as a way to keeping themselves in the news after missing the years of free spotlighting. 
  But even as Sanwo-Olu’s reported  counsel, Darlington Ozurumba, sues the EFCC as sole defendant over the said threat to arrest, detain and prosecute the governor after his tenure, the EFCC has denied knowledge, contemplation or plans by the commission or any of its officers to harass, intimidate, arrest or prosecute Sanwo-Olu after May 29, 2027, 
As reported by The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), when the matter was called for mention on October 29, Ozurumba informed the court that he’d withdrawn the earlier originating summons, and that the EFCC had been duly served with the latest court documents, which the commission’s counsel, Hadiza Afegbua, said she’s yet to sight, even as the proof of service of the processes wasn’t in the court file, and Justice Abdulmalik adjourned the matter to November 26 for further mention.
In an originating summons, marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/773/2024, dated and filed on June 6, Sanwo-Olu, reportedly raising seven questions and seeking 11 reliefs, prays for a declaration that, under and by virtue of the provisions of Section 37 of the amended 1999 Constitution, “the plaintiff, as a citizen of Nigeria, is entitled to right to private and family life as a minimum guarantee encapsulated under the Constitution, before, during and after occupation of public office created by the Constitution.”
Besides craving a declaration that, upon community reading of the provisions of Sections 35(1) & (4) and 41(1) of the Constitution, the threat of his investigation, arrest and detention by the EFCC during his tenure of office as governor is illegal, Sanwo-Olu allegedly prays the court to declare that the incessant harassment, threat of arrest and detention against him upon the EFCC’s instigation by his political adversaries based on false and politically-motivated allegation of corruption, is a misuse of executive powers and abuse of public office.
Hence, he purportedly seeks, among others, an order restraining the EFCC from harassing, intimidating, arresting, detaining, or prosecuting him in connection with his tenure as the governor of Lagos State.
However, the EFCC, describing as speculative and a conjecture the alleged Sanwo-Olu’s claims and reliefs in his fundamental right enforcement suit, has denied it threatened, invited or took any step at all to encroach on the governor’s right to freedom of movement or violated his right to private and family life and personal liberty.
Countering the originating summons Ozurumba purportedly filed on behalf of Sanwo-Olu, the EFCC, in an affidavit filed on October 31 by its lawyer, Hadiza Afegbua, the deponent, Ufuoma Ezire, told Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the Federal High Court, Abuja, that the plaintiff’s depositions in Paragraphs 4, 5, 6, 7 and even 8 are unfounded, untrue and unknown to the defendant, and calculated to mislead the court, and are hereby denied.
Noting that the EFCC isn’t investigating Sanwo-Olu, and has never invited him or threatened to arrest any member of his staff, domestic or otherwise, Ezire states that the EFCC invites members of the public for interview, interrogation or any engagement vide a written invitation, phone calls or text messages by any of its officers, who shall introduce themselves by name, rank, designation, and section to enable the invitee trace the officer easily.
Ezire says the EFCC is unaware of any threat to arrest Sanwo-Olu’s “aides, accusation of maladministration or diversion of Lagos State’s funds nor is it aware of any likelihood of a breach of the applicant’s right to liberty or right to own movable and immovable properties in this case.”
Stressing that there’s no petition or any intel gathered before the EFCC to warrant its officers to invite, or threaten to arrest the plaintiff at the moment, Ezire asserts that the entirety of the alleged Sanwo-Olu’s dispositions isn’t true, as the application is “misconceived and brought in bad faith to mislead this honourable court,” adding that, “it will be in the interest of justice to refuse the reliefs sought by the plaintiff.”
Similarly, Mr Pedro, the Lagos Attorney General, in a statement on October 29 rebutting “the news circulating in a section of the media, titled: ‘Sanwo-Olu sues EFCC over alleged plan to arrest, prosecute him after tenure,’” clarified as follows:
“Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, at no time, sued or briefed any legal practitioner to file a suit on his behalf concerning the above subject matter. Moreover, it is implausible for the Governor, who enjoys immunity as conferred by the Constitution, and has almost three years remaining in office, to engage any lawyer on this matter.
“To the best of my knowledge, my inquiry confirmed that the EFCC is not investigating the governor and has never invited him or threatened the arrest of any member of his staff, domestic or otherwise. We are currently investigating how the case came to be without our knowledge.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu has demonstrated exemplary service delivery and prudent, judicious management of public resources. Therefore, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, who is tirelessly working to improve the living conditions of all Lagosians, has no cause for concern when he eventually leaves office at the end of his tenure in May 2027.
“We, therefore, urge media organisations to be cautious about the reports they publish on their esteemed platforms to avoid misleading the public.”
Needless to ask: Whodunit? Who sponsored it? Without a doubt, the so-called Sanwo-Olu’s suit, filed by an “unauthorised legal practitioner,” against the EFCC is the handiwork of his political adversaries trying to induce, instigate or coerce the anti-graft agency to embark on a fishing expedition it’s no reasonable grounds for, either from a petition(s) or intel that points to a likelihood of (mis)appropriation of funds and resources of Lagos by the governor or his aides.
That said, many will defend Governor Sanwo-Olu for perceptively seen as deploying the resources at his disposal to upgrade and develop existing and new infrastructural and human capital needs to match the Lagos motto of “The State Of Excellence” and its Mega City status that’s attracted unprecedented public and private investments.
These include the Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA-) managed ground-breaking Blue and Red Rail Lines, the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) system, the proposed Fourth Mainland Bridge, the Atlantic City project, the fully-automated Imota Rice Mill, and the Lekki Free Trade Zone that houses the multibillion dollar 650,000bpd-capacity Dangote Petroleum Refinery – the largest single-train refinery in the world at full capacity – which’s Nigeria’s window to self-sufficiency in production and supply of petroleum products.
Other areas in the Lagos socio-economic sphere: Education, ICT, innovation and technology, healthcare, commerce, agribusiness, small-scale industries, entertainment, showbusiness, tourism, and youth and sports development are receiving adequate attention, and have become a source of pride to Lagosians, and emulation by other States in Nigeria.
Lagos, a hub of international engagements all-year-round, has moved up the ladder as one of the most preferred destinations on the continent of Africa, and is up-scaling on the global leisure spots, thanks to Governor Sanwo-Olu and his vastly young, professional, dynamic and dedicated team, who’ve deployed their expertise in various fields to achieve a shared dream of Lagos leading or being among the best in all human endeavours.
Sanwo-Olu isn’t just a workaholic delivering on the promises of his administration, but he’s the epitome of the alias, “Mr Project,” in the true sense of the lingo in our clime. So, why should he be worried about the EFFC when he’s deploying the resources of Lagos to develop the state to an enviable standard! The “amiable” governor should free his mind and continue “to finish strong” with the good works he’s been doing, for which he’s received umblemished praises, accolades and awards within and outside Nigeria.

Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria

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