Words have continued to fail me in trying to come to terms with the demise of one of my closest friends Adelanke Temitope Osunmakinwa. A couple of years back, I had this idea about writing a book that the title would be “It’s our turn to die”. Even while trying to write this tribute, I thought about the book I never wrote: It’s our turn to die. I come from a world where writing or talking about death is almost a taboo, despite the fact that it is the necessary end to all of us. The last time I checked, it had not been reported that someone left this planet alive.
I met Tope around 1988 when he started at my high school Festac Grammar School. We were already in the 4th year of our 5-year high school journey. We became friends too easily for a few reasons. We both spoke the same language, though he had his Ekiti dialect which he took with him from Idanre, Ekiti state. He was living in the same neighbourhood which makes it possible to walk to school and back together. He came often to my place where he would play with my nephews who were small at the time.
I spoke to my friend in Germany after Tope’s demise on 7th May 2024. I told him that Tope deserved more in life than what he got. He agreed with me and said that aptly described a summary of Tope’s 53 years on planet earth. Each time I’d visited Nigeria since 2002 that I left Lagos, Tope and I have been in touch. In 2018, he followed me to my house in Lusada and was very happy for the progress I’d made-getting a roof over my head.
When we left high school, my personal expectations from Tope were high. He was an average student, but there were a lot of things that were in his favour at that time though I’d not go into the details in this essay. I will also not discuss his weaknesses in this essay because we all have our weaknesses. We all have our weak points in life. We have all failed at some points. That ability to utilise our second chances can be a very important determinant in going forward. My absence from Nigeria made me unaware of Tope’s second chance(s) and how he responded.
One thing I know for sure: he died serving Lagos State. He went to work and was still online at about 18:45 on May 7th, 2024, he was somewhere in the service of motherland.
There are so many memories of him that will stay with me while I am still above the ground. The days we went to school. The days he drove around Lagos dropping Christmas gifts to friends and families. The days he came around to play with my nephews. The days he would talk to my dad and siblings like he knew them from genesis. There were days we did what boys would do: we drank for sure and sometimes went over the limits. We ate and merried together.
He honoured my invitations when I call for a small house party. I cannot forget the days of Festac Town. I cannot forget the days of Satellite town. I cannot forget the visits to the girls we never married. I cannot blame myself or anyone for the bad times or for the times when things didn’t go as we planned them. Adelanke, I will keep the memories of the good times and the laughter.
My dear friend, farewell and have a good time with the ancestors.
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.
Genocide remains an unpunishable crime in Nigeria. Sometimes, acts of genocides are perpetrated by the government.
When more than 200 people are massacred in one night, at a swoop, in 2023, such act is out of civilization’s framework. But it happened during the 2023 Christmas celebration in Plateau State, Nigeria. Several communities were sacked as terrorists (most likely from Northern Nigeria) went on the rampage.
If you ask the crazy Nigerian government, they will tell you it is herdsmen and farmers’ conflict. But there are records of villages that have been completely taken over by these terrorists across the length and breadth of Northern Nigeria and some parts of the Nigerian Middle Belts. Taking over indigenous people’s farmland or their resources through genocide and even taking over their communities entirely is no longer something that any Nigerian government cares about. Genocide remains an unpunishable crime in Nigeria. Sometimes, it is done by the government.
In Nigeria, deaths and blood spills do not lead to outrage. They are commonstances. Sometimes, as superstitiously as it may sounds, it seems that government thrives on bloodshed and woes of the citizens of Nigeria.
At the time the genocide was in progress, more than 7 hours, no Nigerian security forces intervened. It sometimes sound like the government sponsored the killings, so they do not interfere. Is there any other way to analye terrorism that is perpetrated for more than 7 hours without interventions of security agencies? I am willing to learn how. It was also at that period that Bola Tinubu arrived in Lagos. He went on Christmas holiday to a place where everybody knew his name. Sadly too, nobody was calling his name. Rather, the people that lined the streets when he arrived were all crying and wailing: We Are Hungry..!
The genocide in Plateau and the general hunger in the land cannot change a thing without accompanying rage or rages. If there is no rage, there cannot be a change. Nigerians completely lost it when they think swapping APC for PDP or PDP for APC is change. It is very ridiculous because when you are looking from a distance, you will see that APC is PDP and PDP is APC. You will also see that there is no end, yet, to the thousands of anomalies about Nigeria.
My constant prediction is that a few people in Nigeria will prosper annually because the system will smile on them directly or through some strokes of luck and happenstance. These few people will create fuzzes that will forever kindle the hopes of the poorest people making them lame and vulnerable to a lifetime of penury and extreme poverty. These majority will continue to live and die without ever experiencing the meaning and value of life. Nigeria was built that way.
In a country that was built on false foundation, one group of senseless terrorists from a shithole somewhere – even at this time of global human civilization – will still think that they have to commit genocide on another group because they think they are a superior race than the others and should rule the province. In a country that was built on false foundation, people will line the country and shout “we are hungry” without doing anything about it.
Majority will continue to live and die without ever experiencing the meaning of life, and the value of it. Nigeria was built that way.
Nigeria has been like this since time immemorial, and since time immemorial people have been hoping that change would come, that common sense would prevail and that the good of the land(s) will be for the good of all. But alas! The good of the land is never meant for circulation. It can be distributed to the elites, their families, their accomplices and a few lucky souls.
What has happened since hope (especially in religious rites) took over common sense and human dignity, is that Nigeria’s population has exploded. More and more people have been born into a lifetime of poverty and estranged attitude to the true meaning of life. The pockets of achievements by Nigerians especially in medicine, entertainment and sports are not inspired by government or institutions. They are mostly fueled by the resilience of people who wanted to survive by all means. There was never a level playing ground for talent discovery and institutions-backed national development.
All the things that could make a nation great if the inhabitants share the same culture, spoke the same language and have the same insights into the meaning of life, are completely absent in Nigeria. That is why terrorists would attack Plateau. They do not see the inhabitants of Plateau as humans. They see them as lower animals that must be wiped away from the surface of the earth. Invariably, the message is clear, the terrorists of Northern Nigeria have no single reason to belong to the same country as the people of plateau. If you don’t get that, there is no way I can make it clearer to you. You can therefore expect more massacres. Nigeria is built that way.
In a nation, a land or a country where everybody speaks the same language, it would never happen that some people would cry out of hunger and not do anything about it. If the hunger that Lagosians faced is in the hands of Tinubu are in a situation where Tinubu is president of Yorubaland only, I cannot see how Tinubu can survive the rage that would follow. But the hunger is spread across a group of unconnected nationalities that thrive on confusion, a group of unrelated nationalities that blossom in tribalism and extreme nepotism. So, it is not hard to predict that Nigerians, as it is, we continue to be among the poorest people in the world because they have not taken steps to end Nigeria and build strong independent nations like the Oduduwa/Yoruba Nation, Biafra, Arewa, Middle-Belt kingdom and Southern Niger Delta.
In the absence of the emergence of these nations-that would not only compete regionally for progress and development, but also internationally for fame, prosperity and superpower, the people of Lagos can continue to carry placards for the remaining over 150 million or more living from hand to mouth, unsure of the next meal. For the people of Plateau, the best solution is self-defense. Call on your politicians, let them buy arms and ammunitions, so you can protect your land and resources that keep enticing the enemy. Protect your women, children and the elderly. No matter how much you cry, the terrorists are coming back, and they will not stop until you are completely decimated. This is the history of Nigeria, a bloody British mistake and colonial invention, made solely for the suppression of the progress of the African race.
If we don’t stop Nigeria, we cannot stop the chant “We Are Hungry”. If we don’t stop Nigeria, the only way to survive terrorism and forceful take-over of our local resources is to “fight back”.
In a country that was built on false foundations, people will line the country and shout ” We are Hungry” without doing anything about it.
In some way, we are all like Tinubu, we cannot give what we don’t have.
I had described Tinubu’s government as a Jaguda government. A Jaguda government is a criminal government, simple. I have seen outcry over the 2024 Tinubu’s budget. I have not expressed any outrage because there is none. Though a lot of government in the world are criminal organizations, the pattern of it in Nigeria is disturbing.
If someone had told you that Tinubu is a hungry man or a hustle before he became the president of Nigeria, you would have dismissed the allegation just the same way his wife Remi did. She said Tinubu does not need Nigeria’s money. She is a blood liar. Everyone lies at some point, but some lies are entrenched in some people’s DNA.
Have you seen how much Tinubu is taking from the National treasury to feed his hungry family? I don’t care about the amount because he did not start the madness. Buhari and Baba kekere-Osinbajo did not start it either. Hungry families have been moving in and out of government houses since it’s creation. Nigeria fed the hungry brits. Now she will feed the hungry Tinubus. It is called heritage. If you wanted a one Nigeria, your ancestors may punish you if you complain about the 2024 budget because the 2025 will not be different.
A few people have cornered the goodness of the land. They have stopped the flow of milk and honey to more than 180 million people living in poverty,
Tinubu cannot give to Nigeria that which he does not have. Let us be clear for the umpteenth time. The problem is not Tinubu. The problem is Nigeria. The country was manufactured by the rogues of England. The profits of the “lands” or “nations” entrapped within Nigeria are shared mostly among foreign criminal governments, foreign criminal organisations and the “Nigerian” elites that have perpetuated and perfected the process of neo-colonisation.
The only thing that still speaks against the highly placed criminality of the Nigerian elites is the confession of a Nigerian politician in the late 1970s that there is enough to go round even if Nigerian politicians and the people are greedy. There is enough for everyone’s greed. That is how “rich” Nigeria is even under the biggest management. But the goodness does not go round because for example we are being told that a man like Emefiele has 4 banks. We also know that Tinubu stole money and gave his son to buy an expensive house in UK. I mean there are uncountable reasons why there is not enough today for everyone’s greed. A few people have cornered the goodness of the land and have stopped the flow of milk and honey to more than 180 million people living in poverty.
In the 1990s, I read a story that I believed so much. That if the resources of the Niger Delta were properly managed, they are enough to sustain the entire Africa continent. I believed the narrative because in Europe, there are countries that have inadequate resources, but the people are living good, most of them.
Therefore, the problem is not Tinubu. The problem is the existence of Nigeria. The problem is the extinction of the nations that competed during the early years of Nigeria. The problem is the extinction of the Western Region, the Eastern Region and the Northern Region. The problem is the lack of determination of the people entrapped in Nigeria to seek freedom and pursuit of happiness in independent nations. The people chose slavery – they chose Nigeria – the modern slave ship.
Tinubu cannot give you what he does not have. The 2024 budget is what he has. A criminal will always make criminal documents to keep himself in business. A criminal will surround himself with loyal criminals. That is what government in Nigeria has always been, that is what it will always be. Again, I must remind you that most governments in the world are criminal organisations. The most distinguishing element of the criminality of the Nigeria government is not giving a damn about consequences.
What Tinubu can give you is a cosmetic fight against corruption. He will choose his fight carefully because if a criminal steps on the wrong toes, he would be burnt, brutally. Tinubu can drag Emefiele. The former central bank rogue is an easy target. The man who employed him or the government he served can breathe. They have a scape goat. Everything about Tinubu is fake. You know the stories. You want a good life from a man who made fortunes through a fake life? You are the biggest joker.
The redemption of the people trapped in Nigeria can never come from a man whose hands are soiled in blood. The redemption will not come from a bloody liar who made a living and a curious life out of lies and deceits. Tinubu will almost pursue a unilateral line of anticorruption: Emeliefiasis. Emeliefe served in a corrupt regime. Corruption has been the national anthem since 1960 and the amplification of corruption between 1999 (when Tinubu himself became a rogue governor) and today is unprecedented in the history of mankind.
Every now and then, one way or the other, there will be cheering news. Something like the railway line evolving. Remember that these rail lines are very old inventions and that the side cuts in terms of corruption are massive and unspoken. Every now and then, there will always be a silver lining somewhere. That is how Nigeria was built to function.
The playground for success will never be level. The opportunity to succeed will never reach every corner of Maiduguri or Badagry. A unilateral system of government is not for the benefit of everyone. It is for the selected few, their families-when they find harmony within, and their business friends-locally and internationally. What about the lobbyists and the PR machines always making sure that the public spaces and the media you consumed fill you with hope that Nigeria will be better in your lifetime? My grandparents were fed with the same message of hope. My parents died hoping for a return to the lives they had in Western Nigeria.
At some points, I thought it would come. But now, having been fortunate to cross middle age, I am sure the hope of unborn generations of Yoruba cannot be in the hands of criminals like Tinubu (or Obasanjo before him). No man can ever give you what he does not have. But gangsters and impostors will pretend to do so. I love the word “inexplicable”. It has helped me to describe the average mentality of the Nigerian hoping that things will get better and life will be good for more than 200 million people entrapped in colonial-made NIGGER AREA.
In all honesty, all a typical Nigeria seek is better life for himself/herself. That hope is a selfish hope and has nothing to do with the rest of us. If we care for one another, our thoughts of freedom should be unanimous, our quests to live happy and to find peace with man and nature will be unquestionable. We would be in our nations building, inventing, investing, and making a better world ready for our children and the generations unborn.
A View From The Scandinavian 