news

The Terror Attack In Örebro, Sweden

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

The Terror Attack In Örebro

Örebro Castle

adeola.blog

By Adeola Aderounmu

On Tuesday 4th of February 2025, a Swedish terrorist named Richard Andersson killed 10 people in the city of Örebro in Sweden. The terrorist attack was the worst in the history of Sweden.

The act of terror was carried out at Risberga school in Örebro. The school is where (foreign) students or relatively new settlers in Sweden would go in order to learn Swedish language in their process of integrating into the Swedish society. In Sweden you need a good knowledge the language to make a head way in many aspects of the Swedish life.

A lot of concerned citizens have expressed anger, frustrations, and disappointment in how the Swedish government, the Swedish police and the Swedish media have reported the terrorist attack.

For instance, the terror attack, as at the time of writing the blog, has not been called a terror attack. The police, the government and the media have reported it as a mass shooting. They have refused to call Richard a terrorist. Rather they have painted another picture of him (you will not read that on my blog, sorry). I don’t glorify terrorist.

In reporting the number of victims, the Swedish government, the police, and the Swedish media have reported that 11 people died in the terror attack, a number that included the terrorist. The correct report should have read that 10 people have been killed by a terrorist who also died in the line of his terrorist action. The Swedish police and Swedish media and the Swedish government have shown great disrespect to the victims (and the families of the victims) of the terror attack in Örebro. I have been blogging for about 2 decades, the handling of the terror attack in Örebro is the worst form of miscommunication and dishonesty I have encountered by any government, media, or police reporting terror attacks.

The police and the government of Sweden have failed the general population. They have failed the entire world. By not declaring the event of 4 of February an act of terrorism, the government failed to live up to its responsibility to protect lives and property.

The police, the government and the media heaped a lot of dishonour on the dead when they said that the motive was not known (even till today the 9th of February 2025) and that the killing may not have an ideological linkage.

It is common sense that a terror attack that is carried out at a school has an ideology linked to education. But I have read many times that common sense is actually not common. The motive was as clear as daylight. The terrorist targeted a school that immigrants would attend to learn or improve their Swedish language skills. His motive was to decimate the immigrant population in Örebro. He killed 10 people.

 The terrorist act is a tragedy on one part. The actions, speeches and the reactions of the Swedish government, the Swedish police and the Swedish media constitute a greater collective tragedy. I don’t think there is any immigrant in Sweden today who trust the Swedish government, the Swedish Police and the Swedish media after the Örebro terror attack.

An opportunity, albeit an unfortunate one, to galvanize the country has been misused. It has been wasted. It has been used to divide the country more than ever. What a wasted opportunity! Lives were unnecessarily wasted by a terrorist and the government and the police made a mess of the sad situation. The media was caged in!

The people who have lost their loved ones, sisters, brothers, sons, wives, girlfriends, husbands, daughters, uncles, aunts and friends would have expected a more compassionate act of truth and actual presentations of events rather than all the cover-ups that the government and the Swedish media are displaying.  

My sincere condolences to all the people who are affected by this act of terror. I have you in my thoughts now. I will have you in my thoughts every time I stop at Örebro, every time I visit Örebro and every time I drive by. You will be in my thoughts every time Örebro appears in my mind and in my conversations.

May the soul of the ten people killed by the terrorist rest in peace.

A Questionable Democracy

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

A Questionable Democracy

Adeola Aderounmu

What kind of democracy gives the presidency to a convicted felon, a criminal?

When a convicted felon, a criminal is sworn in as president in a democracy, then democracy should be placed under the spotlight and questioned.

There is every reason to discuss about the consequences of the type of democracy that the US is displaying to the world. It’s hypocritical. Put rightly, it is a like a dictatorship mimicking democracy, or a democratic face painted on tyranny. It is a dangerous experiment.

What kind of government, what kind of democracy gives the opportunity for a criminal to become president?

What kind of law system makes a person to be above the law. Prisons across the US are filled with convicted felons, citizens who have been found guilty of one crime or the other, and dully serving time for their crimes. Fair enough. But Trump as a free man in the US, even becoming president means that not all animals are equal, and some animals are more equal that some others.

A democracy that placed a criminal in the position to make laws, to amend laws and to dispense laws, in my opinion, is not better than any form of dictatorship. I would find it hard to state the benefits of a criminal making laws in a supposedly democratic dispensation. I would find it difficult to place the value of a criminal-president in a pseudo-democracy above a tyrant in a non-democracy. I can’t come to terms with the possibility to accepting the conducts and leadership of a criminal-president in a civil society.

I started writing this article before trump was sworn in and I was already going to suggest that Trump could close all the prisons in the US and send all fellow criminals’ home. I was not shocked by the executive orders to send home more than 1 700 criminals few hours after he returned to the White House. Nothing trump had done in a few days or nothing he would do in 4 years would shock me. Tyrants don’t send shock, they radiate the characteristics of tyrants.

Nowadays I have so much to do that my articles are late and not covering the depths of my thoughts. But I must put them down anyway just to make sure that I wrote my views.

We are in the early days of Trump administration. So, the only thing to do now is to fasten our seat belts and be prepared for one of the bumpiest rides in world history. Every day will unfold with drama, with threats and with vows to reverse the world order. Denmark should probably start preparing to go to war if she must keep Greenland.

A few years ago, in my first article about trump, I wrote to the American people that MAY THE WIND BE THEIR WAY.

Now I am writing to the rest of us. Under a Trump rule as a convicted felon, may the wind be our way.

Na-Kutsa: A Village By The Kidnapper’s Den

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

Na-Kutsa: A Village By The Kidnapper’s Den

Adeola Aderounmu (A view From The Scandinavian)

There are many stories of families waiting for their loved ones across Nigeria. After a certain period of waiting, the expectations of seeing them alive again drop and the worst is assumed.

Just imagine boarding a cab along the road because the car park was devoid of regular taxi services and being abducted by criminals who transported you to a place close to Na-Kutsa village in Zaria. This was what happened to innocent people regularly in Zaria, Kaduna State. It would continue to happen until the den of kidnappers, or the villagers in Na-Kutsa are shaken. No village should harbor murderers and kidnappers, as a way of life.

I recommend that you read the sad experience of Baraka Abdulkarim as narrated to the Punch Newspaper. She was kidnapped by notorious cab operators and handed over to kidnappers. The first 2 weeks in December 2024 was a real trip to hell for Baraka and other passengers who thought they had boarded a regular cab. A woman who had 6 children on the trip saw two of her children shot to dead because they walked slowly through the forest.  

Baraka Abdulkarim

Image source: Punch Newspaper, Nigeria

Baraka Abdulkarim

For 2 weeks, Baraka and the others defecated on their bodies. They pissed on themselves and were rarely fed as the kidnappers waited for ransoms from the victims’ families. During the period of her captivity, Baraka, according to the Punch Newspaper underwenrt her menstrual cycle bleeding all over her body and the blood drying up on her. The mess can only be imagined! 

The person or persons who deliver ransoms are usually held back, killed or re-cycled for the next ransom. In some places in Northern Nigeria, like the Na-Kutsa village in Kaduna, kidnappers are well-known, and the profession is a way of life, a means to easy wealth.

I am writing about this, not just because it happened in Kaduna, because this could have been a sad occurrence anywhere in Nigeria. But I am writing about it because the village is known, and the den of kidnappers is also probably known. It is shocking that the notorious cab driver(s) are out there waiting for their next set of victims.

The cooperation between cab drivers and the kidnappers is a very profitable evil business. It rakes in millions daily. We know about Baraka and the others kidnaped along with her because she was released after the ransom was paid. Sadly, the person who delivered her ransom was held.

We don’t know about thousands of other missing kidnapped people. Many of them are killed like goats and left to rotten in the forests. There are many stories of families waiting for their loved ones across Nigeria. After a certain waiting period, the expectations drop, and the worst is assumed.

Kidnapping is a profitable business in some parts of Nigeria. Sometimes, it can occur at some random locations if you, your friends, of family members run out of luck. It’s like a gamble sometimes if you are safe or not.

My expectation is a police investigation into the notorious hideouts of the kidnappers which is either in or around Na-kutsa village. It is not a rocket science to find the village, to find the kidnappers and to apprehend the kidnappers. In my books of investigations, this is supposed to be a very easy raid and conquests of the criminals.

Unless the authorities are accomplices, or the intelligence gathering around the Na-Kutsa village is compromised, I don’t see any reason why the cab drivers and the kidnappers should not be apprehended this January 2025.

One worrisome aspect of the Punch report was that the kidnappers have young wives who could be as young as 12 years old. I am sorry for them. I am sorry for that part of the world where children are raped in the names of early marriages. I am sad to be associated with these types of MOFOS. There is nothing in this world that will stop me from longing for freedom.

This is my view from The Scandinavian. The rest, you know!

A Rethink on British-Made Nigerian Independence. Is It Worth Celebrating?

/ Adeola / Leave a comment

A rethink on Nigeria’s independence. Is it worth celebrating?

By Adeola Aderounmu

The idea of Nigeria celebrating indpendence from the British gangsters should actually be re-considered. Is it worth celebrating in ways that glorifies the slave masters? I do not think it is worth celebrating that way, or in any other way anymore. We ought to get over the hangover of an unnecessary occurence (enslavement of our grandparents and the plundering of our resources). 64 years after the scam called independence, we the people do not still have any control over our resources and how we want to use it to improve our lives.

We need to get over the disappointments of the failures of our grandparents and parents in securing their dignity and self-preservation. Self-preservation is probably the most powerful instinct in safeguarding the existence of any (living) species. Therefore we need an affirmation that, for example, I am a Yoruba and that I existed before the British gangsters and fraudsters created a colony over my head for the pleasure of the Queen of England.

In a way, it hit me bad to see how the British colonial thugs would sit back and watch us dancing annually, laughing at us as we dance to our escape from their shackles. Sadly enough, many African countries are not even free yet. Several of them are still tied to their slave masters one way or the other. The influx of the Chinese and the continuous draining of our resources-material and human-attest to the fact that the Nigeria created by the British is far from being free and independent.

So, what the heck is the celebration for actually? Is it hard to see why Nigeria is in shackles and shambles? Is it not obvious that Nigeria will never be free? Is it hard to see that the nations within Nigeria need to be set free before we can even talk of anything close to independence?

Our days of ignorance can be overlooked. However our days of stupidity are unforgivable. There are so many traditional days and events in the nations that are entrapped in Nigeria such that  everyday could be a holiday. There are so many days in the Yoruba calender as much as there are in the Igbo calender about our original Yoruba New Year, The Igbo New Year. Our festivals abound and there are countless number of days we could set aside to honour of our deities. We cannot even exhaust all the possible things we can celebrate in our different nationalities yet we stuck as real slaves choosing to celebrate the Nigeria that was created as an entrapment by British thugs who fooled and dishonoured our grandparents.

There is a reason why the so called nonsense independence day is held high. It is not unconnected to the criminal politics and waywardness of the people who own Nigeria. Imagine how sad they will become to know that we disregard British-made Nigeria and sought our own nationalities to lift, behold and uphold. Those who spend several billions of dollars annually celebrating Nigeria’s ”independence” are happy to keep it going. They are happy the way Nigeria is today, a wretched, worn out and devastated country where poverty and penury have shred into pieces the souls of the citizens,

My personal opinion is that Nigeria should stop celebrating October 1st. What has the British-made country achieved compare to the most advanced countries in the world? A country that cannot produce electricity is celebrating independence. Independence from what? It is laughable. A country that is not navigable in and out by road network is wasting funds on celebrations. I am not going to bore you about how disgraceful it is to flaunt the Nigerian identity in some situations. It is mostly on personal levels and the achievements of mostly young people over the years that the British-made Nigeria have made global impacts. A national identity will remain a mirage and all attempts to achieve prosperity for all will never come to light in a British-made country.

In all, it is not about forgetting the efforts of those who partly set us free from the shackles of the colonial thugs. The likes of Awolowo for example, I can honour as a Yoruba man. Let the other nationalities within Nigeria lift their heroes and let us ”worship” them as we like. But not on any fake date like October 1st.

We need to stop glorifying the colonial thugs and we need to stop flaunting our inferiority complex in the name of ”independence day”. Every man was born free and that glorification of those who chose to infringe on the universal rights of others either through slavery, colonisation or outright invasion must be stopped, now!

On Yoruba Kingdom, I shall stand. I was created a Yoruba, but forced to retain a British-made Nigerian identity. I celebrate my identity. Yoruba, Omo Oduduwa.

Asiko L’aye-Life is transient

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

Asiko L’aye (Part 1)

Adeola Aderounmu

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.