Since the Minister of State for Education, Professor Suwaiba Said Ahmad, announced at the last stakeholders meeting of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), that the tenure of its Registrar, Professor Ishaq  Olanrewaju Oloyede, would soon be up (specifically on July 31, 2026), the mood has been mournful in many quarters. The meeting, officially tagged “The 2026 JAMB Admission Policy Meeting” was held on Monday, 11 May, 2026 in Abuja.

This contrasts sharply with the mood in some other quarters after Manchester City, away to Bournemouth, could only manage a one-one draw last Tuesday, thus handing over the Premier League title to Arsenal with a match to play. Arsenal’s long wait for the title – 22 dreary years – thus came to an end in a dramatic fashion. Thank God, Arsenal fans who suffer a suspense each time the team plays, also got a relief – until May 30th when they square up to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the UEFA Champions League final!

I am not a die-hard fan of any foreign or local football club but I love to see the present crop of Arsenal players win matches. When they lost this year’s Carabao or English Football League Cup final to Manchester City, I mourned. Each time the team stumbled, I hated to tune in and watch the match.

These days, I avoid watching live matches in which I am emotionally involved. I am sure you know what I mean. If the team I want to win wins, then I can sit down and enjoy the playback; otherwise, I either don’t watch the match at all or I wait for the pain to wear out before doing so. But for matches where I have no strings attached, I can watch anyhow.

So, congratulations, Arsenal! For no reasons at all – or for the fact that journalists habitually side with the underdogs – I harbour no regrets about Man. City’s strident challenge that raised the adrenalin of many Arsenal fans now being over! Between Arsenal and PSG, some pundits say the latter is the better side, but by now you know where my sympathies lie. Nevertheless, may the better – and luckier – side win!

I hope you don’t mind this digression! As they say, all work and no play…

That Oloyede would one day quit his job at JAMB was as clear as day follows night. So, why the anguish now that his time to bow out is around the corner? His job is tenure barred – five years at the first instance, with the opportunity for a second term of another five years, making a total of 10 years – barring any presidential intervention. Oloyede has, thus, used up his constitutionally-alloted time.

I think former President Muhammadu Buhari started the system of elongating the tenure of those who have already served the limit allowed by extant laws. His successor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has followed in his footsteps.

So, it is possible that the president may ask Oloyede to continue in office – if Oloyede himself so desires – while searching for a suitable replacement who can step into the extra-large shoes Oloyede is leaving behind. It will be a grievous error of judgment if a suitable replacement is not found for Oloyede. Having tasted the pudding that Oloyede is, I do not think conscious stakeholders will want to settle for anything less.

Oloyede and the media

The constituency that will mourn Oloyede’s exit most is the media. Oloyede has been a reliable friend of the media and the media in return has been a worthy ally of the outgoing JAMB Registrar; not necessarily because of what Oloyede gives the media but because of the quality of the relationship that the JAMB Registrar and his media team painstakingly built and nurtured with the media.

To start with, the media trades in news and Oloyede is a newsman’s delight anytime, anyday. When you see Oloyede, you see news, as it were. Oloyede has no airs around him. He is easily accessible. The kind of protocol that bars journalists from coming close to our “big” men and women is missing around Oloyede. And his aides know this. Rather than get accolades from Oloyede for fencing off “nosy” reporters, they are most likely going to attract a rebuke if they do. You wonder why others in Oloyede’s shoes are not like him.

I will tell you why! Oloyede is always on top of his job. He has all the facts and figures any journalist will need on his finger-tips, lai wo’we (without opening any book), as they say! Oloyede harbours no skeletons in his cupboard; if there is a mistake or error, he is ready and forthright not only to admit it, but to also be the first to draw your attention to it, even when you are not aware they exist. He is an open book, rather than engaging in any cover-up. Instead of sweeping things under the carpet, he is always eager to make the needed corrections so that untoward occurrences do not repeat themselves. Oloyede has demonstrated this again and again, to the admiration of even his critics.

Oloyede is a fighter; a reformer. The mafia involved in examination malpractice will not forget him in a hurry. He fought them to a standstill. Admissions racketeers as well. These twosome will surely celebrate his exit from JAMB! The operations of JAMB has witnessed exponential transformation under Oloyede; technology has been utilized not only to make day-to-day operations seamless but to also make a hitherto opaque system open, transparent and accountable.

Oloyede leads by personal examples; he also keeps innovating; never resting on his oars. At every meeting, he is sure to come up with a new system that has been designed to make JAMB examinations more foolproof and the entire system easier to understand and operate.

Oloyede’s unending wits

Oloyede is a man of candour, wits and humour – and that is where I as a person will miss him most. At every meeting, Oloyede will make you laugh. Even when discussing serious matters like the perennial problem of illegal admissions and admissions cut-off marks, he did so in ways and manners that allowed the bitter truth to sink in, in a jovial and humorous manner.

“Where is so-and-so Vice-chancellor”, he would ask when the issue of illegal admissions is being discussed. When the said V-C’s representative stands up to indicate he is standing in for the V-C, Oloyede would say, “I know he will not be here because he knows we will discuss the issue of illegal admissions!”

Or when the vice-chancellors, provosts and rectors are about to take a decision on their respective institution’s cut-off marks for admission, Oloyede would call out some names and say something like: “So, so, and so V-C, you better say the truth now. Don’t say 200 here now and come later to my office and beg for 180 o!”

On one occasion the microphone was being passed round during question-and-answer session. One lady seated in a corner of the expansive hall had been raising up her hand unnoticed; Oloyede then called attention to her: “I can see one beautiful lady raising up her hand in that corner…”

Before the murmurs that greeted the statement had died down, he added, “I am a Mallam but I have eyes…” The hall erupted!

Oloyede will be sorely missed. He has done really well. Whether or not he is asked to continue – or he is willing to do so – he has set a record that can only be beaten, but that was never before set. And this has all ramifications. It only remains for us to wish him well in all his future endeavours.

I once said there was no need for the country to waste billions of Naira on elections now and again, but that we should simply headhunt for some of our best hands and toss the coin for them. Head or tail…!

Oloyede was one of those I recommended. The others were the NDLEA boss, Mohamed Buba Marwa; a recently-retired judge of the Kogi State judiciary, Justice Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye, currently a Law professor at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN); and the Managing Director of BOVAS Group, Mrs. Victoria Adunola Samson, who was recently appointed as the Chancellor of the University of Osun State (UNIOSUN). As we often say in this profession, I stand by my story!

As the country waited with bated breath for the decision of the oracle in this matter, I must add that the acid test is not just who succeeds Oloyede at JAMB but whether his successor(s) will allow his good and great work to endure. Will they build on the fantastic foundations of credibility, integrity, professionalism and efficiency he has laid or will they dismantle them and return the organization to business as usual?

While it is true that leadership matters a lot, Oloyede was not the only one who performed the feat we are talking about at JAMB; those who worked closely with him also played a role. Will they be allowed to continue or will “reorganization” uproot and send them to Siberia, as it were?

The robust media relations that Oloyede cultivated and nurtured were indispensable factors in his success story. Kudos to the amiable Dr. Fabian Benjamin, JAMB’s media advisor, and I doff my hat for my boss and mentor, Comrade (Alhaji) Nojeem Jimoh, the irrepressible media consultant, for the great job they and their team did for Oloyede at JAMB.

We await the next line of action!

NB: This column was put to bed before the Presidency announced Professor Segun Aina as the in-coming JAMB Registrar. We shall welcome the new helmsman at a later date!

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Ekiti 2026: Election or coronation?

Coronation! Along with all elections in 2027! In fact they are all chieftaincy enthronements across all parties! Democracy as globally defined and known is a colossal failure in Nigeria. – Boluwatife Oluwadamilola.

Fayemi only won 10 LGAs in 2018. He lost Ado, Ikere, Emure, Efon, Ikole and Ekiti East LGAs. –Maxwell Adeleye.

Excellent write-up, Sir. However, I wish to point your attention to an error as regards the 2018 election. PDP defeated APC in two local governments – Ikere, my LG, and Efon LG. Then, the issue of imposition in 2018 is not correct. You were around, Sir. There was a keenly contested primary between (myself) Prof. Kolapo Olusola-Eleka and Senator (Dayo) Adeyeye. You will be right to say that Fayose, the then incumbent governor, heavily leaned in support of Prof. Kolapo Olubunmi Olusola-Eleka. In that same primary election, Senator Biodun Olujimi also contested but chose to step down in support of Senator Adeyeye just before voting commenced. – Kolapo Olusola Olubunmi Eleka.

NB: Professor Eleka is correct; the error is regretted. There was, indeed, a keenly contested primary election which Eleka won, but not before the combination of Adeyeye/Olujimi had given him and Fayose jitters and a fright. I was away in Lagos (from Ekiti) on the weekend that the election took place but I returned to Ekiti to get gists of how it all went. The “imposition” I referred to pertains to how Eleka became an aspirant. Next week, God willing, I will publish how Eleka became the deputy governor to Fayose and, thereafter, the PDP candidate in the 2018 Ekiti governorship election – all from the horse’s mouth, as they say!  

*Bolawole (turnpot@gmail.com 0807 552 5533), former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, was also the Managing Director/ Editor-in-chief of the Westerner newsmagazine. He writes the “ON THE LORD’S DAY” column in the Sunday Tribune and “TREASURES” column in the New Telegraph newspapers. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.

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The post Oloyede’s exit from JAMB: End of an era! appeared first on Frontpageng.

His declaration to contest for the topmost office in the forthcoming general election, however, is anything but surprising. Some political watchers had long sensed where he might be headed, given the somewhat convoluted politics that have seen him taking several seemingly contradictory and illegal steps. What was unknown and unclear was which platform the “outgoing landlord of Agodi Government House” would contest on. His Peoples Democratic Party is, after all, still enmeshed in crisis, wherein his camp holds a short end of the political stick.

But let me state clearly from the outset that I disagree with renowned activist and politician Senator Shehu Sani’s claim that during the late President Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency, many Northerners would not even dare to contest him, believing the region was entitled to its eight years in office. Sound and convincing as Senator Sani’s argument seems to be, apparently alluding to an attitude akin to that of a misguided child standing in and urinating inside a family pot he will drink from, I believe Governor Makinde is perfectly entitled to his decision and declaration to contest.

President Bola Tinubu welcomes Governor Makinde’s decision. He will be waiting to square up against him on January 15, 2027, if the latter can muster the conviction and work his way down to the final political wire. His entry has now increased the number of contestants to six or so, namely President Tinubu, former vice president Atiku Abubakar, former Anambra State governor Peter Obi, former Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi, Alhaji Mohammed Hayatudeen, Makinde and maybe former President Goodluck Jonathan.

I think Governor Makinde knows too well that he is on a wild goose chase. He is only indulging himself. What he is engaging in is a mere political gamble.

Governor Makinde says he will run on the PDP-APM alliance platform – whatever that means. He is one of the leaders of the Turaki-led faction of the PDP, which is still hanging in the balance, as the court has yet to fully settle the leadership supremacy battle. Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed is also a member of the Allied People’s Movement.

The Oyo State governor has been rather sanctimonious since he joined the race.  At a rally he dubbed “Unity Mega Rally,” he called for national unity against what he christened “one-party rule,” saying claims that the opposition cannot unite are a miscalculation, apparently suggesting he could unite the opposition.

While speaking at an All Opposition Summit he hosted in Ibadan on April 25, 2026, Makinde waxed reckless, desperate and dangerous, in a puerile attempt to hide behind a finger. He threatened fire and brimstone and openly called for violence, warning President Tinubu and the governing APC to remember that the “wild, wild West” of the First Republic started in Ibadan.

Many analysts and commentators, including the deep and incisive Segun Ayobolu writing in his column “Illuminations” condemned Makinde for his misguided comparison, saying there is no basis to compare the present political situation in the country, where political parties and opposition politicians are freely assembling and canvassing their views and positions, to the wave of violence that engulfed the Western Region in 1964-65, which directly led to the collapse of the First Republic. That episode, caused by a toxic mix of intra-party betrayal in the Action Group and rigged elections, particularly the 1964 Federal Election and 1965 Western Regional Elections, was characterised by widespread electoral fraud, ballot box snatching, voter intimidation and violence perpetrated by members of the late Chief Ladoke Akintola’s NNDP-NPC Alliance. This angered the people and made them feel their votes didn’t count.

The question of a disputed election in 2027 is far-fetched, as there is nothing to suggest that, except in the warped imagination of people like Governor Makinde.

Makinde’s political inanities aside, many in the state concede that the Oyo State governor has done well in terms of providing infrastructure for the state. However, balancing politics with policy remains important. Mere grandstanding and posturing like a strongman can never be deemed a virtue.

At their summit in Ibadan, the opposition politicians resolved to work towards fielding a single presidential candidate in 2027. How Makinde’s entry into the race will help that course is yet unclear.

Governor Makinde is battling to foist his successor on the state in 2027 and, in the same breath, wants to be president.

What are his chances? How far he can go in the race is a matter of conjecture, as he lacks a strong political base outside of Ibadan. He claims to be running on the PDP-APM alliance, yet his only support across the Niger, in the North, is perhaps his connection with Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed.

I haven’t yet seen any politician burn political bridges as whimsically and recklessly as Makinde does. This is particularly exemplified in how he has ditched many allies who helped him into office, including Senator Hosea Agboola alias Alleluya, Chief Bisi Ilaka and Hon. Babs Oduyoye, his former Political Adviser.  Another case in point is how his relationship with former Rivers State governor Nyesom Wike has gone sour, to the extent that the two are today at daggers drawn. In the run-up to the 2023 elections. Wike left   Port Harcourt to come and root for Makinde’s re-election in Ibadan.

As the timeless maxim instructs,  to thyself be true. I think Governor Makinde knows too well that he is on a wild goose chase. He is only indulging himself. What he is engaging in is a mere political gamble. My worry for him is when all else is done, when all the chips are down, when the battle is lost and won, his reputation would have been badly damaged, his legacy, if any, rubbished, his influence and relevance gone, and his place in history and reckoning within the Yoruba race sullied.

*Rahman is Senior Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Media and Special Duties

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The post Governor Makinde and his 2027 gamble, By Tunde Rahman appeared first on Frontpageng.

NUT national president, Mr. Titus Amba, voiced the position on Thursday in Abuja during a press conference on education policy.

The Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, recently announced that NCE applicants would no longer sit the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination.

Instead, candidates with at least four O-Level credits will be screened directly, though registration with JAMB remains compulsory.

Amba argued that colleges of education should attract only the most capable students to ensure quality teacher training and improved learning outcomes.

“Education, especially at primary and secondary levels, is the bedrock of every profession.

“If we fail at that foundation, we fail at every other level of education in the country,” he said.

He added that removing key testing points could undermine efforts to raise academic standards in teacher training institutions.

According to him, rather than granting waivers, government should make teaching more attractive through improved incentives and welfare packages.

“We have been advocating for better working conditions and welfare for Nigerian teachers, yet little progress has been made,” he said.

Amba stressed that countries like Sweden and Finland prioritised teacher welfare and pay, which had strengthened their education systems.

“They have invested heavily in education, particularly in teachers’ welfare and working conditions,” he explained.

According to him, Nigeria has the capacity to achieve similar results if it prioritises basic education and teacher development.

Amba also recalled unfulfilled 2020 promises by former President Muhammadu Buhari, including improved incentives and a special salary structure for teachers.

“Go to the field and visit colleges of education, such as the one in Zuba, to see what has been implemented,” he said.

He criticised policy inconsistency across administrations, noting that most promised reforms had not been fully realised.

The NUT president insisted that improving teachers’ welfare, not admission waivers, remained key to attracting quality candidates into the profession.

Source: NAN

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The post NUT opposes UTME waiver for NCE admission appeared first on Frontpageng.

For someone running for the presidency a record seventh time and who has switched political parties at least four times since 1999, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s unbridled rebuke of fellow contestants in a recent interview with Arise Television raises a crucial question: has he indeed learned anything from the political mistakes that cost him that top office in 2023?

Atiku failed to glean any political wisdom from the costly mistake of shutting out Peter Obi from his presidential calculations and of allowing the Nyesom Wike-led  breakaway governors to exit PDP – factors that largely contributed to his defeat in the 2023 presidential election.

During his interview with Arise TV, Atiku cast aspersions on Peter Obi’s credentials, labeling him an ethnic aspirant with a narrow political base. He also questioned Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s pan-Nigerian political reach, saying Kwankwaso has only Kano State, and that, too, has been balkanised under his nose.

It is confounding that an aspirant to the presidency of Nigeria seeking the support of other aspirants in the race, and one trying to form a coalition around his own candidacy, would make such denigrating comments about them and give the impression they count for nothing.

Is Atiku actually privy to something we don’t know? Does he have any other way of winning the presidency aside from building a broad coalition to achieve what may well be his last shot at the race? Did the former vice president deliberately condemn them to provoke the ouster of Obi and Kwankwaso from the African Democratic Congress presidential race?

Some sources suggest that the scenario seemed to be Atiku’s plan to foist a three-way horse race on the nation, in which he hopes to profit as a Northern candidate.

If that was his plan, it has backfired. While Obi and Kwankwaso’s exit from the ADC has opened a floodgate of defection from the party, rendering it prostrate, their entry into the Nigeria Democratic Congress, which came into the limelight after former Bayelsa State governor, Senator Seriake Dickson, joined the party, has turned NDC into a beautiful bride of sorts, and an emerging third force in the run-up to 2027.

Nonetheless, the defection of Obi and Kwankwaso to NDC is another manifestation of the duo’s unbridled and vaulting presidential ambitions. Obi is seeking a land where the grass is greener, albeit one where he wouldn’t have to nurture before arriving at a beautiful and formidable fortress. This latest move would be the fifth time Obi has defected from one party to another – from PDP to APGA and back to PDP. When it was apparent he could not secure PDP presidential ticket in 2023 he moved to Labour. Unable to manage the crisis in Labour Party after his post-2023 presidential run, he sought refuge in ADC, and now NDC.

Now, my sense, based on the preceding background, is this: nothing worthwhile can come from former Vice President Atiku and former Anambra governor Obi.

Lacking any known political philosophy except a desperate quest for a convenient political platform – a special purpose vehicle, if you like – to contest, there seems to be no difference between Atiku and Obi. Being birds of a feather, shouldn’t the duo have flocked together to present a formidable team for 2027?

Kwankwaso, the former Kano governor, seems to have virtually settled for the position of running mate to Obi, given how he has been on the ex-Anambra governor’s heels like a bee to honey. But Kwankwaso’s main interest is the 2031 presidential race. It was the same 2031 presidential plan that stalled his moves and discussions with President Bola Tinubu, as well as his apparent bid to join the governing All Progressives Congress. This, perhaps, also led to the break-up of his New Nigeria Peoples’ Party and the Kwankwasiyya Movement, and the defection of his only governor, Kano State Governor Abba Yusuf, to the APC. President Tinubu had allegedly refused to commit to Kwankwaso’s 2031 succession plan, telling him there must be a 2027 before 2031.

Kwankwaso is now a pitiable sight, hopping from party to party with Obi after unceremoniously abandoning the NNPP, where he was a disputed national leader.

Like Obi and Kwankwaso, Atiku had been moving from one party to another in his futile bid for the presidency. He left the PDP following his political disagreement with former President Olusegun Obasanjo and joined the then Action Congress, on which platform he contested for the presidency in 2007. He later shamelessly returned to the same PDP to contest against President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. Unable to secure presidential ticket in the build-up to the 2015 election, he joined APC with five other breakaway Peoples Democratic Party governors, which included Rotimi Amaechi, who was then Rivers State Governor and other PDP chieftains like Senator Bukola Saraki.  He, however, unsuccessfully contested the party’s presidential primary with late President Buhari and others. He returned to PDP to contest against the same Buhari in 2019 and President Tinubu in 2023. Now he is in ADC, which he allegedly hijacked for its presidential ambition from its founder.

Now, my sense, based on the preceding background, is this: nothing worthwhile can come from former Vice President Atiku and former Anambra governor Obi. Atiku is a shifting and imprudent political leader whose many indiscretions in the name of privatising the nation’s patrimony are well known. Obi’s only political record as Anambra governor is setting up a beer company and saving money like a miser while his people languished in poverty.

His former ally in ADC, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, in a recent Arise TV interview, asserts Obi is never interested in any policy or programme, saying “Peter Obi doesn’t know ADC’s position on fuel subsidy because he has never been interested.”

What Obi and Kwankwaso’s defection signposts is the deepening disunity and rivalry within the ranks of the opposition politicians. With a divided rank, the opposition cannot mount any serious challenge against the governing party. We don’t need a soothsayer to predict their imminent defeat in 2027. Consistency of the gladiators in building their parties, as well as unity within the ranks of the opposition, is crucial in electoral battles. President Tinubu has remained a progressive throughout several electoral cycles while in opposition.

Our present opposition politicians should blame themselves. They have already prepared the grounds for their 2027 election failure in 2026. As I had argued previously on this page, and this bears restating: “For democracy, the danger isn’t just a strong ruling party, or an alleged one-party rule, but opposition parties that can’t model the constitutional order they promise to deliver and engender unity within their ranks.”

From Zuba to Dutse: A litany of legacy projects

Political diatribes sometimes obscure the capacity to appreciate developments in the governance space.

Last week was a beehive of activities for members of the Presidential Communications Team. From Zuba Junction in the Federal Capital Territory to Kaduna, Kano, Dutse, and Birnin-Kebbi, the team toured Federal Government projects in the North-west geopolitical zone.

Under the auspices of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors, the tour revealed the extensive transformative projects being executed by the President Tinubu administration in road and railway infrastructure, as well as other intervention projects.

The first port of call during the tour was the Zuba Junction end of the remodelled Abuja-Kaduna-Kano highway, featuring a 20-centimetre-thick concrete pavement and solar-powered streetlights. That road is a beautiful sight to behold. The 82-kilometre-long Section 1 of the road, stretching from Zuba to Jere, being handled by Infiouest International Construction Company, is virtually completed, save for the remaining 300 metres.  Work on Section 2 has already commenced. The completion deadline is November this year.

In Kaduna, we inspected the Kaduna Western Bye-pass that has been stalled for over 22 years across several administrations. Work on the road is progressing steadily. However, the most iconic project under construction is the much-talked-about Kaduna-Kano-Jigawa-Katsina-Maradi (Niger Republic) railway line that will connect several states in the North and also the Niger Republic, enabling inter-state transportation and boosting agriculture and trade.

We saw the massive overpass bridge for that railway line in Kaduna and assessed the extent of work done. The deadline for completion is December 2026.

From Kaduna, we moved to Kano, where we inspected the Kano Section of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano highway. The Kano end is already at 95% completion. We also toured the various ongoing projects at the Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital in Kano, including the Cardiovascular Centre, Pediatric Centre and Students’ Hostel, which are part of the Constituency projects of the Deputy Senate President, Senator Jubrin Barau.

The team saw the N27 billion Irrigation project in Garko, the Federal Government Ecological Fund project, the Solar project of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, and the 10-hectare Agricultural Incubation Centre constructed by the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure at Bayero University, Kano, aimed at developing and scaling modern agricultural solutions.

There is also another ecological fund project worth N47 billion in the Wujuwuju-Jakara area, which was initially a Kano State Government project. The Tinubu administration has now taken it over. Also in Kano, within the Government Reservation Area along Murtala Muhammed Way, we visited the headquarters of the North West Development Commission, one of the interventionist agencies established by the Tinubu administration to develop the various geopolitical zones.

In Jigawa, the team inspected the Jigawa corridor of the Kaduna-Kano-Jigawa-Katsina-Maradi Railway project. We also saw some state projects, including the Bola Tinubu Skills Acquisition Centre and the Renewed Hope Fabrication Centre. In this Northwestern state, we saw some agricultural mechanisation projects, including over 300 tractors already on the ground awaiting inauguration.

In Kebbi, the Birnin-Kebbi Section of the 1,068-kilometre-long Sokoto-Badagry Super Highway, covering Phases 2A and 2B and stretching from Kilometre 120 to Kilometre 385, is progressing as scheduled. Site clearance, filling works, stone base, and sub-surface works are all progressing steadily, while concrete pavement construction has covered 19 kilometres, including street light installation. The level of completion is put at 40 per cent for Section 2A and 16 per cent for Section 2B.

Also in Birnin-Kebbi, we saw the Argungu-Naseini-Buyi Federal Road, which has been completed, the Argungu Township Road, and the Skills Acquisition Centre, among others, constructed by the state government.

The Federal Government’s Infrastructure Intervention projects demonstrate President Tinubu’s commitment to the development and modernisation of the Northern region. They stand as a bulwark against falsehood, proving that the alleged marginalisation of the region is untrue. Also, the delivery of landmark projects by some state governments is part of the gains of the increased allocation to states from the Federation Accounts as a result of the economic and tax reforms of President Tinubu. President Tinubu truly deserves commendation for bringing this about.

*Rahman is Senior Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Media and Special Duties

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The post Atiku, Obi birds of a feather and their vaulting ambitions appeared first on Frontpageng.

EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, disclosed this in a wanted notice posted on the agency website on Saturday.

Farouq served as a minister under former President Muhammadu Buhari from 2019 to 2023.

According to Oyewale, Farouq is declared wanted over alleged criminal conspiracy, abuse of office, and diversion of public funds.

“Farouk, 52, is an indigene of Zamfara State and her last known address is listed as EN 008, Okpo River, off Agulu Street, Maitama, Abuja,” he said.

The spokesperson urged members of the public with information on her whereabouts to contact the commission.

“The public is hereby notified that Sadiya Umar Farouq, whose photograph appears above, is wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in an alleged case of criminal conspiracy, abuse of office, and diversion of public funds,” the notice reads.

Oyewale directed anyone with useful information to contact its offices in Ibadan, Uyo, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Benin, Makurdi, Kaduna, Ilorin, Enugu, Kano, Lagos, Gombe, Port Harcourt, or Abuja.

“The public can also reach the EFCC on 08093322644, via email at info@efcc.gov.ng, or report to the nearest police station.”

Source: NAN

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Pause.

Let nobody rush this matter.

Today is a birthday…

But the celebrant is not here.

Or is he?

Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN.

Senior Advocate of the Masses.

The man who did not practise law…

He fought with it.

Tell me…

Do men like this die?

Or do they simply change location?

Haaaa!

If you were here today…

What would you have said?

What would you have done?

Would you have kept quiet?

You?

Impossible.

Because silence and Gani Fawehinmi…

Were never friends.

Let us remember.

June 12.

That season when truth was expensive.

When democracy was not a theory… but a struggle.

You stood.

Not behind.

Not beside.

But in front.

With men of conviction.

Including one Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Yes.

That same man.

Now look again.

Time has turned the table.

The comrade of yesterday…

Is now the captain of the ship.

President.

By God’s arrangement… or democratic arithmetic.

And you?

You are not here to cross-examine.

Not here to object.

Not here to file processes.

Because if you were here when that “Emilokan” doctrine was preached…

Tell me honestly…

Would you have smiled?

Or would you have headed straight to court?

Ah!

Let us not pretend we have forgotten.

Toronto certificate matters.

Your pen was not shy.

Your voice was not neutral.

You questioned.

You challenged.

You insisted.

So today…

What would you have said?

And then…

Another name enters the file.

Muhammadu Buhari.

Your friend?

Your client?

The same man whose military government in 1984 dealt with politicians like files without appeal.

Yet you defended him.

Why?

Because to you…

Justice was not selective.

Years later…

He returned.

As a democrat.

We hoped.

We believed.

We endured.

Eight years.

Now we stand again…

Between memory and expectation.

Hoping.

Waiting.

Watching.

Haaaa!

Chief Gani Fawehinmi…

We are still here.

I’m still navigating this same Nigeria.

Still arguing.

I’m still hoping for that coast of success.

Tell me…

From where you are now…

Do you see what we see?

Do you understand what we are facing?

Because down here…

Things are not simple.

We remember you as a Muslim who feared God.

A lawyer who feared no man.

A citizen who refused to sit down when the truth was standing.

So we say:

If advocacy continues beyond this world…

Then continue.

If prayers travel across realms…

Then send some.

If influence exists where you are…

Then, use it for us.

Because Nigeria still needs voices.

Not echoes.

Voices.

Haaaa!

Chief Gani Fawehinmi…

Happy posthumous birthday.

You are missed.

Not emotionally alone…

But structurally.

So again…

Has he gone?

Or has his silence become louder than our noise?

Remain blessed, sir.

Even in quietness.

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The judge also ordered the arrest of Bashir Alkali, a former permanent secretary in the same ministry.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, had filed charges against the former minister, who served in the administration of late President Muhammadu Buhari, Alkali and Sani Rabiu.

They were to be arraigned sometimes in 2025 but the arraignment could not hold due to the absence of the defendants in court.

On March 23, Justice Onwuegbuzie ordered substituted service on them and directed the EFCC to paste the charge on their known addresses.

At the resumed sitting, the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs SAN, informed the court of an exparte application by the prosecution seeking warrant of arrest for Farouq and Alkali.

The application, according to Jacobs, was brought pursuant to Section 352 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015.

Jacobs, however, amended the application in view of the fact that Rabiu, was present in court.

Abdul Ibrahim SAN appeared for the former minister.

Ruling, the court noted that Exhibit SF1 attached to the affidavit in support of the application was an affidavit of service of the charge on the defendants as directed by the court at the last sitting.

Having been satisfied that the former minister and the second defendant refused to appear before the court after service, Justice Onwuegbuzie subsequently issued bench warrant for the arrest of the first and second defendant.

He then adjourned the matter until May 18 for arraignment.

Source: NAN

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“I don tire for this country o! In fact, I am really, really fed up! Was it not Emilokan that I sighted at the burial ceremony of Nasir el-Rufai’s mother or was I seeing double?”

“O-ti o! You were seeing triple! Mr. President was there life and direct! He landed there gidigba and full ground berekete, as they say! They even gave him a chair to sit on!”

“I am disappointed! What a shame!”

“I can’t understand your fury, anger, and anguish. What has the president done wrong?”

“Are you asking me? You must be one of those people who don’t understand what is called propriety – what is proper and what is not proper. Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey sang ‘Oun ti o daa o daa’. What is not good is not good!”

“Yes, I remember that song: ‘Oun ti o daa o daa/Ma gba’yawo ore e/Ma gb’oko l’owo ore e/ Oju lo fi n ti ni/Oun ba ni je l’awujo ore.’ The Yoruba also completes that saying with ‘Okun orun o ye adie.’ No sane person ties a rope around a chicken’s neck. But why was it improper for Mr. President to have witnessed the burial of el-Rufai’s mother?”

“Plenty reasons…”

“Number one…”

“Is this not the same man that has sworn to do all in his power to deny Emilokan a second term of office?”

“Yes, he is but Mr. President knows that his second term is beyond the man’s scope and capacity. He knows the short-man devil is only puffing and smarting for his failure to become a Minister…”

“Emilokan is playing with fire! He is using the head of a cobra to tickle his nostrils. As petit as he is, el-Rufai has an over-size dose of unforgiving spirit”

“Whether he forgives or not is his own funeral. An enraged he-goat that scratches the ground before its owner, my people ask what can it do to its owner? If care is not taken, the owner will command that the errant goat be slaughtered for dinner before nightfall!”

“You are under-rating this man…”

“You are the one over-rating him! A man who was temporarily released from detention to breathe fresh air – what if they hadn’t released him? Couldn’t you see how gentle he had become? ”

“I understand he has even been returned to prison…”

“Oh-ohoo!”

“But I am surprised you are not making a thing of the threats and noise this man was making all over the place! Someone who was bold enough to disclose that they bugged the phone lines of the National Security Adviser…”

“And see where it has landed him! Which of his new-found political associates are facing the same ordeal as him now?”

“Reports said he rejected the offer of a presidential jet to fly his dead mother from Egypt. That snub was enough excuse for the president to have boycotted the burial…”

“But that would have been childish! When you spank a child, you also must not deny him the right to cry. Only a wicked elder does both at the same time”

“But we have had presidents who did so in the past. Babangida did. Buhari, also”

“I don’t understand…”

“I heard the story that when Buhari was about to be bypassed for promotion and juicy posting as GOC during the presidency of Shehu Shagari, he cried to some influential persons who took his case to Shagari…”

“And Shagari turned them down?”

“No! Shagari listened and gave Buhari all his dues. Not long after, Shagari was toppled in a coup that produced the same Buhari as military Head of State…”

“They say one good turn deserves another! Why was it the same Buhari that toppled Shagari?”

“Some reports said Buhari was just the beneficiary of that coup; that he actually wasn’t its leader…”

“I see! But he became Head of State all the same…”

“Yes, and Shagari was put under house arrest. An elder brother of Shagari, who was receiving treatment at the State House clinic, was unceremoniously thrown out of his sick bed and hauled to Sokoto. The man reportedly died the next day…”

“And was Buhari aware?”

“Listen now! The men who had taken Buhari’s case to Shagari now approached Buhari to allow them see Shagari to break the sad news of his brother’s death to him and also for them to see how well the ousted president was faring in detention. Buhari reportedly refused!”

“Na lie! No man can be that wicked!”

“Na truth! Emissaries after emissaries approached Buhari with the same requests but he turned all of them down. That was what I heard! But Karma cannot be cheated…”

“En-hen! What happened?”

“Buhari himself was overthrown in August 1985 and was clamped into detention and Babangida took over. Buhari’s mother died in December 1988 and whether Babangida did not release Buhari or it was Buhari who refused the offer…”

“You mean Buhari did not attend his own mother’s burial?”

“Reportedly, he did not!”

“No wonder the unresolved animosity between him and Babangida! They will settle in heaven! Buhari is already there waiting for him!”

“They said Babangida was angry that after himself and his men had put their lives on the line to topple Shagari, Buhari took Tunde Idiagbon as his Number Two man and both of them began to sideline Babangida and his boys…”

“I see! The same spirit of ingratitude and vindictiveness…”

“Not only that, the story is also told that Buhari and Idiagbon began to investigate certain things against the fingers that fed them and those ones played them a joker…”

“Joker? What joker?”

“They got an influential Arab royalty to extend a special invitation to Idiagbon to visit Mecca and once Idiagbon left the shores of Nigeria, the coast was clear for Babangida to just pick Buhari like a lame duck”

“Oh my God! Was that the Mecca Idiagbon took his 14-year-old son, which violated their own laws?”

“Yes! History is a useful lesson. Can I also tell you something?”

“Please, do!”

“Buhari as civilian president also denied Sambo Dasuki, President Goodluck Jonathan’s ‘arms bazaar’ National Security Officer, the opportunity to bury his father, the Sultan of Sokoto, Ibrahim Dasuki…”

“Yes, yes, yes! Sambo was in detention over the arms bazaar matter when his father died. Northerners are not used to treating one another that way…”

“The issues involved must have caused it. The story is told that Sambo led the coup plotters that arrested Buhari…”

“I see! Buhari, too, must have had a knack for hard-heartedness. See the way he repaid Shagari’s favours, for instance.”

“He might have thought he had already done Shagari enough favours by putting him under house arrest while the vice-president, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, was hauled into detention.”

“That’s favouritism, ethnicity, religious bigotry, name it…”

“Should Nigerians have elected such a man as president in 2015? I understand he came out of detention and sent his wife packing because she went to beg Babangida for his release. Can you also believe that when Shagari died in December 2018, Buhari as civilian president did not accord him full state burial. He merely declared a three-day flying of the national flag at half-mast and sent emissaries to the burial. He did not personally attend”

“Waooh! But Emilokan accorded the same Buhari full state burial and personally attended. We should never have touched such a man like Buhari with a ten-foot pole. Emilokan, then, had enough precedents to have denied el-Rufai the temporary reprieve of attending his mother’s burial…”

“But are you aware that such things are not new? When Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s first son, Olusegun Awolowo Snr., died in 1963 in a car accident on his way from Ibadan to Lagos to defend his father who was standing trial on charges of treason, Awo applied to be allowed to leave custody to attend the burial but the Federal Government of President Nnamdi Azikiwe and Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa refused to grant the request.”

“I am lost for words!”

“By the way, how are we sure Mr. President was the one who granted el-Rufai his temporary reprieve?”

“Who could have done that? The matter was too sensitive to have been handled outside the purview of the presidency”

“Don’t be too sure! Some people can decide to play the cards of ethnicity and religion and box the president into a corner”

“I don’t understand!”

“El-Rufai was in custody at the instance of the ICPC, which is headed by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Are you telling me the man does not know the law?”

“We are still saying the same thing! They must have twisted his hands to do what he did. And who could have done that if not the presidency?”

“You are making a big mistake. The presidency is not the only centre of power and authority in this country. For those who value their ethnic base more than Nigeria, they will ignore presidential directives and take orders elsewhere. The same goes for those who will do anything for their religious sentiments…”

“Are you by any means suggesting… ?”

Yes, I suggest! Why is it that it was the DSS that later surfaced to re-arrest the man? Even laymen know that once a person is detained on the orders of a court, such an order can only be varied by the same court or by a superior court”

“But they were pressed for time…”

“Then they could as well have met the judge in chambers! Maybe they did that. If they did, it will be okay, but if not, what they did is travesty of justice. Even though I am not opposed to el-Rufai’s temporary release on compassionate grounds, the route they took leaves much to be desired.”

“If Emilokan was not party to the decision, he would not have attended…”

“He would still have attended! “Cunny man die, cunny man bury am!” Besides, all these guys are not enemies; they are political associates, personal friends, and business partners. Their quarrels are usually ephemeral. I will not be surprised if this same el-Rufai emerges as a Minister in Tinubu’s second term…”

“God forbid!”

“Then you are a novice to our special brand of politics! The politicians appear to be fighting now because they are still struggling for the trophy. Once someone among them seizes the trophy, the next thing is settlement…”

“The defections into the ruling party confirms that…”

“Ah-aah! In all of these, what worries me most is that the day all our who’s who trooped to condole with Rufai, whose mother died at the old age of 96, was the same day 27 souls were wasted in a location in Jos, Plateau state and the state governor went there hiding in an armoured tank while addressing the people!”

“Tufiakwa! This is a country of anything goes! In some other places, no one will listen to him…”

“Is that all? He will be stoned and chased away!”

“Imagine if all those who milled around el-Rufai had gathered to put heads together to tackle the insecurity problems ravaging the country!”

“It is not their problem; so why should they? I read that in times past, whenever disaster befell a people, the ruler would tear his clothes, sit in ashes and refuse to eat or drink…”

“You make me laugh! Here, once they dust up and issue rehashed press statements, offer bland condolences and make empty promises, they move on – until another disaster strikes and they repeat the same rituals again”

“Again and again! I have lost count…”

“On Sunday – Palm Sunday for that matter – scores of Nigerians were gunned down in cold blood. I expected everyone who had earlier in the day trooped to help el-Rufai bury his mother to also troop to the Presidential Villa to put heads together with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to help him find a solution to the country’s hydra-headed insecurity challenges…”

“And you think Emilokan would have welcomed them?”

“Why not? I even expect they would meet him in sackcloth covered with ashes as in the days of old…”

“You live on the Moon! I don’t think we have here rulers who can do what you are proposing…”

“It means, then, that solutions are not in sight. If the leaders will not move, and the people themselves are not ready to move them…”

“Did you hear the locals in Jos accuse the military of complicity in the Jos mayhem?”

“I did! What a hopelessly hopeless situation!”

“Not really! Only that the hour is yet to come!

I wish my esteemed readers full compliments of this season!

*Bolawole (turnpot@gmail.com 0807 552 5533), former Editor of PUNCH newspapers, Chairman of its Editorial Board and Deputy Editor-in-chief, was also the Managing Director/ Editor-in-chief of the Westerner newsmagazine. He writes the “ON THE LORD’S DAY” column in the Sunday Tribune and “TREASURES” column in the New Telegraph newspapers. He is also a public affairs analyst on radio and television.

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The post Nasir el-Rufai mother’s burial: Matters arising appeared first on Frontpageng.

In political parlance, an echo chamber emerges when party members spend more time talking to themselves than in engaging with the people. They focus on showing loyalty to their leader instead of convincing skeptical voters. In that regard, the South-East, at least for the All Progressives Congress and the all-pervasive campaign for a second term for President Bola Tinubu, is very much like one big echo chamber.

President Bola Tinubu’s second-term ambition has become the defining issue within the APC and across Nigeria’s broader political landscape. It has swept nearly all state governors into the party and crippled the major opposition parties. Yet, in the South-East, the drive has not truly taken off, not in the sense that reflects genuine public buy-in.

The people’s buy-in is paramount in every political campaign, especially in a region where the APC is still seen as existing more in symbolism than in reality. Members and their leaders appear more interested in hearing their own voices than in persuading those who remain unconvinced that the President deserves another term. Even the chants of “On Your Mandate We Shall Stand” at gatherings in Government Houses have become a hollow ritual when set against the mood of the general population in the South-East.

The recent history of the region which was a stronghold of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, for over 20 years until Peter Obi and the Labour Party disrupted that dominance in 2023, should be instructive. For the APC, the zone was long considered a political no-go area up until the last round of general elections. This is in spite of the fact that the party had started making inroads into the region since Hope Uzodimma became governor of Imo State in January 2020, following a Supreme Court judgment against Emeka Ihedioha of the PDP. He was quickly followed by Dave Umahi who as Ebonyi State governor, defected from the PDP to the APC ten months later in November, 2020.

It is a disruption that Obi is threatening again with his African Democratic Congress next year. Quietly and increasingly, the ADC is making progress across the country, but in the South-East, it is organising strongly by building a bottom up support base.

But from a no-go area a few years back, the fortunes of the APC have improved since after the 2023 elections. Peter Mbah who won the Enugu governorship on the platform of the PDP after a nail-biting contest against Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party, has since defected to the APC. The party now boasts of influence with their governors in three of the five South-East states. The other two governors in Anambra and Abia—Chukwuma Soludo and Alex Otti—have shown open support for Tinubu’s second term.

For the party and for Tinubu, it has been an opportunity to consolidate. They have done little in that regard. They would rather celebrate in the belief that the high-profile decampments have translated to a seismic political shift.

On paper it is, but in reality the political sentiment of the ordinary people in the South-East has not shifted in tandem with the movements of the elite. In fact, the general belief is that those elite decampments are driven by personal interests, not by any real change in conviction.

If you talk to ordinary people across the region, you’ll find a mix of indifference and skepticism toward the APC’s growing presence. More especially, the campaign to return President Tinubu for a second term. And most of the politicians involved haven’t done much to explain their decisions, anyway. The fact is that their rhetoric, once they jump into the APC, has never been about the party or its policies, but about Tinubu.

How does everything about a political party shift from the people and policies that affect them, to the ambition of one man?

In the South-East zone, the Tinubu reelection campaign train – driven by the governors, Senators and APC elite – is surely on the move. But the coaches that should carry the people are largely empty

As the APC candidate in 2023, Bola Tinubu was well aware that the South-East is a region with a political mind of its own. He recognised his limited acceptability there, which explains his reluctance to campaign in the zone physically. Nearly three years in office and with the inroad he appears to have made, why is he still struggling to gain wider acceptance in the South-East?

The answer is in the justified anger in the area that his administration’s policies have had a disproportionately negative impact on the region. While some infrastructure projects are ongoing, they are seen as insufficient compared to developments in other parts of the country. The absence of clarity around key national projects such as the standard gauge rail line that doesn’t include the South-East, remains a sore point. Equally contentious is the glaring reality that federal appointments are skewed, not just in favour of a particular region, but noticeably against the South-East.

Against this backdrop, many in the region feel justified in questioning whether a continuation of the current administration would serve their interests.

Yet, instead of addressing these concerns with sincerity and respect, what the public often encounters are choreographed displays of questionable loyalty and promises of a coming Eldorado. And the Eldorado that has since manifested is the type on display by the City Boys Movement, headed by Obi Cubana, in Owerri recently. Bags of rice, grinding machines and sundry kitchen utensils. The Owerri display came at the same period the President appointed Taiwo Oyedele as the 11th Minister from the South-West – more than double that of the South-East – and just before he travelled to London to negotiate a multimillion dollar loan to renew and expand the ports in Lagos.

How should a self-respecting geopolitical zone accept to be so shabbily treated?

As 2027 draws close, the South-East is left between the rock and a hard place.

The once-dominant PDP is now a shadow of its former self in the region—its structures weakened and many of its leaders absorbed into the APC. The Labour Party, which surged in 2023, has also struggled to maintain cohesion beyond Abia State where it produced the governor. The result is a fragmented political landscape in which voters are neither fully aligned with the old order nor persuaded by the new.

As one APC leader in Enugu reportedly boasted, all they are interested in is to give President Bola Tinubu “his 25 per cent” of votes cast. Perhaps that target is achievable if we remember that Muhammadu Buhari, with all the cold relationship with the region, was still able to achieve it. The question is: is that truly the extent of the President’s ambition in the South-East?

If so, it is a troubling proposition. It suggests not just a low bar for political engagement, but a deeper indifference to, and deep contempt for the region itself. A party that needs only “his 25 per cent” has little incentive to genuinely compete for the trust of the people.

Which is why the party members are more engaged in the ongoing jostling for recognition, scrambling for advantage, positioning themselves as Tinubu’s foot soldiers in the impending campaign and sharing the spoils of a battle not yet fought. All these while the people and their expectations are relegated to the margins.

From the look of things, the chances of Peter Obi securing the presidential ticket of the African Democratic Congress remain uncertain. Regardless, one thing is clear about the party’s prospects in the South-East: if its leaders continue to build a truly bottom-up structure—one that listens and engages—they will find the region a low-hanging fruit. Obi’s conversation with the people remains robust, but to what end?

And that brings us to where we started. In the South-East, the Tinubu re-election campaign train—driven by governors, senators and the APC elite—is clearly in motion. The problem, however, is that the long chain of coaches meant to carry the people remains largely empty.

Does Peter Obi appeal more to the people? It would appear so, but the people will remember that the last time he showed up in 2023, they disrupted the political process by voting for his Labour Party candidates. They handed him a flock he could not hold together. So, why would they build again on quicksand?

That’s the dilemma facing the South-East.

*Ozoene, Editor-In-Chief of People&Politics, is Vice President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors

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Even I was more shocked at my threat. How exactly was I going to make him stop peeing? Really, Funke. I quickly wound up the window. My driver burst into laughter. But I was angry. Would he do that in America or Dubai? We just think Nigeria is about nonsense, all and every type of nonsense.

But let us start at the beginning.

Once upon a Lagos morning when the sun still rose gently and not like a landlord knocking for rent there was a decree: thou shalt clean thy surroundings… or else.

The story begins in the no nonsense days of Muhammadu Buhari and his equally stern deputy, Tunde Idiagbon. Nigeria in 1984 was not smiling. Indiscipline was everywhere on the roads, in offices, and very visibly, in the gutters that had long given up on flowing.

So the government did what strict African parents do when children misbehave: they introduced a national “reset button” called the War Against Indiscipline. WAI for short. And one of WAI’s most famous children was Saturday Environmental Sanitation.

Now, this was not your gentle “please sweep your compound” suggestion. Oh no. This was law, backed by soldiers, whistles, and the kind of stare that could make a grown man remember his childhood sins.

On the last Saturday of every month, between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., Nigeria would pause. Markets went quiet. Roads emptied. Even the ever busy Lagos danfo drivers respected themselves at least for those three hours. Movement was restricted. If you were found outside without a broom, cutlass, or at least the look of someone going to fetch water, you were in trouble.

And trouble had a uniform for years.

Soldiers and sanitation officers mounted roadblocks like exam invigilators. “Where are you going?” they would bark.

“To buy bread,” one unfortunate fellow might reply.

“At 8 a.m.? On sanitation day? Bread that cannot wait till 10?” Next thing, he was doing frog jumps beside a gutter, contemplating his life choices.

But here’s the beautiful chaos of it all: people actually cleaned.

Families came out in their oldest clothes, armed with brooms that had seen better days. Children were drafted like reluctant soldiers. Mothers supervised like generals. Fathers, who usually had “urgent meetings”, suddenly became experts in clearing drains.

Gutters were desilted. Bushes were cut. Refuse was gathered into obedient heaps, waiting for trucks that sometimes came… and sometimes had their own plans.

There was also community spirit real, raw, unfiltered.

Neighbours who had not spoken in months would suddenly bond over a stubborn pile of dirt. “Madam, push it small!”

“Oga, carry that side!” Before you knew it, sanitation had become a mini festival of forced unity.

Of course, Nigerians being Nigerians, creativity found its way in. Some people sprinkled water in front of their houses and disappeared indoors. Others swept the same spot for two hours, perfecting the art of “appearing busy.” And a few brave souls tried to sneak out only to be escorted back by uniformed reality or slammed with a fine or infuriating delays.

Over time, as democracy returned and soldiers retreated to the barracks, the fear factor reduced. The whistles became softer, enforcement grew weaker. And like many good Nigerian habits, Saturday sanitation began to fade, surviving today in fragments across states.

But for those who remember, it was a time when the nation paused not for football, not for elections but to face its dirt, literally.

And for three disciplined hours, Nigeria almost looked like a country that had its act together.

Then, it was cancelled or revoked or adjusted to function in all markets on Thursday. I guess someone thought only market women are dirty and so should be made to lock up their stalls and shops in the markets and shopping complexes till 10 am every Thursday. That fellow forgot that the fabric dealer came from an estate, the pepper trader and the butcher came from one community that remained unswept and unkempt. So, as that smell that made it impossible to enjoy street rice on ‘horo Dosunmu’ and Amala on point in Surulere and Ogba disappeared, they simply returned ‘home’. Yes, to the streets, even 3 star estates. They started lining the streets in black suspicious bags, streets that ought to be tree lined.

On your way to work, you see urchins and beggars just rising from sleep, scratching and spitting, then you see the black dustbin bags, standing or sitting, glaring at you, as if in defiance, dozens of them. And my grandmother taught my sister and I that beholding dirt or stepping into dirt early in the morning is bad luck, indeed she said it can make the beholder poor. Maybe these dirt and dirt bags are the reasons behind the tough life in Lagos. Everybody is running into one another, working from dawn to dusk, with little or no profit to take ‘home’ during Sallah and Christmas.

Governor Babajide Sanwo Olu must have seen that Lagos was going back to Egypt. Maybe he and his cabinet members also had grandmothers like mine and have realised that where filth dwells, wealth cannot live.

So, as Lagos debates the return of Saturday environmental sanitation, let us approach it not as a punishment, but as a reset button.

The commissioners must have all perceived the stubborn smell that clings to certain streets in the state, that smell that is not the rich aroma of buka pepper soup or the seductive invitation of suya smoke curling into the evening air. What we have these days is the old, angry smell of neglect of overflowing plastic bags flowing into gutters that are clogged and dead.

Between 2016 and now, Lagos has become a city that forgot that cleanliness is not a luxury, it is survival.

Welcome to the shocking cost of a dirty Lagos.

We like to think dirt is just an eyesore, something you wrinkle your nose at, complain about, and then jump over on your way to hustle. But dirt is expensive, very expensive.

First, let’s talk money. Lagosians spend billions yearly treating diseases that thrive in filth malaria, cholera, typhoid.

That “small fever” that keeps you in bed for three days? It is not small. It is rent money quietly walking out of your pocket.

It is productivity slipping through your fingers. It is school fees ending up as hospital receipts.

Then there is flooding. Ah, Lagos floods are usually accompanied by dramatic lamentations of emotional blackmail that rain or sea mermaids have come to collect their due. We conveniently forget that gutters clogged with pure water sachets, plastic bottles, and yesterday’s indifference confuses rain when it arrives. It has to go somewhere. Your living room, bedroom, compound filled with expensive cars become options. Your stocked warehouse is another option. Since you cannot unclog or desilt your drainages, your new smart television must float. Your queen size mattresses will drink until it’s drunk. Shops will shut down. Goods worth billions of naira will spoil. You are free to call it “natural disaster”, government negligence or even ‘village people attack’, we all know nature does not punish us unprovoked.

But Lagos did not just wake up dirty. No city does. Dirt is a slow rebellion. It begins with one person dropping a sachet on the road. Then another. Then a whole street decides that the gutter is a trash can. Before long, the system collapses not because it was weak, but because we were careless.

And somewhere in all of this, we quietly retired one of the simplest, most effective civic habits we ever had: the three hour Saturday environmental sanitation.

Now that Lagos is ‘bringing back our environmental’ with effect from April 25, some people are protesting. Even me too has something to protest. I would have preferred the sanitation period to stretch till noon. Let our men breathe. Let them relax at home. They are too stressed. Let their wives tend and attend to them from all angles. Let children see their fathers. This new sanitation period is too short. There are too many cobwebs men, sorry, all of us, have to clear. Let us patiently clean it. Please let all other protests and protesters go and rest. I am seriously single minded about this. This is a domestic matter. It does not concern the lawyers. Or are these lawyers against women’s peace of mind?

Let’s go down memory lane.

The last Saturday of the month once arrived like a stern headmistress. From 7am to 10am, movement was restricted.

No okada racing past. No danfo honking impatiently. Lagos would pause. And in that pause, something magical happened, people cleaned.

Children swept compounds grudgingly. Mothers supervised like generals. Fathers suddenly remembered how to handle cutlasses and shovels. Gutters were cleared. Bushes were trimmed. Refuse was gathered. Streets breathed again.

It was not perfect. Some people hid indoors, pretending to be “not around.” Others bribed their way past enforcement officers. But overall, it worked. It reminded us that a city is not cleaned by government alone; it is maintained by its people.

Then we stopped.

Seriously though, freedom fighters and human rights activists and their high sounding sleek arguments brought us here. Not everything can be solved with big English.

Rake, brooms and cutlasses deployed well are more effective sometimes. Why do Lagosians always have somewhere to go sef? Where are they always going before day break? How will two or three hours in a whole month to clean your own environment for your own good be a problem? What kind of people are we if we always want to blame others for things we leave or left undone?

Take traffic, for instance.

A blocked drainage today is a flooded road tomorrow. A flooded road becomes gridlock. Gridlock becomes lost man hours. Lost man hours become economic loss. By the time you trace it back, you will find that the problem started with a plastic bottle or moin moin leaves someone casually tossed aside weeks ago.

But perhaps the most shocking cost is not financial.

It is psychological.

There is something that dirt does to the human mind.

It lowers standards.

It whispers,

“Nobody cares.”

And when nobody cares, anything goes. You see refuse on the road, and you add your own. You see a dirty environment, and you stop expecting better from yourself, from your neighbours, leaders, from your society.

Cleanliness, on the other hand, inspires order. It creates pride. It tells people,

“This place matters.” And when a place matters, people behave differently.

Now that conversations about the return of Saturday environmental sanitation has resurfaced, we must resist the urge to roll our eyes and mutter ‘oh no’.

This is not about nostalgia.

It is about necessity.

Imagine Lagos pausing again, just for three hours once a month. Imagine millions of people stepping out at the same time to clean their immediate environment. Imagine gutters flowing freely, streets looking decent, and refuse managed before it becomes a crisis.

Will it solve everything?

No.

But will it help? Absolutely.

Of course, there is a downside to the movement restriction. Lagos is bigger now. Busier. More complex.

Restricting movement may disrupt businesses, especially for those who survive on daily income. Enforcement could become another avenue for harassment if not properly managed.

These are valid worries.

But here is the thing: every meaningful system requires adjustment, not abandonment. If the old model had flaws, then fix it. Lagos state government must find a way to deploy technology, flexibility for effective enforcement. Education and reorientation of citizens and communities are key to the success of this project.

What we cannot afford is to do nothing because doing nothing is what got us here.

We must also be honest with ourselves. Government cannot sweep every street or clear every gutter. You cannot throw refuse from your car window and then blame the state for flooding. You cannot block drainage with construction waste and then complain when water enters your house.

The return of Saturday sanitation, therefore, is not just a policy discussion. It is a mirror. It forces us to confront our habits, our laziness, our entitlement.

Do we really want a clean Lagos or we just want to complain about a dirty one?

Because the two require very different levels of commitment.

So, as Lagos debates the return of Saturday environmental sanitation, let us approach it not as a punishment, but as a reset button.

Let us remember that Yoruba poem we used to recite in primary school.

Imototo b’ori arun mo’le.

Bi oye tii b’ori ooru

Cleanliness defeats diseases, just like the cold harmattan wind trumps heat.

Three hours of inconvenience versus months of avoidable illness.

Three hours of discipline versus billions lost to preventable damage.

Three hours of collective effort versus a lifetime of complaining.

The math is simple.

Lagos is too important to be dirty, too vibrant to be suffocated by refuse, too ambitious to be slowed down by preventable diseases.

In all, we should be shocked and embarrassed not just about how dirty Lagos has become but about how comfortable we have become living in that dirt.

And that, my dear Lagosian, is what should worry us all.

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