CULTURE, LANGUAGE AND THE HYPOCRISY OF ETHNIC POLITICS IN LAGOS

 

Culture is the total way of life of a people. It encompasses our folklore, songs, dances, dressing, food, religion, traditions and, most importantly, our language. Through language, a people communicate, preserve their history, transmit knowledge and values, and pass their collective worldview from one generation to another.

Language is therefore not merely a means of communication; it is a repository of identity and collective memory. A people who lose their language risk losing an important part of their cultural consciousness. This is why the countries generally regarded as developed have preserved and promoted their indigenous languages in governance, education, social interaction and knowledge production, despite the historical exploitation of Africa's human and material resources by many of those same powers.

Colonialism deliberately disrupted this cultural continuity in Africa. Colonial languages were imposed on African societies and became official or dominant languages, while indigenous religions, traditions and systems of knowledge were systematically undermined. Christianity and Islam subsequently became dominant religious traditions across much of Africa.

The consequences of this cultural dislocation remain evident today. Yet cultural identity cannot be reduced to the ability to speak a particular language. Speaking Yoruba fluently does not automatically make someone a better Yoruba person, just as not speaking Yoruba fluently does not make someone less Yoruba. Commitment to a people's history, culture, traditions, values and collective advancement must also be taken into consideration.

It is against this background that I find the current campaign of blackmail and propaganda against the African Democratic Congress (ADC) governorship candidate, Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, simply because he does not speak Yoruba fluently, both appalling and intellectually dishonest.

The APC propaganda machinery and its political data boys are making a spectacle of Gbadebo's language proficiency, as though fluency in Yoruba were the ultimate measure of Yoruba identity, political legitimacy or commitment to Lagos.

It is not.

On several fronts, Gbadebo has demonstrated a strong commitment to Yoruba culture and tradition. From close observation, his cultural identification is more visible than that of many of those now attacking him.

Gbadebo hardly wears English or other foreign modes of dressing and attire. He is frequently seen in Yoruba traditional clothing, including fitting caps, as part of his normal public appearance. This is significant because cultural identity should not be something politicians remember only when elections are approaching.

His public identification with Ìṣẹ̀ṣe, the indigenous Yoruba religious and cultural system, is another important dimension of his cultural outlook.

The argument about Gbadebo's Yoruba identity is further strengthened by the fact that Yoruba traditionalists have publicly defended his Yoruba lineage and explained the basis for his Obalefun title.

At the same time, some of those presenting themselves as the ultimate defenders of Yoruba identity have historically shown little interest in preserving indigenous African spirituality and traditional institutions, even while promoting Christianity and Islam.

Again, there is nothing wrong with Nigerians practising Christianity or Islam. Freedom of religion is fundamental.

The issue is consistency. It is difficult to accept the argument that a person's Yoruba identity should be questioned because he cannot speak Yoruba fluently while the same political environment routinely celebrates foreign religious and cultural influences and, in some instances, commits public resources to religious pilgrimages.

Culture should not become an electoral costume, and language should not become a weapon of ethnic exclusion.

THE SAME OLD "ỌMỌ ÌGBÒ" PROPAGANDA

We saw this same politics during the 2023 governorship election, when the campaign of calumny portrayed Gbadebo as Ọmọ Ìgbò, suggesting that his allegiance would be to the Igbo people simply because his mother is Igbo.

This was primitive ethnic politics.

The hypocrisy becomes even clearer when we consider the extensive inter-ethnic relationships within Nigeria's political class itself.

The late Rotimi Akeredolu, a prominent Yoruba politician and APC governor of Ondo State, was married to Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, an Igbo woman from Imo State. Their marriage was publicly known, and Betty herself spoke about the ethnic prejudices surrounding their relationship.

So why should Gbadebo's Igbo maternal heritage suddenly become evidence that he cannot be trusted with the affairs of Lagos?

Why should marriage or maternal ancestry determine political loyalty?

Lagos itself is a product of centuries of interaction among different peoples. It is a cosmopolitan city with a deep Yoruba historical and cultural foundation. Being Yoruba does not require Lagos to become an ethnic prison.

The renewed campaign against Gbadebo is therefore empty. Lagosians are wiser.

And I ask a simple question: how many times did Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and his predecessors, including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu when he was governor of Lagos, address Lagosians in Yoruba during major public engagements?

If language proficiency is to become the ultimate test of Yoruba identity and political legitimacy, the APC should apply its own standard consistently.

Let us stop pretending.

The real question before Lagos voters is not whether Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour speaks Yoruba with the fluency of someone born and raised in a Yoruba-speaking household.

The real questions are:

What does he have to offer Lagos?

Can he provide better governance?

Can he tackle flooding?

Can he address the housing crisis?

Can he improve transportation?

Can he create opportunities for young Lagosians?

Can he protect public resources?

Can he promote accountability and transparency?

Can he preserve Lagos's history, culture and heritage?

Can he offer Lagosians a credible alternative to the political dynasty that has dominated the state for the last 27 years?

These are the questions that should determine the future of Lagos—not whether a candidate's mother is Igbo or whether he previously struggled to speak Yoruba fluently.

Gbadebo has also taken steps to improve his Yoruba and has said publicly that he engaged a Yoruba teacher and intends to campaign in the language. That effort should be encouraged, not ridiculed. A person who recognises a weakness and takes deliberate steps to correct it should be commended.

The Yoruba electorate should therefore see beyond the shenanigans, ethnic rhetoric and propaganda surrounding Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour.

We should judge political candidates by their competence, integrity, commitment, vision and what they intend to do for the people.

The politics of saying "Gbadebo is Ọmọ Ìgbò" because his mother is Igbo is as mischievous as saying that somebody is automatically a better Yoruba because he can speak Yoruba fluently.

Yoruba identity is bigger than language alone. Yoruba civilisation is bigger than political propaganda. And the Yoruba people are bigger than politicians who exploit their identity for electoral advantage.

Our strong appeal to the Lagos electorate is therefore to vote for a credible alternative to the mischievous propaganda of the ruling party in Lagos.

Let Lagosians reject ethnic blackmail.

Let Lagosians reject political manipulation.

Let Lagosians demand competence, accountability and development.

Let Lagosians choose a government that belongs to the people rather than a political dynasty.

And let the Akotileta government understand one thing:

Yorùbá ò pọnú — Yoruba people are not stupid.

Comrade Wale Balogun
National Coordinator, Yoruba Revolutionary Movement (YOREM)
Convener, Mẹkunnu Kọya
Writes from Lagos
4 October 2026

Osun Floods: A Peer Review of Four Administrations and the Aregbesola Environmental Legacy

 

From Oyinlola to Aregbesola, Oyetola and Adeleke; what happened to Osun's drains, canals, waterways and waste management?

By Comrade Wale Balogun, Convener, Mẹkunnu Kọya

The serious flooding now affecting parts of Osun State is more than a seasonal inconvenience. Homes, shops, businesses and personal belongings are being destroyed, while families are again being exposed to hardship and uncertainty.

For many residents, the situation inevitably brings back memories of an earlier period when the state government embarked on a deliberate programme of dredging rivers, opening waterways, expanding drainage channels, removing obstructions and deploying O'YES cadets to keep public spaces and drainage corridors clean.

A peer review of the four administrations of Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Rauf Aregbesola, Gboyega Oyetola and Ademola Adeleke therefore provides useful lessons.

Oyinlola: when flooding became a recurring crisis

The later Oyinlola years were marked by serious flooding, culminating in the devastating 2010 experience that preceded the change of government. Gbonmi became one of the symbolic examples.

The name itself became part of the political folklore of Osogbo because of the area's repeated flooding. In a 2016 report, Punch recalled that a former governor had jokingly told residents during a television programme that they should either be prepared to continue bailing water from their houses or relocate because, having chosen to live there, they had “met the water.” The former governor referred to was Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

Whatever the humour intended, the statement is revealing of an older philosophy of governance: treating a flood prone community as though its residents, rather than government, bore the primary responsibility for the environmental danger.

Good governance should take the opposite approach, identify the danger, intervene before disaster and protect citizens and their property.

Aregbesola: from reaction to prevention

Aregbesola fundamentally changed the approach. His administration introduced O'Clean, expanded waste management, deployed O'YES cadets for sanitation and environmental work, cleared vegetation, desilted waterways and embarked on major channelisation projects.

The important distinction was that the government did not wait for flood victims to start bailing water before acting. It attempted to remove the conditions that produced the flooding.

The scale was considerable. Contemporary reporting recorded extensive desilting of rivers, streams and canals across Osun, including major interventions in Osogbo. By 2018, The Guardian reported that approximately 861 kilometres of waterways, canals and streams had been desilted over seven years.

Gbonmi: the clearest test case

The most compelling evidence is Gbonmi itself. The administration implemented the Gbonmi–Obaate, Okooko River channelisation project. The Guardian reported that Gbonmi, previously known for frequent flooding, had remained flood free for seven years following the intervention. Similar channelisation works were undertaken around Rasco, Alekunwodo and Old Nitel, Alekunwodo.

A 2016 letter published by The Nation provides an even more personal account. A resident described how his parents' home in Gbonmi had flooded every year before 2011, forcing the family to consider relocating. After Aregbesola's desilting and waterway clearing programme, the family reported that they no longer had to abandon the house during the rains.

This is the practical meaning of preventive governance. The government did not tell Gbonmi residents to learn how to bail water. It attacked the cause of the problem.

Oyetola: some continuity, but not the same momentum

Oyetola inherited both the environmental infrastructure and the institutional machinery established under Aregbesola, under whom he had served as Chief of Staff.

To his credit, he did not completely abandon the environmental programme.

His administration continued dredging. In 2019 and 2020, it cleared and dredged several rivers and waterways, including the Osun River, Opopo River, Rasco Stream and other channels. It also strengthened enforcement against indiscriminate refuse disposal.

Oyetola also retained and later expanded O'YES. His administration increased cadet allowances and described the scheme as a legacy programme that should be sustained.

But the critical question is continuity of intensity and strategic purpose.

Aregbesola's environmental programme had been conceived as a broad, visible and continuous intervention involving sanitation, waste collection, drainage, canalisation, river dredging, vegetation control and youth mobilisation.

Under Oyetola, some of these components continued, but the momentum and comprehensive character of the earlier intervention were less evident. The result was that recurring flooding remained a problem in places such as Gbonmi, Gbodofon, Rasco, Alekunwodo and other Osogbo communities.

The 2019 flooding itself demonstrated that the earlier gains required much more systematic maintenance and expansion. More than 100 houses were reported submerged in Osogbo, with Gbonmi, Gbodofon, Awosuru and other areas affected.

Thus, the fairest criticism of Oyetola is not that he did nothing, but that he did not build sufficiently on the scale and integrated preventive approach of the administration he had served.

Adeleke: renewed intervention, but the problem remains

The Adeleke administration inherited the same environmental challenge. It has undertaken renewed dredging and drainage clearance, including work on the Osun River in Osogbo, and has warned residents against dumping refuse into waterways.

The administration has also responded to recent flooding by ordering emergency clearance of waterways and proposing a more comprehensive flood management framework.

These are necessary interventions. But the recurrence of serious flooding demonstrates that emergency response cannot substitute for permanent environmental management.

The state needs a system in which rivers and canals are routinely inspected and desilted before the rainy season, drainage channels are kept open throughout the year, illegal structures on waterways are removed and waste disposal is effectively regulated.

The O'YES lesson

The environmental dimension of O'YES deserves special attention. The cadets were not merely unemployed young people receiving stipends. Through cadres such as the Green Gang, Public Sanitation and Public Works Brigade, they provided visible manpower for keeping communities clean, cutting weeds and assisting with environmental maintenance.

Oyetola continued the scheme and, by 2022, announced another recruitment exercise after a period of reduced activity.

Adeleke subsequently replaced O'YES with the Imole Youth Corps. Whatever the political arguments surrounding the different schemes, the environmental lesson is straightforward: Osun needs a permanent community based environmental workforce.

Young people can be trained and deployed to clear vegetation, maintain drainage corridors, monitor blocked waterways, support waste collection and report emerging flood risks.

This should not be treated as a temporary political programme. It should be part of the state's environmental infrastructure.

The verdict

The peer review produces a reasonably clear picture.

Oyinlola: inherited and presided over a period in which recurrent flooding exposed the weakness of the state's preventive drainage system. The insensitive joke attributed to him about Gbonmi residents “meeting the water” became an unfortunate symbol of that era.

Aregbesola: introduced the most comprehensive and visibly preventive environmental intervention of the four administrations — O'Clean, O'YES environmental manpower, waste management, drainage expansion, river dredging and major channelisation. The transformation reported in Gbonmi is the strongest practical evidence of its effectiveness.

Oyetola: continued some of the inherited programmes, including dredging, waste enforcement and O'YES, but failed to sustain the environmental intervention with the same breadth and momentum required to consolidate Aregbesola's gains. The recurring floods showed the cost of insufficient continuity.

Adeleke: has renewed dredging, drainage clearance and environmental enforcement, but the recurrence of serious flooding demonstrates that the state still needs a permanent, integrated flood prevention system rather than periodic emergency interventions.

What Osun should do now

The immediate priority should be prevention. Government should urgently deploy the appropriate heavy equipment, including swamp bulldozers, excavators and dredging equipment where technically necessary, to clear blocked rivers, canals and drainage channels throughout Osun and adjoining affected communities.

But equipment alone is not enough.

Osun needs:

• routine pre rainy season dredging and desilting;
• continuous clearing of drainage channels;
• strict enforcement against dumping refuse into waterways;
• removal of structures obstructing natural waterways;
• restoration and protection of flood plains;
• properly funded waste collection;
• a permanent community environmental workforce;
• flood risk mapping and early warning systems; and
• transparent annual environmental performance reports.

The Gbonmi experience has already demonstrated what preventive investment can accomplish. The lesson should not be forgotten.

When government clears the waterways before the rain comes, people do not have to spend the rainy season bailing water out of their homes.

Good governance is not simply arriving after disaster with relief materials. It is anticipating danger, preventing avoidable damage, protecting lives and safeguarding the homes, businesses and livelihoods of citizens.

Osun deserves nothing less.

GAFAMORG Backs Labour Strike, Demands Living Wage, Purchasing Power Protection

The Gani Fawehinmi Memorial Organization has thrown its weight behind the three day warning strike embarked upon by organised labour, saying the current economic crisis requires Nigerians to move beyond the traditional struggle for wage increases to a broader campaign for living dignity and national prosperity.

GAFAMORG, in a statement issued on Friday, said the strike reflected genuine concerns over declining purchasing power, soaring food and transport costs, unpaid wage related obligations and the need for a new minimum wage that would reflect the realities of Nigerian households.

The organisation, however, warned that simply increasing salaries without addressing inflation and the rising cost of essential goods and services could leave workers no better off.

“The question is no longer how much more should workers be paid, but what Nigerians must earn, and what government must provide, for people to live with dignity and build prosperity,” GAFAMORG stated.

The organisation said the current wage debate should therefore be reframed around purchasing power, arguing that the real value of a salary should be measured by what it can buy rather than by the nominal amount paid to workers.

It said, “A wage increase alone is not enough. A nominal increase can be wiped out by inflation tomorrow. What matters is not merely what a worker earns, but what that income can actually buy.”

Seven point agenda

GAFAMORG proposed a seven point framework which includes an emergency relief package for workers and pensioners, a new national living wage process, wage and pension indexation, a sustainable petrol price and transport solution, a social wage framework, inclusion of informal workers in wage institutions and the establishment of a National Living Wage and Purchasing-Power Council.

The organisation called on the Federal and state governments, in collaboration with organised labour, to negotiate and publish an emergency relief package within 14 days.

The proposed package would include wage awards, transport support and payment of arrears, with clear eligibility criteria, funding sources, payment schedules and periodic reviews based on changes in food, transport and energy prices.

It also proposed the adoption, by January 2027, of a national cost of living basket covering food, housing, transportation, energy, healthcare, education, water and communications.

According to the organisation, the methodology and data used in determining the basket must be publicly available and reflect regional differences in the cost of living.

GAFAMORG further called for legally enforceable quarterly reviews of wages and pensions, with adjustments triggered when the cost of essential goods or inflation rises by five per cent from the previous adjustment.

Fuel price not enough

On petrol pricing, GAFAMORG said the reduction of the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit alone should not be presented as evidence that Nigerians have achieved economic relief.

It called for a 90 day energy and transport stabilisation plan focused on domestic refining, reliable supply, transparent petrol pricing and affordable mass transportation.

The group also demanded regular publication of refining, importation and price components, alongside targeted and audited support for vulnerable households and public transport users.

Informal sector

GAFAMORG said millions of Nigerians working outside the formal economy must not be excluded from the national conversation on wages and economic wellbeing.

It called for a national informal work forum within 60 days, with consultations across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

Farmers, traders, artisans, transport workers, market women, pensioners, women, youths, self employed persons and civil society organisations, it said, should have a permanent voice in institutions responsible for determining national living standards.

“Informal workers cannot be invisible. They also pay rent, transport fares, fuel costs, school fees and medical bills,” the organisation said.

Proposed council

GAFAMORG also proposed the establishment of an independent National Living Wage and Purchasing Power Council within 90 days.

The council, according to the organisation, should comprise representatives of government, labour, employers, informal workers, farmers, pensioners, women, youths, civil society and experts.

It would publish monthly cost-of-living data and quarterly purchasing-power reports, recommend wage adjustments, monitor wage erosion and assess the delivery of social services.

The council would also be empowered to trigger a policy response when purchasing power falls below an agreed national threshold.

GAFAMORG said the proposed framework should introduce a new relationship between living wage, social wage and purchasing-power protection.

It said economic reforms should ultimately be judged by their impact on ordinary households.

“There should be no economic reform without purchasing power protection, no wage negotiation without a living-wage test, no pension policy without inflation protection and no prosperity agenda that excludes informal workers,” the organisation said.

GAFAMORG urged organised labour, civil society, farmers, traders, artisans, pensioners, professionals, women, youths and communities to participate in its People's Living Dignity Test 2026, saying household experiences should form part of the evidence used to assess the country's economic condition.

The organisation said the central question Nigerians should ask in the current wage debate is simple: “What will the wage actually buy?”

It added that the answer to that question should form the basis of any credible national prosperity programme.

FROM RESISTANCE TO EXILE: My 17 Months Underground

*A Cadre's Historical Account of the Struggle Against Military Tyranny*

*By Comrade Taiwo Omoniyi OTITOLAYE*

*I. June 12: The Mandate and The Betrayal*

History has moments when a people discover themselves. June 12, 1993 was such a moment.

It was not an election. It was a plebiscite against hunger and against military messianism. The Nigerian masses - from all regions, from all walks of life, including Army Barracks formation across the country- voted as a conscious class for democracy. 

Nigeria is a multiethnic, multilingual and multi-religious Nation-state. That day, Nigerians transcended region and every primordial division to speak with one voice.

The mandate of Chief M.K.O. Abiola was therefore a pan-Nigerian mandate.

That mandate was betrayed.

General Ibrahim Babangida, the self-styled evil genius, annulled the freest and fairest election in our history. He annulled hope. In its place, he installed an illegal contraption called the Interim National Government. It was a stillbirth.

From that betrayal, tyranny did not just emerge; it erupted. On November 17, 1993, General Sani Abacha, the dark-goggled despot, pushed aside the interim charade and declared himself absolute ruler. Decrees became law. Fear became policy. Nigeria became a vast prison yard, and every home became a potential cell.

We had a choice: to submit or to resist. We chose resistance.

*II. The Vanguards of the People: The Architecture of Resistance*

Tyranny always creates its gravediggers.

The resistance was not spontaneous; it was organized and focused. It had architecture, ideology, direction, vanguards, and from phase to phase.

The Campaign for Democracy (CD) was the militant, mass-based engine of street confrontation. We believed that democracy is not negotiated in banquet halls; it is won on the streets.

The Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) was the ideological and legal backbone. It gave political defence to the defenceless and taught that human rights are not charity but class struggle.

When the need for a broader unity became urgent, the United Action for Democracy (UAD) emerged as the united front - welding CD, CDHR, student unions, labour, professional groups and market associations into a single fist.

And the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) became the broad historic bloc of the political class, elders and progressives, both inside and outside exile, demanding the restoration of June 12.

We were not civil society in the donor sense. We were the combatants of civil society. We were the Vanguards of the People.

*III. The Chain of Comradeship: From Saro-Wiwa to Iyayi*

A movement is only as strong as the continuity of its cadres.

Comrade Ken Saro-Wiwa was not just an Ogoni leader. He was our National Vice Chairman (South-South) in the Campaign for Democracy. A poet who weaponized the pen. He linked the oil spill in the Niger Delta to the moral spill in Dodan Barracks. He internationalized our local struggle.

When the junta, using a compromised judiciary and a kangaroo tribunal led by Justice Ibrahim Auta primitively convicted and later hanged Ken Saro-Wiwa and the Ogoni 8 on November 10, 1995, they thought they were killing a man. They were killing their own legitimacy before the world.

The mantle fell, and it did not fall. It was lifted by a giant - Professor Festus Iyayi. Former President of ASUU. National President of CDHR. Marxist, novelist, organizer. Prof. Iyayi proved that the intellectual who does not join the street has betrayed his books. He succeeded Comrade Saro-Wiwa as the South Zone of the Campaign for Democracy and brought theoretical depth and uncompromising courage to the leadership.

From Saro-Wiwa to Iyayi, the line was clear: the struggle for democracy and the struggle for social justice are one and the same.

*IV. The Mass Resistance: How Nigerians Were Conscientized*

This is the chapter bourgeois writers erase.

They write about leaders, but not about the masses. Yet without the masses, we were nothing.

We went from community to community. From town hall to town hall. From student campus to campus. We did sensitization. We did conscientization in the Freirean sense - we made people see that their personal hunger was political.

And Nigerians listened. Oh, they listened!

*V. The Barricades and Trenches: The Battles Were Tough*

The battle was fought on the streets, in the markets, at the motor parks, and at midnight with a printing machine that could cost us our lives.

Leafleteering and grafty was our artillery.

We did not have NTA or Radio Nigeria. Abacha had them. We had paper. We had ink. We had courage.

We produced leaflets, bulletins, and communiques - sometimes handwritten, sometimes cyclostyled in hidden rooms - all across the country. We called it conscientization material. The junta called it sedition.

How did it move?

We partnered with the Newspapers Distributors Association of Nigeria (NDAN). Those comrades were heroes. They knew every vendor, every route. Our leaflets entered inside newspapers. A citizen buying Daily Times would find our call to action inside. That was our internet.

The Market Associations were our distribution centres. The Iyaloja and Babaloja who believed in June 12 opened their stalls to us.

The Student Union Governments (SUGs) were our ready Field Commanders. From Unilorin to ABU Zaria, from UNILAG to UNN, they took the bundles and spread them from hostel to hostel. They were fearless.

The Labour and factory cadres carried them into the factories, into the industrial estates in Ilorin, Kano and Lagos.

The Akara (bean cake) sellers - yes, our mothers - wrapped akara with our leaflets. Who would suspect an akara seller?

The Drivers' Unions - NURTW, RTEAN - were our logistics corps. They transported our materials from town to town, and village to village, inside engine compartments, under seats, inside spare tyres. A driver could be our cadre without ever shouting Aluta.

And I must record this for history: The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria were consistent allies. While others kept quiet, their communiques eased the tension in society. They were consistently progressive. Their pastoral letters gave moral legitimacy to what we were saying on the streets.

But the barricades had blood.

Many Nigerians lost their lives at the barricades due to police and military extrajudicial killings.

 We watched many fall by our sides through bullets.

We carried comrades who were shot for holding a leaflet. We saw market women beaten for shouting "June 12". We saw students gunned down for mounting a barricade.

The battles were tough. But every bullet that killed a comrade produced ten more.

 Every barricade they dismantled in the morning, we rebuilt in the night.

That was the spirit of the barricades.

*VI. The Plateau Zone and Our Unsung Heroes*

It is expedient and germane for me to pause here and express my sincere condolences and love for our late Comrades, Basil Chianson and Peter Ogaba of the Nigerian Airways.

History must record this: the duo played unquantifiable roles in the struggles and in my leadership team especially in the Benue and Plateau axis.

They were not just sympathizers. They were logistics commanders. Nigerian Airways staff at that time had access, had movement, had networks across the country. Basil and Peter used their positions to move our mobilisation materials, to give us cover, to provide safe passage and information. In the dangerous terrain of Benue and Plateau, they were our wings.

Their death is a monumental loss to the democratic struggle. Their names must be etched in gold whenever the story of June 12 is told in the Middle Belt. May their militant Souls continue to live.

I salute them.

*VII. Close Calls: The Makurdi Escape and The Mystic Shield*

In this kind of struggle, you live many lives in one day.

I remember one of my most dangerous escapes in Benue, Makurdi. I had made the usual trips across the Plateau Zone which I coordinated to strengthen the zone and deliver mobilisation materials. 

On that particular trip, my mission was to formally constitute a strong CD Branch in Benue.

In that historic meeting, Comrade Samuel Ortom (NOW FORMER GOVERNOR OF BENUE STATE):and Comrade Abubakar Borjov were elected Chairman and Secretary respectively. The zone was now solid.

It was time to go to Jos in continuation of my trip. Getting to the motor park in the morning, our vehicle was loaded. I thought we were heading to Jos unhindered.

To my surprise, our vehicle parked just outside the garage and the driver said, "Please everybody come down for police check."

The previous day, the State Security Service (SSS) had traced me to the office of NULGE for my arrest. They had gotten wind that I was in Makurdi. Comrade Sanni of NULGE and others were hosting me. I had escaped that arrest by whiskers.

Now this checkpoint. When I saw plain clothed policemen, hot blood ran through my spine, and all over my body. 

I composed myself for another arrest. I became determined that no matter what happened, I was ready to pay the price.

What happened next, I owe to the ECK Masters of the Order of Vairagi. 

Three ECK Masters stepped in at that garage. For the Spiritual Law of Silence, I keep that part of the story sealed.

I had many similar escapes in that era. Each one reminded me that the struggle is both physical and spiritual.

Baraka Bashad.

*VIII. Five Minutes Away From The Phantom Coup: Patrick Aziza's Panel*

The junta was not just hunting us; it was framing us.

My escrow account campaign - demanding that Nigeria's crude oil revenue be DEPOSITED IN AN ESCROW ACCOUNT for the Nigerian people - had penetrated into the junta's fabrics. I had touched their loot. I was therefore to be either eliminated or given life imprisonment.

Their plan was to rope me into General Patrick Aziza's Phantom Coup Panel.

This was premeditated. The junta's excuse for wanting to rope me into a coup was linked to the junta's self-styled violence across the country. Ilorin, Kwara State was one of the first places the junta's dark agents planted and detonated bombs. They were negatively portraying activists as people behind the violence, to justify crushing us.

Our Chairman, Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti and Comrade Shehu Sani who was coordinating Kaduna Zone were already arrested and in prison to be linked to this phantom coup.

I was next.

Again, to the credit of my INNER MASTER, I was STERNLY WARNED to vacate the Safe House I was staying at the time.

I had to open up to my host because he had provided cover to me when it mattered most. I told him,

 "Look, my Inner Master whispered to me to leave your house within 5 minutes or I will be arrested to a point of no return."

I have always packed my bag ready for any emergency.

Sadly, my host insisted on taking his bath before leaving the house.

Within that 5 minutes window, they struck.

 He was arrested and spent about three weeks at the State Security Service (SSS) detention center. He paid the price for his solidarity.

I escaped by 5 minutes. Five minutes between freedom and a phantom coup tribunal that would have ended my life.

*IX. May 6, 1994 and the Triumph of Collective Leadership*

I and Late Dr. Frederick Fasheun were the first casualties of Abacha's terror on the 6th of May 1994. While preparing for the mass street protests and burn fires slated for Monday 9th May, we were arrested. Abacha was in Ilorin for the All Military Games, and his security apparatus wanted to preempt us.

They thought if they cut the head, the body would die.

But IVhad been schooled by the Legendary, Comrade Baba Omojola, in the COMMITTEE SYSTEM OF LEADERSHIP.

The struggle was not built around me. It was decentralized. Every cell had its own autonomy.

So inside detention, I was jubilating. My esteemed comrades carried out the protests and the burn fires effectively without me. That is the beauty of collective structures. Individuals may be detained, but an idea organized cannot be imprisoned.

I Was charged "Security Risk against the Head of Srate and Commander-In-Chief (C-in-C).

*X. The VOA Campaign and Becoming WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE*

The judicial murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa radicalized me further.

I was being interviewed regularly by William Eagle of the Voice of America (VOA). I decided to escalate the ideological warfare. I used that global platform to campaign for Nigeria's crude oil revenue to be DEPOSITED IN AN ESCROW ACCOUNT - to be held in trust for the Nigerian people, outside the thieving reach of the Abacha junta.

That single campaign touched the jugular of the regime. They could tolerate political abuse; they could not tolerate a threat to their loot.

I was declared wanted. A combined team of military intelligence and MOPOL was dispatched from Abuja with a clear order: bring him DEAD OR ALIVE.

*XI. 17 Grueling Months: The Tramp With No Home*

I permanently left my home for 17 grueling months. Until Abacha transited to a higher realm of existence.

I became a tramp with nowhere to lay my head. A nomad in my own country. From ONE SAFE HOUSE TO ANOTHER.

I became persona non grata to many friends and relatives. Fear made them distance themselves. I do not blame them; tyranny makes cowards of many.

But VERY FEW STOOD SOLIDLY FOR ME.

 They opened their doors when the state had marked my me. They are the true HEROINES AND HEROES OF OUR COLLECTIVE STRUCTURES.

The cost was not mine alone. My own sister was arrested 26 times between 1994 and 1998 in lieu of me. Twenty-six times!

 We had to organize to smuggle her out of Kwara State into safety until the tyrant fell.

They risked everything for the struggle.

*CODWA: Why We Still Struggle*

I tell this story not for pity. I tell it for continuity.

From the struggle against military tyranny to the struggle against economic tyranny today, it is the same fight.

We moved from the barricades to the ballot, from burn fires to budgets, but the weapon remains the same: ORGANIZED COLLECTIVE STRUCTURES OF THE PEOPLE.

We remain unbowed. We remain unconquered.

It is not yet UHURU

Vigilance is the Price for Eternal Liberty 

VICTORIA AETERNA 

COMRADE TAIWO OMONIYI OTITOLAYE is the Executive Director of Community Outreach for Development and Welfare Advocacy (CODWA)

GAFAMORG Seeks Nigerians’ Voices on Wages, Living Standards and Economic Dignity

 LAGOS — The Gani Fawehinmi Memorial Organization (GAFAMORG) has launched the People’s Living Dignity Test 2026, a nationwide public evidence gathering exercise aimed at documenting the real life economic conditions and cost of living experiences of Nigerians.

The initiative, launched on September 29, 2026, seeks responses from Nigerians across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory on their everyday economic circumstances and what it takes to maintain a basic standard of living with dignity.

According to GAFAMORG, the exercise is intended to bring citizens’ direct experiences into public discussions about wages, living standards and the rising cost of living.

The organisation said the questionnaire provides a structured platform through which Nigerians can share evidence of their present economic circumstances, adding that the information gathered would contribute to continuing public interest documentation on wages, living standards, economic dignity and social justice.

Nigerians urged to participate

GAFAMORG has urged Nigerians to complete the questionnaire honestly and base their responses on their current personal circumstances.

The organisation is also calling on individuals and organisations to circulate the questionnaire widely through communities, workplaces, trade union and workers’ networks, churches, mosques, youth organisations, student groups, community associations and social-media platforms.

It specifically appealed to journalists, civil-society organisations, community leaders and other public interest institutions to help bring the exercise to Nigerians who might otherwise have limited opportunities to participate.

GAFAMORG said the objective is to generate people centred evidence rather than merely opinions on the economic realities confronting citizens.

The organisation said relevant findings would be communicated to the public as responses are compiled and analysed.

Explaining the philosophy behind the initiative, GAFAMORG said: “The people should not merely be discussed. The people should also be heard.”

The organisation described the exercise as part of its continuing public interest work under the banner: “Remembering Gani by Continuing His Struggle.”

The statement was signed by the Chairman, Comrade Babatunde Agunbiade, and the Public Relations Officer, Comrade Ade Adeoye Adewunmi, on behalf of GAFAMORG.

How to participate

Members of the public can take the People’s Living Dignity Test 2026 through the GAFAMORG questionnaire:

Take the People's Living Dignity Test 2026

The exercise is open to Nigerians across the country.

FROM “CHRISTIAN GENOCIDE” TO “MINERAL WEALTH”: THE IMPERIALIST AGENDA BEHIND US ENGAGEMENT WITH NIGERIA

 The article argues that Africa's historical experience with Western powers should make Africans cautious about accepting claims that foreign intervention is motivated solely by humanitarian, religious or security concerns. It draws a direct historical line from colonialism, when European powers invoked civilisation and Christianity while extracting African labour and resources, to contemporary forms of political and economic influence. The writer's central premise is that military, diplomatic and economic engagements with Africa should be examined within the wider context of geopolitical interests and resource competition.

The article then connects the United States' designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern over religious-freedom issues and the December 2025 US airstrikes against ISIS linked targets in Sokoto with the subsequent September 2026 US-Nigeria mineral sector framework. The writer highlights Nigeria's estimated $700 billion mineral wealth and argues that the timing and combination of religious, military and economic engagement warrant closer scrutiny. 

A major argument concerns neocolonialism and the Tinubu administration. The writer interprets increased American engagement with Nigeria's mineral resources as potentially representing a strategic concession to US interests. He further raises the possibility that economic and diplomatic arrangements could create international tolerance for democratic or human-rights violations by the Nigerian government, particularly in the context of the 2027 elections. The article connects this concern to the government's handling of the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests, allegations of excessive force and the prosecution of protesters under serious charges.

The broader political argument is that economic sovereignty is inseparable from political sovereignty. According to the writer, genuine independence requires African countries to control how their natural resources are developed, how their economies are structured and whose interests influence national policy. He therefore rejects reliance on imperial powers for security, finance, technology, knowledge or resource development and argues that foreign investment should be interrogated rather than automatically equated with development.

Finally, the article is fundamentally a call for political education and historical consciousness. Its recurring message is that Africans must study slavery, colonialism, the Scramble for Africa, neocolonialism, resource exploitation and the interaction between religion and geopolitical power. The writer concludes that Africa's liberation cannot be outsourced and that a new generation must understand the structural relationships that sustain external dependence. The article therefore combines a historical critique of imperialism with a contemporary political argument about Nigeria's resources, sovereignty, democracy and foreign relations.

26TH SEPTEMBER 2026

FROM “CHRISTIAN GENOCIDE” TO MINERAL WEALTH: HOW TRUMP’S US IMPERIALISM TARGETED NIGERIA’S UNTAPPED RESOURCES THROUGH THE TINUBU NEO-COLONIAL REGIME

Generation after generation, Africans have failed to adequately study their own history, and consequently, generation after generation continues to become a victim of history.

THE PATTERN IS NOT NEW

The colonial masters came to Africa claiming to bring civilisation, Christianity and progress to our forefathers. Behind the language of civilisation was the violent reality of conquest, slavery, exploitation and the systematic extraction of Africa's human and natural resources. The consequences of that colonial relationship continue to shape our continent today, even as millions of Africans remain trapped in poverty and deprivation.

We must therefore be careful whenever powerful foreign governments present military intervention, religious protection or humanitarian concern as the principal motivation for their involvement in Africa.

In 2025, President Donald Trump placed Nigeria on the United States' list of Countries of Particular Concern over religious-freedom concerns and repeatedly spoke about the persecution of Christians. On December 25, 2025, the United States carried out airstrikes against ISIS-linked targets in Sokoto State, in coordination with the Nigerian government. The United States claimed that multiple ISIS militants were killed in the operation. However, rather than producing a significant improvement in the country's security situation, the security crisis has continued, with violence and insecurity remaining widespread and, in some areas, worsening.

My political interpretation is that Africans must not look at such developments in isolation. We must examine them against the broader history of imperialism, geopolitical interests and the competition for Africa's strategic resources.

And now, in September 2026, Nigeria and the United States have signed a framework aimed at attracting American investment into Nigeria's mineral sector, which the Nigerian government estimates at about $700 billion. The framework covers geological data and exploration, mineral development and processing, infrastructure and technical capacity.

For me, this raises a fundamental question: What lessons have we learnt from history?

History teaches us that foreign powers rarely engage with Africa without pursuing their own strategic and economic interests.

Unfortunately, many Africans, including religious extremists and sections of the political class, celebrated the rhetoric of foreign intervention without sufficiently interrogating the historical pattern of imperialism and resource extraction. This is why I believe we need less obsession with social-media noise and more serious political education.

AFRICANS MUST READ AFRICAN HISTORY

We must study colonialism. We must study slavery. We must study the scramble for Africa. We must study neocolonialism. We must study how Africa's natural resources have historically been exploited and we must understand how religion, military power, diplomacy and economic interests have sometimes interacted in the pursuit of geopolitical objectives.

History continues to repeat itself when societies refuse to learn from it, and too often, the victims remain the same.

My political interpretation of these neocolonial transactions is that they may represent a strategic concession by the Tinubu regime to US imperialism, potentially aimed at securing the silence or acquiescence of a global power ahead of the forthcoming election. It raises the concern that such an arrangement could be intended to create diplomatic cover for the regime should it attempt to manipulate the election or unleash brutal repression against citizens who may resist electoral malpractice or protest worsening economic hardship.

This concern cannot be divorced from the government's response to the #EndBadGovernanceInNigeria protests, when security forces were accused of using excessive and deadly force against protesters, while others who protested against hunger and economic hardship were arrested and prosecuted on serious charges, including treason. Critics have also argued that international powers largely failed to exert meaningful pressure on the Tinubu administration over these developments, at a time when the government was implementing far-reaching neoliberal economic policies.

From my perspective, this raises a broader question about the relationship between imperial interests and democratic accountability: when a government adopts policies that deepen economic dependence and open the country's resources and markets to powerful foreign interests, do those same foreign powers have an incentive to overlook violations of democratic and human rights when their strategic and economic interests are being protected?

This is precisely why Africans must interrogate neocolonial relationships beyond the language of investment, partnership and development. True sovereignty requires not merely political independence, but the economic freedom to determine how our resources are developed, how our economy is structured and whose interests ultimately determine the direction of our society.

That is why the struggle for democracy and sovereignty cannot depend on the goodwill of imperial powers. We must completely break from imperial dependency.

Africa needs a generation equipped with political education, not merely social-media opinions; a generation capable of understanding the relationship between power, economics, history, religion and imperialism.

We must raise young Africans who understand that the struggle for genuine sovereignty is not simply about changing political leaders. It is about transforming the structures that keep Africa dependent on external powers for security, technology, finance, knowledge and the development of its own natural resources.

Africa must also free itself from religious colonialism, the mindset that makes Africans believe that salvation, civilisation or protection must come from foreign powers. Our liberation cannot be outsourced.

Africa must study its history, understand its present and fight for control of its future. The continent must break free from imperialism, neocolonialism and every form of external dominance, political, economic, cultural and religious.

Francis Nwapa

Socialist Activist and Human Rights Advocate

Media Must Not Choose Nigeria’s Candidates for 2027 Elections — Mẹkunnu Kọya

LAGOS — The Convener of Mẹkunnu Kọya, Comrade Wale Balogun, has called on Nigerian media organisations to ensure equitable and inclusive coverage of all candidates contesting the 2027 presidential, National Assembly, governorship and State House of Assembly elections.

Balogun, in a statement issued on Thursday, warned that disproportionate media attention to a small number of prominent political figures could restrict the democratic choices available to Nigerian voters.

He acknowledged the responsibility of the media to scrutinise established political figures, including their records, policies and controversies, but argued that media organisations should not, through selective coverage, determine which candidates Nigerians get to hear and consider.

According to him, all candidates should be given meaningful opportunities to present their programmes, explain their records and respond to questions on issues affecting the country.

He particularly criticised the practice of organising political debates and inviting only a limited number of candidates without sufficiently transparent and inclusive criteria.

“If the purpose of a debate is to help Nigerians make an informed decision, then the process should be genuinely inclusive,” Balogun said.

He argued that candidates with limited financial resources, political structures or name recognition should not automatically be excluded from national political discourse.

Balogun said the media's democratic responsibility should include exposing voters to political alternatives rather than concentrating attention on candidates who are already prominent within the political establishment.

He urged journalists and media organisations to subject candidates across the political spectrum to rigorous questioning on the economy, insecurity, corruption, unemployment, wages, education, healthcare, constitutional reform, federalism and public debt.

He also called for scrutiny of candidates' records, policy proposals, sources of campaign funding and their capacity to implement their promises.

“This is not a demand for favourable coverage of any candidate. It is a demand for fair and inclusive coverage,” he said.

Balogun maintained that Nigerians should be allowed to assess candidates on the basis of their records, programmes and responses to public scrutiny rather than having the media determine in advance who should be regarded as a serious contender.

He therefore called on media organisations to provide equitable opportunities for candidates to participate in interviews, debates, town-hall meetings and other election-related programmes, subject to reasonable and transparent editorial criteria.

“Let every candidate be heard. Let every record be examined. Let every programme be interrogated. Then let Nigerians decide,” he said.

Balogun said the media had a significant responsibility ahead of the 2027 elections to either expand public access to political choices or inadvertently narrow the democratic space through selective coverage.

He stressed that the choice of Nigeria's elected representatives ultimately belongs to the electorate and not to media organisations.

Comrade Wale Balogun
Convener, Mẹkunnu Kọya
September 24, 2026