Nigerian Embassy In Sweden Should Support Socio-Cultural Groups
I was left completely disappointed that the Nigerian Embassy in Sweden have now adopted a policy where financial support is not given to the various socio-cultural groups under her watch.
In a more specific case, the Yoruba Union in Uppsala, which I represent as a member, did not get a financial support for the 2025 Yoruba Day. The event held on the 28th of August 2025. The embassy had no form of representation at the event.
There are obvious reasons for my disappointment. As a writer and a social critic running one of the longest standing individual blogs on planet earth, I cannot let it pass. These are my personal views and they may not represent the views of the Yoruba community.
I must take a short trip back in time in order to come back to this argument.
Between 2010 and 2016 I was the president of the Yoruba Union in Stockholm. Among the best moments of those 6 years were the collaboration that we got from the Nigerian Embassy in Sweden under the leadership of former Ambassador Amobi.
The high points of the collaboration between the Nigerian embassy in Sweden and the Yoruba Union in Stockholm was the 2014 Yoruba Day celebration. It was the same year that the Swedish Museum brought the World Acclaimed Yoruba Art to Sweden and the Yoruba Union in Stockholm was on hand to present the cultural shows for the events.
To my knowledge, the Nigerian Embassy in Sweden through the efforts of Ambassador Amobi always supported all the ethnic nationalities that approach the embassy and his presence or that of a representative was priority number one. I remembered a meeting at his office where he introduced us (former executives of Yoruba Union Stockholm) to the then head of Mission knowing fully well, we need to be in good hands for the future after his tenure.
Personally, I will remember Amb. Amobi as a very professional career diplomat. Before him, I don’t remember any career diplomat in that office and after him, I don’t know what anyone has done to improve on the progress he made in building bridges and creating new relationships for Nigerians in Sweden.
When I went to the Nigerian embassy this summer (2025) without an appointment, I was hoping to be lucky, like it was in the days of Amobi who would assist anyone (even if he found them at the reception) without an appointment. Indeed, I thought I was lucky until the present head of mission walked past me in the reception. His personal assistant met me and gave me a letter that stated that the embassy cannot support the Yoruba Union in Uppsala.
I pointed to him that that was not the practise and he went to check the records. He told me that what I said was correct. He found evidence that the embassy in the past did support socio-cultural groups in Sweden (and probably in the Scandinavian if I can make a guess). With that piece of knowledge given to someone who worked close to the Ambassador, I felt some “victory” in educating him so that he could (if he dares) educate the rest of the staff that supporting socio-cultural groups should be a standard practise and not a policy that can be adopted or not.
I would like to be clear on the purpose of this article.
Ambassadors will come and go. Head of mission will come and go. The embassy must maintain a standard practice. For as long as Nigerian still exists, the embassy ought to support all activities emanating from the various socio-cultural groups still tied to the British-invented Nigeria.
Members of various socio-cultural groups have shown great courage. They give their time, money and energy to ensure that events and activities happen throughout the year. In addition, our families and friends from Sweden and around the world do what they can to support us in these various groups. The embassy cannot be seen as a failure in financial assistance. Even a token avails much. It’s a symbol of good gesture, approval and encouragement.
For the 2025 Yoruba Day in Sweden, I will like to thank the following:
Charles Adagbon, former president of the Nigerian Union in Sweden.
Lara Lekuti-Taiwo
Bamidele Akeredolu of Houston Texas. To my friends
Samuel Ayoola and Femi Ilesanmi.
Frida Säfvestad and Feyisara Aderounmu.
May Olodumare bless all givers. May they prosper beyond their dreams.
May the glory of Yoruba continue to shine around the world.
In 2008 when I turned 36, I started this series called My Random Reflections. Today I’m writing my random reflections @ 52. Usually, I’d write the article the day before my birthday or exactly on the day and publish it.
This year, I’m working hard to put my thoughts together 3 days after. It is not for the lack of random thoughts. It is not because there are no issues to reflect upon. How do you even choose what issues to reflect upon albeit randomly? England have just lost the EURO football second final in a row. The best English defender, arguably, Fikayo Tomori, did not even make the team. When a goal is conceded in the dying seconds due to the wrong positioning of 2 defenders, first Walker, then Guehi, I can say: serve you right England! Fight for your best to represent you!
My focus on my random has always been Nigeria. Sometimes it is a general focus or reflection on life from my perspective. The reasons are obvious. I lived in Nigeria for 29 years before relocating to Sweden in 2002. Over the years my views of Nigeria have changed. It started from my wish for Nigeria to be one indivisible super (world) power to my sarcastic article in the Nigeria village square wondering what would happen if Nigeria was recolonized.
Today, my opinion about Nigeria is constant because having observed Nigeria politics since 1979 as a 7-year-old, I have come to the irreversible conclusion that Nigeria should be dismantled so that the prosperous nations that are entrapped in Nigeria could emerge.
Unless the system of government in Nigeria is abolished, I don ‘t see a bright future for the unborn generations entrapped in it
At some point in the time past, I was one of those focused on putting all the problems on the president(s) and politicians in the country. Indeed, in this Tinubu’s jaguda government, one can still describe the politicians as criminals for that has not changed. I mean, my knowledge of Nigerian politicians and the military regimes that intersected the periods from 1979 to date gives me the right to classify both the civilian and military governments as pure gangsters in power.
But the regimes that emerged are also direct products of the citizenry. However the worst thing about Nigeria is the crazy system of unitary government where the president and the politicians for example are simply above the law. The unitary system of government in Nigeria is the dumbest system of government on planet earth. The charade called elections to get into this system of government are also a complete disgrace to the lowest of intellectualism.
What this has led to, for me, is that whilst I can call Tinubu’s government a jaguda government or Nigerian politicians complete criminals, I am at the same time aware that even a criminal Peter Obi as governor of Anambra state would not fare better than Tinubu in power in Aso rock. A Phd Jonathan was as useless as a senseless Buhari in power. A cunning Obasanjo stole as much as he could to secure his finance. Atiku almost sold all of Nigeria! If one is criticizing Tinubu and assuming that Peter Obi or Sowore would do a better job, I think intellectualism is far from that individual.
In my opinion, what took (Nigeria) to stardom and placed development in Western Nigeria (Yorubaland) ahead of London or Paris in the 1950s remains the only permanent solution for Western Nigeria to come back and retain that position (probably in the next 50 to 100 years) if Nigeria is dismantled today or reverted to the old order. In those days the Eastern part of Nigeria was also making advancement in technology (evidentially proven later in the civil war) and the Northern part was a rising agriculturally independent nation. It was jolly to live in the 1950s Nigeria because of the economic and political independence of the regions. There was focus in / on the regions and political corruption was minimal but not detrimental to development, as it is normal even till today in the most developed countries of the world.
Allowing the poorest people on earth to exist in the most blessed region on earth, in my opinion, is a very disturbing occurence in the history of Africa.
I’m not the best official custodian of Nigerian geography and history but I know enough that by carefully re-carving Nigeria under conditions of mutual respect and understanding, the various nations in Nigeria can seek independence again and, in a few years, rub shoulders with the most advanced countries in the world. It is the people who must demand this and see it to a logical end.
The fallacy and the error propagated by the elites and the political class is that greatness can be achieved as one indivisible Nigeria. Time, space, politics, events and the ambitions that I have witnessed since 1979 have shown that the views of the elites and the political class are mirages. I have waited for Nigeria to be great since 1979. I would be foolish in 2024 to think that that greatness would come.
I have discussed extensively on my blog how Nigeria’s fourth generation is wasting away believing in the same nonsense and false hopes like their parents before them. This blog you are reading is one of Africa’s oldest individual blogs. Let that sink in that my goal is to see you in that geographical region come out prosperous and that your unborn generations need not suffer like you and me or our parents and grandparents.
I would like to leave it there so I can discuss other things, randomly. I’m trying hard to stay away from US politics but it’s hard not to feel embarrassed on behalf of the American people when their current president, Mr. Biden continued to speak nonsense while at the same time sitting tight in power and vying for a new term. I remember how African rulers have been called sit-tight rulers by the western press. What does one call Biden? How does one move on from the stupid debate that Biden and Trump participated in? We are currently waiting for the report of the security apparatuses in America regarding the assassination attempt on Trump. Interesting times ahead for the world.
In other reflection moments, when I’d reflected on conflict/war in the Middle East and the Ukraine-Russian war, my conclusions always took me back to one point: that humans may be suffering from deficiency of what I called “collective global intellectualism”. I’m now sure that humans, despite all our achievements and advancements, are devoid of sound reasoning power in conflict resolutions. I’m not particularly a good student of history, so I might need help to remember where one party had been right in a war and examples of using wars to resolve conflicts and misunderstanding.
My knowledge of Nigerian history, Nigerian civil war and what my mother (now late) told me about the Nigeria remain good bases for me to understand how Nigeria is the mess it is today and how keeping it as one country would continue to favour poverty, impoverishment, and a hopeless life/existence for several millions.
There are so many aspects of our lives in the geographical entrapment called Nigeria that must be looked to at the same time.
How is our level of education today? How does it compare to the global situation?
How is our transport network on land, water and air? How do we limit accidents?
How is the level of security of life and property? How is our night life for work and pleasure purposes?
What is our plan for our good life and a good life for three generations from now?
Does “the common good” exist in our vocabulary, in our thoughts and deeds?
What is our state of basic infrastructure for supply of electricity and water to every home?
What is the housing policy for workers, the elderly, the young people and the pensioners? What are the plans for now, the future?
What are our plans for health care and medicine?
What about research and development?
What happened to dignity in labour? How do we want to reposition education?
Let me be clear, trying to do resolve all our problems in Nigeria under a unitary system of government will never fully work. That is why I’m just looking at people shouting at Tinubu. I think they might get some changes if they shout at their governors or local government chairmen. They might get a better response if they shout at their constituent representatives.
Imagine then a system of government where all the changes needed are concentrated in a region or a smaller nation like the Yoruba Nation or the Biafra. Have you thought about the ease to get your thoughts across?
Jonathan did not see you, Obasanjo did not see you, Buhari, Yar Adua, and now Tinubu. Even Babangida was busy lining his pockets. Abdulsalami nko? That is what they all do, they eat and quench. They take care of their families and friends. That is what a unitary system of government does. It turns men to gods, saints to (d)evil people.
Bring on the regional government or even separate nations that would compete with one another and see how the other countries of the world would start to shiver. Biafra, Arewa, Yoruba and the Delta are prospective world powers and until they are set free, their existence in a British-made, elite-sustained Nigeria would continue to mean a life time of hopelessness, poverty and impoverishment such that it would be impossible to remove Nigeria from her position as the poverty capital of the world.
Allowing the poorest people on earth to exist in the most blessed region on earth, in my opinion, is a disturbing occurrence in the history of the African. The region around the heart of Africa is well endowed so much that the entire continent and beyond can feed from the flow from the heart of Africa. Unless the system of government in Nigeria is abolished, I don’t see a bright future for the unborn generations entrapped in it.
We cannot keep relying on religion and think that we can catch up with the rest of the world. Great nations are built on simple and common things like common language, custom, culture trust, common good, service to humanity, respect for law and order, sound education, developing infrastructures, accessibility to public servants/politicians. These things can be built and created in nations like Yoruba, Biafra and Arewa but never in a fictitious Nigeria.
Homecoming For Meghan Adetokunbo Markle, The Duchess of Sussex
By Adeola Aderounmu, Sweden.
The homecoming of Meghan Adetokunbo Markle with her husband Harry to Nigeria in May 2024 was almost unreported in the western media. In Sweden, the visit did not make a single headline (that I know of anyway). In other spaces, the reports have been unfair and in bad fate.
Only the Nigerian media did justice to the visit and they could have done more. They could have published editions of their newspaper entirely devoted to the visit and with thousands of pictures/images. That would have made the western media go crazy for sure.
Meghan Adetokunbo came home to Nigeria with her husband the Duke of Duchess because she found out that her ancestry lies in the heart of West Africa, in Nigeria. She is a royal and she came home to a royal acceptance from all the corners of Nigeria.
I am just making this entry to let it go down in records that the Swedish media is unreliable as much as the BBC and the other nonsensical western media. If young children are kidnapped in Nigeria, the Swedish media will be rolling over itself to report the bad news. DN, SVD, TV 1, TV2 and TV 4 will be all over the place to spread the bad news.
But a royalty made gallant entry to the land of her ancestors, and I still cannot remember hearing it on radio, seeing it on major newspapers or TV stations in Sweden. Even my favorite radio station P 4 did not mention it. They are probably stuck with reporting the traffic in mainland Stockholm.
Dearest Adetokunbo Meghan, this is wishing you all the best in your lifetime. May your enemies continue to be put to shame. Yorubaland stand behind you and the ancestors guide your ways and paths. Be careful in all you do, be meticulous in your decisions. Your enemies, our enemies are waiting for your mistakes. You know that more than I do.
Be careful in all ways. Take care of your family, the prince, and the kids.
You have a home with us and you are always welcome to be with the people who love you now and who will always love you forever.
Nigeria must be dismantled, totally. Nigeria must end for the nations entrapped within it to emerge and begin afresh. It is only competition between the different regions or nations within Nigeria that can reduce corruption and eradicate poverty
2020 Nigeria: Confined In Corruption And Poverty
Adeola Aderounmu
This is the 27th day of July, 2020 and Nigeria as it stands is still being ruled by hardcore criminals and gangsters spread across 2 criminal organisations called APC and PDP.
The central government is headed by APC headed by a criminal called Muhammadu Buhari.
For those who are not used to the useless form of democracy in Nigeria, a quick recap is that Nigeria left military rule in 1999 and civilians took over. From 1999 to 2015, a criminal organisation called PDP (Peoples Democratic Party) led the Nigerian government and what followed was massive corruption as usual and extreme spread of poverty and hopelessness. In 2015, Nigerians thought a change had come and voted for another criminal organisation called APC (All Progressive Congress).
(Note: for details of Nigeria´s political history, please look elsewhere).
In this month of July alone, the entire world has been watching the drama unfolding in one of the several corrupt government institutions in Nigeria, the NDDC. I am not able to provide the details of what has transpired, sadly.
My take is that the problem is not just the NDDC. Everything about governance in Nigeria is wrong and crazy.
The NDDC has always been corrupt. The NDDC will always be corrupt. Check out NNPC too. Check out INEC, NEPA, the National Assembly, the Legislative arm, the Judiciary, the states and the governors, the Executives (presidency and ministers), state commissioners and everywhere and everything about government in Nigeria. What you see is different aggregation of criminals and criminal minds in public offices.
Corruption is not limited to public institutions in Nigeria. The private sector is also ripping Nigeria and Nigerians into pieces. You can start from the TELECOMS for a preview. They will milk poor Nigerians to starvation and deaths.
Nigeria is corruption personified. It is a country confined in a systemic culture of corruption. For the past 2 decades, this has been my theme on my essays, articles and blog entries.
More than 30 years ago, there was an article in one of Nigeria´s newspaper raising a question about the common man in Nigeria and his survival based on his meagre wage. The writer concluded that it was just impossible to live on such a wage. Today, the common man in Nigeria earns comparatively less (in dollar rate). How does anyone in Nigeria live on N30 000 minimum wage monthly? How is that possible? I should address this in another article.
Specifically Nigerian politicians from all across Nigeria are mentally deranged, have low cerebral functions, are grossly incompetent, possess unbelievable, insatiable lusts for material possessions. Their collective stupidity and ineptitude continues to confine Nigeria to the league of poor countries, poor citizens and poverty-plagued existence not worthy of lower animals.
My aim today is to remind you as l have done in almost 2 decades that the person called the president of Nigeria is Buhari and he is leading probably the most corrupt government ever in Africa´s history. Like l always write, l thought Jonathan and the PDP gang would be the worst we had seen at the end of 2015. But this criminal called Buhari and the APC crew blew my mind away with the latest dimension of corruption in Nigeria since 2015.
The most annoying thing about this is the different nations enslaved in Nigeria, taking turns in different capacities and contributing to the ruins. I have mentioned names in many articles and it is becoming old fashioned. Still, take a little time and follow criminals like Akpabio and Oshiomhole if you want to have an idea of the problems. Then take time to follow all the politicians that are prominent, write their names and add corruption in a google search.
Buhari himself started stealing before 1977 but in 1977 he made it official as a minister of petroleum. Do you know how many years that is, from 1977 to 2020, that Buhari has had his hands in Nigeria´s public treasury?
Those aso rock dogs called special assistants or media assistants for things and nonsenses are just looking after their daily bread. Femi Adesina comes to mind. This is another criminal mind. When this is over, he would follow the lines of Segun Adeniyi and Reuben Abati in writing some stupid books or memos. Yorubas called such people didinrins.
Nigeria must be dismantled, totally. Nigeria must end for the nations entrapped within it to emerge and begin afresh. It is only competition between the different regions or nations within Nigeria that can reduce corruption and eradicate poverty.
The Yorubas and the Ibos especially are very unfortunate to be clumped with the rest of Nigeria. These are ethnic groups that can survive on their own and rule the world in all ramifications. The Niger Delta would have toed the same line of progress and prosperity.
The North is lazy, but it would have emerged based on the competition from the other regions around or close to it.
Together in Nigeria, all these nations remain slaves to the colonial masters and the dumb ass politicians and elites who remain the most formidable criminal organisation in Africa. This is the bane of Nigeria.
These are some of the problems facing Nigeria. As it stands, like l always write, Nigeria will never, never make it under the present criminal political arrangement. Let me tell you, there will always be people and organisations that will prosper under the situation in Nigeria. You will be stupid to use your personal progress as a measure of the workability of Nigeria, a rotten country with a despicable high morality rate.
I don´t even want to remind you of the other things that make Nigerians less human. I don´t even want to start with our ladies who don´t know that they are mentally deranged with all the nonsense wigs on their heads. Our boys have all taken to rituals and cultism. Terrorists are made locally and internationally and dumped across the area called Nigeria. What is left of being African? What is left of being a Yoruba? Ibo? Kanuri? Bini?
Africa is long gone and the nations that should help rebuild are fading away not just because of poverty and corruption but also as a result of the total destruction of the cultural heritage of motherland-Africa.
Specifically Nigerian politicians from all across Nigeria are mentally deranged, have low cerebral functions, are grossly incompetent, possess unbelievable, insatiable lusts for material possessions. Their collective stupidity and ineptitude continues to confine Nigeria to the league of poor countries, poor citizens and poverty-plagued existence not worthy of lower animals.
Sometimes when l make certain posts, some people think it is a one-time thing.
I have one of the longest running individual blogs in Africa. I am sure. When we started this journey l know how many people have left blogging and writing altogether.
I am sure those l targeted in my previous post about African women would think that was it.
Since 2006 l have written some blogs over a dozen times.
This thing about African women is very disgusting and tasteless.
It irritates me more everyday. We need to reverse the trend to save our culture and values.
African women don’t have red hairs. The hairs are black and beautiful. Why do you hate what you look like African woman? WHY?
I know it is a long shot as several millions of African women have lost confidence in themselves and they hate their natural looks.
But whatever brought the African woman to this level of self-hate can bring her back to self-love.
So those who think it was a one time post can always come back and they will find themselves in another post.
It may take long but l never get tired and l don’t give up.
That was DJ Cuppy Otedola. It must be self-hate if our women do not think that we can appreciate them for their natural looks.
A View From The Scandinavian 