By Ehichioya Ezomon

There’s a resurgence of “false or fake” reports of death of prominent Nigerians spurned by the mischievous for inexplicable reasons. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, and Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, are among the latest victims of repeated reports of their deaths by mongers.
The canny thing about these reports is that they come mostly towards or at the end of the year, in November and December. Is it that the creators and spreaders of such rumours don’t want the affected to live into the New Year, or it’s mere coincidence that the news often appears at the twilight of the year?
The most (in)famous “false death” reports in Nigeria came in early November 1989 when news broke that the first President of Nigeria, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, the Owelle of Onitsha, had passed away. He’s then 85.
Nigerians and members of the global community were shocked and saddened, such that many – even his kindred Igbo, friends and political associates – took the news on its face value, and began sending condolences to the Azikiwe family, and the Government and people of Nigeria, and making arrangements for a state burial for him.
But alas, the “Great Zik of Africa” was “alive, hale and hearty,” and unprepared yet to leave the world! He said so unmistakably by wishing the purveyors the death they’d wished him. Indeed, some of those emergency mourners and “arrangers” of Zik’s funeral died before he finally departed at 91 on May 11, 1996.
Prof. Olatunji Dare, a respected communication scholar, teacher, author, satirist, columnist and editorialist, is the first awardee of First Class in Mass Communication of the University of Lagos in 1973. A Professor of Communication, Emeritus, of the Bradley University, Peoria, Illinois, USA, and a recipient of multiple Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards, he’s a journalism great, and among the best craftmen in the profession. He served as chair of The Guardian Editorial Board and Editorial Page Editor, and was one of the “intellectual editors” that moulded The Guardian into its mantra of “The Flagship of Nigerian Press”. The Editorial Adviser of The Nation since its inception, Dare recalled the media faux pas on Dr Azikiwe, in vivid prose, in a piece, “The day Zik didn’t die,” published in The Nation on November 8, 2016 (as excerpted below).
According to Dare, “Rumours of Zik’s death started swirling on Wednesday, November 8, 1989, apparently triggered by enquiries from a BBC correspondent about his condition. By Friday, the rumours had gained so much traction that two newspapers published speculations about his death.
“If any doubts lingered about Zik’s condition, they were dissolved by the newscast the NTA beamed to its fabled 30 million viewers the following night, almost one-half of it a moving depiction of Zik’s life and times. The newscast, a marvelous production featuring footage and archival material that captured Zik’s illustrious career, as well as moving tributes by those who knew him well, plunged the country into mourning.
“By Saturday, November 11, virtually every newspaper had the story of Zik’s reported death as front-page lead, in type size and headline vocabulary that sought to do justice to the great man’s memory. Even those newspapers that left some room for doubt still felt obliged to refer to Zik in the past tense. The obituaries were adulatory, as indeed they should be.
“At the convocation of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, in Kuru, near Jos, the assembled dignitaries reportedly observed a moment of silence in honour of Zik’s memory.
“The whole thing had begun with a ‘letter of condolence’ that Dr Kingsley Mbadiwe had sent with accustomed magniloquence to the Federal Government on the ‘passing’ of Zik. For good measure, he also sent a copy to the NTA. That letter, plus a statement issued on behalf of the ‘National Committee for the Transition of Dr Azikiwe’ by four prominent Nigerians, was all the NTA had relied on for its categorical pronouncement on so weighty a matter.
“Out-of-work politicians saw an opening and moved in swiftly. A First Republic legislator and former stalwart of the Zikist Movement, Chief RBK Okafor, panting as if he had sprinted all the way from Nsukka to Rutam House in Lagos, narrated breathlessly how he had cradled his “beloved Zik” in his arms and how, even as his life ebbed, the great nationalist had said to him: “Chief RBK Okafor, my political son, remember that I am a Pan-Africanist and should be given a Pan-African burial,” or words to that effect.
“When the tale appeared in cold print, Okafor denied it vehemently. He forgot that Ebube Wadibia, The Guardian’s resourceful and street-smart news editor, had caught him on audiotape word for word. It turned out that Okafor had not seen Zik in several years.
“Nor were desperate politicos the only groups with eyes on the main chance. At the airport lounge in Lagos, a person claiming to be a doctor told a Newswatch executive with critical solemnity that he had just come away from performing the autopsy on Zik and signing the death certificate. That disclosure won him instant celebrity.
“By lunchtime on Saturday November 11, reports of Zik’s death had fallen apart. Television network news on Saturday showed Zik alive and well in his living room talking with Colonel Robert Akonobi, the military governor of Anambra State and a team of journalists.
“Zik, it turned out, had been watching the newscast at his home in Nsukka with his vivacious wife Uche, thinking that it was his birthday tribute until he heard, ‘And may his great soul rest in peace.’
“What went wrong? Dr Azikiwe was of course not the most accessible of eminent Nigerians. Still, how was it that, for more than 36 hours, the entire news media and the government’s information machinery and the security apparatus could not establish his condition?
“Zik-gate (which Dare says was ‘invented’ by Eluem Emeka Izeze, ex-Editor, Editor-in-Chief and Managing Director of The Guardian) showed how narrowly the news media cast their net and how vulnerable they were. It was as if they had resolved not to let the facts get in the way of a ‘good’ story. If they had checked and re-checked, they would have saved themselves a shameful outing that they will never quite live down.
“And if a government obsessed with ‘national security’ had swung into action with all the resources at its disposal as the rumours spread, a national embarrassment would have been averted.”
Rounding off the beautiful article on the media failure on Dr Azikiwe, Dr Dare asked: Can Zik-gate happen today? And he answered in the negative, as “there are far more news sources, and the media have become more enterprising and sophisticated.”
But that’s before the age of social media in our clime! Because of the bitter lessons learned from the Zik episode, the media, for a while, appeared to self-censor from rushing to publish unverified news about the death of prominent Nigerians. It wasn’t that there weren’t false news about such occurrences, but they’re few and far apart.
On December 31, 2010, Obasanjo quoted one of his friends as saying that he’d “counted seven times” that Obasanjo’s rumoured to’ve died between 1999 and 2010. Obasanjo stated this at his Hill Top home in Abeokuta, capital city of Ogun State, when he addressed the news about his “demise.”
Obasanjo spoke to newsmen, thus: “I think people take delight in speculation and rumouring. A friend of mine told me this morning (December 31, 2010), breaking to me the news of my death, and he was trying to confirm. He said he had counted seven times that I have been rumoured dead since the eve of my inauguration in 1999 as a democratically-elected President of Nigeria till today.
“Those who indulge in this – and those who have superstitious belief that when there are rumours and speculations like this, it means longevity – will not give up. Whether longevity or not, what I know is that until the Good Lord, who has created me, decides to say yes, ‘I have reached my take-off point to return to Him,’ people may speculate, people may rumour and that will be their own handicap.
“My word to Nigerians is that wishes are not horses. People wish and God does not make it to happen. But I know that anybody created is bound to die sometimes. When my time comes, it will not be man that will decide; it is in the hands of God,” he said.
Obasanjo debunked the latest “fake news” about his death on November 26, 2024, during the inauguration of a dual carriageway in Osogbo, Osun State capital city, to commemorate the second anniversary of Governor Ademola Adeleke.
Going after the rumour peddlers with a “return-to-sender” message they’d intended for him, Obasanjo said: “I heard the rumour that I was dead. I saw it on social media. I quickly told my children and my relations that it was not true and that I was alive. Those who want me dead, that is their wish but God still keeps me alive.
“Why would anyone wish me dead? Those who harbour such thoughts will not escape tragedy themselves. This kind of rumour is not only disturbing but shows the extent to which some people misuse technology. It is unacceptable.”
As for Prof. Yakubu, the second rumour about his death came in December 2024, three years after a similar “fake news,” prompting the INEC chairman to declare that, “I am alive, hale and hearty,” and presented the itinerary of his activities in Nigeria during the timeframe of his reported hospitalisation in London.
A statement by Yakubu’s Chief Press Secretary, Rotimi Oyekanmi, reads in part: “Our attention has been drawn to a fake news narrative circulated by a section of the social media, claiming the purported death of the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, at a London hospital. The story first appeared on Monday, 9th December, 2024.
“We hereby appeal to the public to disregard the rumour. Prof. Yakubu is alive, hale and hearty. In fact, he has not travelled to London in the last two years. He was present at an interactive meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters on Wednesday, 11th December, 2024.
“He also chaired the commission’s meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners on Thursday, 12th December, 2024. Both events were widely covered on television and reported on the front pages of most newspapers yesterday, Friday, 13th December, 2024.”
Recalling that “mischief-makers on social media carried a similar fake story in 2021,” Mr Oyekanmi warned that, “those who indulge in this practice, as well as those who spread it, should be mindful of its effect not only on the individual, but also the wider society,” pledging that the INEC “will continue to work with genuine media professionals to combat the scourge of fake news and the danger it poses to society.”
Will people stop to create and spread “false or fake” news about deaths of prominent Nigerians? Whose death will next be conjured? Will the media, as usual, fall for it without authentication? Such, in the words of Prof. Dare, will be a “shameful outing that they will never quite live down.”

Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria. Can be reached on X, Threads, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp @EhichioyaEzomon. Tel: 08033078357

By Fred Itua

In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, Napoleon, the pig rises to power not by virtue of competence or vision but by undermining others, spreading falsehoods, and manipulating the system to serve his selfish interests. Like Napoleon, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, after its crushing defeat in the 2024 governorship election, has adopted a strategy of sabotage. Incapable of delivering themselves, they now pour scorn on Senator Monday Okpebholo’s administration, attempting to derail the progress he is committed to achieving.
Since losing the election, the PDP has displayed post-traumatic bitterness. Its factional spokespersons—some of whom served in previous administrations and were accused of absconding with official properties, including luxurious vehicles allegedly disposed off, at scandalously low prices—have launched an unrelenting tirade against the Governor.
For instance, they criticized the proposed flyover project aimed at easing the notorious gridlock that has plagued Benin City for years. It seems they would prefer the city remains mired in chaos than to see a solution emerge under Okpebholo’s leadership. They probably envied such remarkable feat of an iconic Ramat Park flyover by Governor Okpebholo, which they would have loved to accomplish but for their short-sightedness.
Meanwhile, the Governor has focused on strengthening the civil service, re-entrusting it with its rightful role as the engine room of governance. In doing so, he has flushed out consultants hurriedly converted into civil servants by the previous administration and elevated to senior roles. These consultants, who treated Edo State as their cash cow, have been shown the door, paving the way for career civil servants to step up and drive governance effectively. But rather than acknowledge this bold reform, the PDP has chosen to cry foul.
The party’s dissatisfaction extends to the restoration of the state-owned Ambrose Alli University in Ekpoma and the resumption of its monthly subvention—a clear effort to revitalize the institution. Yet, the PDP attempted to stir needless controversy around this decision. Their grievances are steeped in bitterness, as they appear unable to applaud progress when it emanates from the opposition.
The dearth of the university in the past eight years in the hands of the past PDP administration has been criticized as most ignoble. Beyond economic prospects, the university has added robust value to academics and attracted global researchers to Edo State. In one swoop, the PDP administration downed all those accomplishments.
Equally telling is their reaction to the Governor’s insistence on accountability in local government administration. The councils under the PDP-led government abandoned their core responsibilities and took up the roles of vote-buying, intimidations of political opponents, and siphoning of resources for political expediencies. Predictably, the PDP vehemently protested the Governor’s demand for transparency, preferring the councils to remain its life support, especially in funding their court cases against the Government.
The local government councils were already weighed down by the huge spending on court cases and party leaders, such that they got little or nothing for their primary duties like salaries.
One of the core values of Governor Okpebholo’s administration is that workers’ salaries and emoluments must be prioritized and non-negotiable.
While the PDP has the right to criticism, they must be constructive and devoid of fallacies and misrepresentations. Governor Okpebholo has even urged the state-owned Edo Broadcasting Service (EBS) to entertain critical assessments of his administration. However, criticism must be rooted in truth and not bitterness, which currently defines the opposition’s approach. Okpebholo’s stance for fair play must not be taken for granted.
Attempts to demarket this administration will fail. Governor Monday Okpebholo’s election by the majority of the people has also been justified by his tireless work for all; irrespective of tribe, religion, or political leaning, as it was in the past administration.
Like Orwell’s Napoleon, the PDP may thrive on manipulation and sabotage, but the people of Edo State can see through the mischief. Progress, under the leadership of Governor Okpebholo, will not be hindered by the noise of a bitter opposition.

Fred Itua is the Chief Press Secretary to Edo State Governor

By Ehichioya Ezomon

During a congratulatory visit to Governor Monday Okpebholo at the Government House in Benin City on Tuesday, December 3, 2024, the Edo chairman of Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON) and chairman of Orhiomwon local government, Newman Ugiagbe, pledged the loyalty and collaboration of the 18 council chairmen, to ensure the success of the Okpebholo administration.
“We are here to congratulate the Governor and the Deputy on the mandate Edo people gave them, and to pledge our loyalty to your administration,” Ugiagbe said, adding, “Our doors are open to your instructions, policies, and programmes, as we are ready to bring your policies down to the grassroots, to enable our people to benefit from the dividends of democracy as we will work to ensure your administration succeeds.”
Responding, Deputy Governor Dennis Idahosa, who represented Governor Okpebholo, said: “I have listened to you keenly, the ALGON Chairman. The Governor is a leader of all of us. Election has come and gone and we are all one family. The Governor has asked me to assure you that we are one family. He has also asked me to tell you that we will work closely together.”
As if to test the council chairmen’s pledge for collaboration with the administration, Idahosa said: “I guess you are aware that few weeks ago, the Assets Verification Committee was constituted. Mr. Governor is committed to transparency and accountability in this government and that committee would not have the resources to go across the 18 local government areas of Edo State.
“The Governor would want you to submit your statement of accounts from 4th of September 2023, to date, to the Assets Verification Committee within the next 48 hours (2 days), as that would help and enable the committee do its job effectively and efficiently… The Governor thanks you for your time.”
But in a matter of days, the promise of “collaboration and working together as a family for the government to succeed” flew out the window, and politics took the front burner, as the 18 chairmen – all members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – reneged on their assurances to Okpebholo, and refused to submit their statement of accounts for verification, as the governor directed.  
Following the chairmen’s resistance to the directive, citing their financial autonomy as upheld by the Supreme Court, Okpebholo, in a December 16 petition titled, “Insubordination and Gross Misconduct by the 18 Local Government Chairmen Over Their Refusal to Submit Financial Records for Scrutiny,” reported the chairmen to the assembly, which, pending investigation, suspended them and their deputies for two months, under Section 20(b) of the Local Government Act, for “insubordination and gross misconduct” for refusal to submit their financial records for scrutiny.
Now, a huge political and constitutional crisis is brewing in Edo State, as the council chairmen have dragged in the judiciary to intervene – and it did intervene by setting aside the two-month suspension the House of Assembly clamped on the chairmen and their deputies.
As reported by ICIRNIGERIA.ORG on Thursday, December 19, a Benin City High Court, presided by Justice Efe Ikponmwonba, has ordered reinstatement of the 18 council chairmen and their deputies to their pre-December 17, 2024, positions, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice adjourned to February 17, 2025, for a hearing.
 Directing that hearing notices be issued to the defendants, the court ordered a mandatory injunction, compelling the defendants, including Governor Okpebholo, the Edo State Government, the Attorney-General, and the Accountant-General to restore the claimants to their respective offices, and restrained the defendants from acting on the resolution passed by the House of Assembly suspending the chairmen and their deputies. 
Obviously complicating matters for Governor Okpebholo is the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), who on Thursday, December 19, declared as “illegal and unconstitutional,” the suspension of the chairmen and vice chairmen of the 18 councils in Edo State.
Fagbemi, fielding questions from journalists in Abuja, said that, based on the Supreme Court ruling of July 11, 2024, granting autonomy to the 774 councils in Nigeria, the prerogative to remove or suspend any elected council official rests with the councilors, adding, “under the present dispensation, the governor has no right to remove any local government chairman, that much I know.”
Nonetheless, Governor Okpebholo’s fighting back by instituting, on December 18, a seven-member panel to investigate the stewardship of the council chairmen, even as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has jumped into the fray, to investigate the embattled council officials.
Hours after the High Court ordered reinstatement of the council chairmen and vice chairmen on Friday, December 20, a defiant Okpebholo declared that their suspension was within his oversight function of the local governments, as reported by Nigerian Tribune.
Admitting that the suspension of the chairmen has sparked an intense debate, Okpebholo said that, “a closer examination of the Constitution, and the Federal Attorney-General’s comments, reveal that the decisions by the Edo State House of Assembly, vis-a-vis the Governor of the State, are entirely justified.”
“From a legal perspective, the governor’s request to the House of Assembly, to suspend the chairmen, was done within his constitutional powers. The House of Assembly had the right to turn down the request but opted to act on it. It is therefore unfair to blame the governor,” Okpebholo said.
He argued: “If the governor had the powers to suspend the council chairmen unilaterally, he would not have resorted to drafting a letter to the House of Assembly. Again, for the record, the chairmen were not removed from office but suspended due to suspicious activities, and the governor has the right to exercise the power of oversight.
“The concept of autonomy is often misunderstood, and in this case, it does not mean that council chairmen cannot be oversight. The House of Assembly has the power to oversight the activities of the governor, and similarly, the governor has the right to exercise oversight over local government chairmen. The ongoing EFCC investigation of the 18 local government chairmen underscores the importance of accountability in governance.”
Actually in a letter dated December 17, 2024, and signed by its director of investigation, Abdulkarim Chukkol, the EFCC has summoned the council chairmen for questioning, requesting certified documents, detailing payroll records, bank statements, and council finances from January 2024 to date, with chairmen from six councils, including Akoko-Edo, Egor, and Esan Central, summoned to appear on December 19, while others were scheduled for December 20.
Senator Okpebholo (APC, Edo Central) comes with a mantra of “Edo Rising Again,” and a five-point agenda to revamp the state for “rapid development and economic growth” from where former Governor and Senator Adams Oshiomhole (2008-2016) reportedly stopped. 
Unencumbered by any “godfather” breathing down his neck, Okpebholo, “hitting the ground running” barely 24 hours of his inauguration on November 12, 2024, with the ground-breaking of construction of first-ever flyovers in Benin City, Edo capital city, continued in his no-time-to-waste haste to achieve tangible results in his first 100 days in office.
But like the typical politician he boasts he isn’t, Okpebholo may’ve begun giving in to distractions, to tackle what perhaps he sees as partisan antic of the council officials, who, as members of the PDP, and backed by the Edo chapters of the PDP and ALGON, have called the governor’s bluff.
Affirming their commitment to fulfilling their constitutional roles, as “no authority can prevent us from serving our councils,” the council chairmen declared that, “We will remain in office till September 2026… as our tenure runs from September 2023 to September 2026, as stipulated by law.”
Both in context and in the contest, the outcomes of Okpebholo’s directive, playing out real-time, have evoked scenes reminiscent of the hit song, “Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am,” off a 1971 album, “Roforofo Fight,” by the legendary Afrobeats maestro, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, as the 18 council chairmen and their deputies have rejected their two-month suspension by the Edo State House of Assembly.
Relating to Fela’s depiction of the oppressor and the oppressed, Okpebholo, as “yanga” the oppressor wielding executive power, went and woke up “trouble,” the council chairmen, the oppressed (who, in their areas of jurisdiction, are also oppressors). And that’s what Fela preaches against in “Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am” – and indeed in all of his musical career of advocacy against societal ills, and the oppression of Nigerian people.
In the song, Fela warns that, “the suffering of the oppressed be respected and that if it is not, then the oppressed is justified in their decision to revolt, to take arms against the persons who mock their suffering and remain unempathetic to their oppression.” (Culled from, “The Shuffle: ‘Trouble Sleep Yanga Wake Am’ Was Fela At His Most Succinct,” written by The Native, October 18, 2017).
The council chairmen – all of PDP, which still nurses its defeat by the APC at the September 21, 2024, governorship election that returned Okpebholo as winner – were on their own when the governor gave them that 48-hour ultimatum to submit their financial records from September 23, 2022, when they came into office, till date.
The council chairmen’s failure to obey Okpebholo’s directive, and their subsequent suspension from office, has created a constitutional crisis that may require intervention of the Supreme Court to clarify the relationship between the state and local governments under the financial autonomy the court granted to the councils in July 2024.
As the battle line is drawn, what next for Governor Okpebholo, as the odds seem stacked against him? Will he put his foot down, and breach the rules and the Supreme Court judgment that’ve granted local governments financial autonomy? That’ll be illegal and unconstitutional, and against the avowal by the governor to work harmoniously with the opposition!
Will the council chairmen back down, and submit their financials, as directed by the governor? That’s unlikely, as the 18 councils are very strategic, politically and financially, to the presence and participation of the PDP in Edo polity, especially ahead of the 2027 elections, even as the party pins its hope on “retrieving” its alleged “stolen mandate” at the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal holding in Benin City.
What Okpebholo doesn’t need now – certainly not in the future – is unnecessary self-induced distractions. The opposition – with nothing to lose – is at liberty to do anything to distract and divert his attention. But it’s in the governor’s interest, the interest of Edo people, and the daunting tasks before him, to prevent that from happening!

Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria. Can be reached on X, Threads, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp @EhichioyaEzomon. Tel: 08033078357