The Trumpet Newspaper Issue 625 (June 12 - 25 2024)

TheTrumpet 

Africans now have a voice... Founded in 1995 

V O L 30 N O 625 J U N E 12 - 25 2024 

Jail for two 

charged 

with GBH 

Kaya Adu 

Sudanese refugees living in makeshift shelters in the border town of Adre after fleeing to Chad (Photo - Ying Hu, UNHCR) 

EXCLUSIVE: 

Inside Egypt's 

secret scheme 

to detain and 

deport 

thousands of 

Sudanese 

refugees 

This story was 

originally published by 

The New Humanitarian. 

By Sara Creta and Nour Khalil 

Continued on Page 2> 

Rushi Jadeja 

Two men – 19-year-old Kaya Adu 

and 21-year-old Rushi Jadeja, 

have been sentenced to six years 

and nine months each - after pleading 

guilty to Grievous Bodily Harm with 

intent, following a serious assault in 

Colchester in January. Adu was also 

ordered to spend an additional three 

years on license. 

On Tuesday, 9 January, Essex Police 

received a report of a 16-year-old boy 

sustaining serious injuries at Queen 

Street in Colchester. 

The victim was taken to hospital with 

stab wounds and received life-saving 

treatment. His condition was initially 

believed to be life-threatening but he has 

since made a full recovery. 

CCTV enquiries indicated that the 

victim had been involved in an argument 

with two men inside Pepes Chicken 

Shop shortly before 6.30pm. During this 

argument, the victim was stabbed a 

number of times before managing to 

escape onto the street. 

Adu and Jadeja were arrested in 

Colchester on 13 January and they were 

charged with attempted murder. Adu was 

also charged with possession of an 

offensive weapon in a public place. 

Following a hearing at Chelmsford 

Crown Court on 9 April, both men 

entered guilty pleas to grievous bodily 

harm with intent, which was accepted. 

Detective Chief Inspector Greg 

Wood from Essex and Kent Serious 

Crime Directorate said: “Adu and Jadeja 

escalated a verbal altercation into a 

serious assault, which almost cost a 16- 

year-old boy his life. 

“The victim has had to have multiple 

surgeries following this assault but 

thankfully has since made a full 

recovery. I hope he can put this 

horrendous assault behind him following 

this sentence. 

“This sentence concludes a thorough 

investigation by our Serious Crime 

Directorate and I commend the officers 

who have worked hard to secure this 

justice.”

Page2 TheTrumpet JUNE 12 - 25 2024 

News 

EXCLUSIVE: 

Inside Egypt's secret scheme 

to detain and deport thousands 

of Sudanese refugees 

Continued from Page 1< 

EXCLUSIVE: 

Inside Egypt’s secret scheme to 

detain and deport thousands of 

Sudanese refugees 

This story was originally published 

by The New Humanitarian. 

By Sara Creta and Nour Khalil 

Thousands of Sudanese refugees 

who escaped to neighbouring Egypt 

have been detained by Egyptian 

authorities in a network of secret 

military bases, and then deported back 

to their war-torn country often without 

the chance to claim asylum, an 

investigation by The New Humanitarian 

and the Refugees Platform in Egypt has 

found. 

The pushbacks uncovered by 

Reporters contravene refugee 

conventions that Egypt has ratified, and 

are being carried out as the EU has 

pledged billions of dollars to Cairo in 

exchange for the government curtailing 

migration to Europe, a deal that critics 

say could make European countries 

complicit in the abuses taking place. 

The pushbacks are also being 

enforced amid a worsening of the yearlong 

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paramilitary Rapid Support Forces 

(RSF). The fighting is expanding into 

new parts of the country, leaving tens of 

thousands of people dead, and 

triggering warnings of a looming 

famine. 

“I pleaded with the soldiers, 

explaining that my mother was gravely 

ill and urgently needed medical 

attention, but they refused to help us,” 

said 25-year-old Hassan, who was 

deported from Egypt in February after 

being kept in a squalid military camp 

with his 68-year-old mother, who has a 

heart condition, and his cousin, who has 

cancer. 

Hassan, who asked for his name to 

be changed, like all of the Sudanese 

refugees quoted in this story, said he 

escaped the capital city, Khartoum, 

earlier in the year after his house was 

invaded and his brother was killed by 

RSF fighters. Following his 

deportation, he said he was “unsure if 

there is still a home awaiting” him. 

Sudan’s conflict has created one of 

the world’s largest displacement crises, 

with nearly nine million people 

uprooted over the past year. Two 

million people have fled to 

neighbouring states, including more 

than half a million who have crossed 

into Egypt. 

Egyptian authorities have taken 

various measures to restrict Sudanese 

from entering legally, despite an 

agreement guaranteeing freedom of 

movement between the countries. Most 

refugees are now forced to use 

smugglers to enter, even as they risk 

being detained for irregular entry or 

injured in dangerous mountain 

passages. 

The UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) 

and the Global Detention Project have 

both documented pushbacks, yet 

reporters from The New Humanitarian 

and the Refugees Platform are the first 

Statutory Amendment (Date of Birth) 

I, Miss Adiatu Victoria Ramos - an Indigene of 

Lagos Island, Lagos State, Nigeria; known with a 

previous Date of Birth of 8th February 1970 wish 

to state that my correct Date of Birth 

is 8th February 1961. 

Nigeria High Commission London, Immigration & 

Nationality UK, Department of Social Security UK, 

Department for Work & Pensions, South 

Gloucestershire Council and NatWest Bank UK, 

should please take note 

to comprehensively investigate how the 

deportation system is operating, the 

facilities being used for detention, and 

how refugees are mistreated. 

Over six months, reporters spoke to 

15 deported refugees and interviewed 

Egyptian lawyers, government officials, 

and local rights organisations. Reporters 

also obtained internal police, military, 

and public prosecutor records, and used 

photographs, videos, and satellite 

images to confirm the presence of half a 

dozen military bases whose locations 

are mostly unknown and which are 

being used as detention centres without 

legal approvals. 

The interviews and documents 

reveal a systematic, nationwide effort to 

deny Sudanese refugees the right to 

claim asylum. The campaign involves 

multiple components of the Egyptian 

security apparatus as well as other 

agencies of the government, which had 

not responded to requests for comment 

by the time of publication. 

Some refugees told reporters that 

Egyptian border guard forces had shot 

at them in desert areas, and then 

arrested and deported them without any 

legal process. Others said they were 

rounded up in towns and cities and 

accused by security authorities of 

spurious offences, including smuggling, 

being part of a criminal smuggling 

group, or “causing serious harm” to 

Egypt. 

Refugees and lawyers said children, 

elderly people, and individuals who had 

suffered serious injuries during their 

journeys into the country were among 

those deported, as were Sudanese who 

had registered with UNHCR. In one 

case, a lawyer described an individual 

who was deported despite having 

refugee status. 

The military bases that reporters 

geolocated include places where 

Egyptian rights defenders and critics 

have died or been disappeared in the 

past by security agencies. Refugees 

described facilities with rodent 

infestations and overflowing sewage. 

One refugee said they were detained for 

70 days in a base and allowed out just 

once. 

“All of the prisoners’ mental states 

were severely affected,” said 31-yearold 

Mahmoud, who was detained on a 

Cairo-bound bus earlier this year having 

escaped fighting in Khartoum. “For 

some, the prospect of deportation to a 

country at war was better than 

remaining in such dire circumstances.” 

Dangerous journeys and mass 

deportations 

Egypt shares deep historical ties 

with Sudan and has long been home to 

millions of Sudanese migrants. The 

government has taken the side of the 

army in the current conflict, yet 

refugees have faced growing hostility 

by Egyptian politicians and members of 

the public amid a deepening economic 

crisis in the country. 

Entry restrictions for Sudanese have 

been tightened over the past year. 

Initially, men between 16 and 50 were 

prevented from entering unless they had 

a visa issued by Egyptian consulates in 

Sudan. This policy was then extended 

to cover all Sudanese citizens, most of 

whom turned to smugglers due to long 

visa processing times. 

Smugglers take refugees through the 

desert, on a long, bumpy trip that 

crosses mountains, rocky outcroppings, 

and military checkpoints. Refugees are 

packed by smugglers onto the back of 

pick-up trucks, having to cling onto 

ropes to avoid falling out and use 

surgical masks to keep out the choking 

dust. 

It is unclear how many refugees 

have been detained and deported for 

irregular entry over the past year, 

though the Global Detention Project 

and UNHCR have recorded or reported 

on thousands of cases between them. 

In addition to the 15 deported 

refugees who spoke to The New 

Humanitarian and the Refugees 

Platform, reporters were able to confirm 

two dozen more cases through 

interviews with the relatives and friends 

of deported refugees, and another 44 

cases through a database shared by a 

lawyer from the Egyptian Commision 

for Rights and Freedom, a civil society 

group that monitors human rights 

violations. 

Reporters also obtained internal 

Continued on Page 3

News 

JUNE 12 - 25 2024 





Page3 


police, military, and public prosecutor 

files on nearly 200 other refugees who 

were arrested and detained by 

authorities. One file described the arrest 

of 16 people, including a one-year-old 

child; another detailed the detention of 

14 people, including a girl aged 10. 

Most arrests targeted Sudanese citizens 

and Egyptian drivers, though one case 

involved six people from South Sudan. 

The majority of the cases 

investigated by reporters involved 

refugees detained in southern Egypt, 

either shortly after crossing the border 

or after arriving in the first main towns 

in the south. However, reporters also 

spoke to the relatives of several 

refugees who were arrested while 

conducting their daily business in the 

northern cities of Cairo and Alexandria 

and later deported, suggesting the 

crackdown is nationwide. 

“This feeling is looming over us,” 

said 34-year-old Ahmed, who entered 

Egypt irregularly in December and has 

been staying in Cairo for the past five 

months. “I rarely get out of the house. I 

only make short trips to get food and 

then return promptly.” 

Refugees said authorities carried out 

mass deportations, with buses taking 

hundreds of people to border crossings. 

Three said border guards or aid workers 

gave them bags of food, drinks, and 

hygiene supplies. The bags had printed 

logos of the World Food Programme 

and USAID, according to pictures 

shared with reporters. Refugees also 

said the towns they were deported to 

lacked accommodation and basic 

services. 

“When they told us that we would be 

deported to Sudan, the children cried 

because the soldiers lied to them and 

they were afraid of returning in light of 

the war,” said Nasifa, who was deported 

in late January. She described having an 

asthma attack while detained in a 

ramshackle military base and said 

soldiers did not bring her medicine. 

Arbitrary detentions and forced 

returns of migrants, refugees, and 

asylum seekers are common in Egypt, 

with previous campaigns by security 

forces also targeting citizens of Eritrea 

and South Sudan. Human rights groups 

say the crackdowns are hard to 

document because authorities do not 

publicly release detention and 

deportation data. 

The campaigns have been carried 

out while government and security 

forces have received support from 

European States. The support is 

motivated by Europe’s desire to stem 

migration from the country, which is a 

transit route for individuals wanting to 

cross the Mediterranean, and is also 

producing a growing number of its own 

migrants. 

Experts said State abuses against 

refugees and migrants are likely to 

increase as a result of the new $8 billion 

EU funding package, which includes 

more than $200 million for migration 

control. The deal is part of a broader EU 

approach of partnering with third 

countries – many with poor human 

rights records – to reduce migration. 

“These agreements are unlikely to 

stem the flow [of migrants],” said 

Hossam el-Hamalawy, an Egyptian 

journalist and scholar who researches 

the country’s military and security 

services. “Instead, they may exacerbate 

casualties and further empower the 

already dominant military, which lies at 

the root of many issues in Egypt.” 

EU spokesperson Peter Stano said 

migration is just one of six pillars of 

intervention addressed by the new 

partnership with Egypt, and that 

“respect for human rights and 

international humanitarian law is a 

priority” for all EU-funded projects. 

“The EU expects Egypt, as other 

partners, to fulfill its international 

obligations including on the right to 

non-refoulement, and to uphold the 

human rights of all refugees and 

migrants,” Stanto said. 

Torture, car chases, and rapid 

returns 

The refugees detained in southern 

Egypt are handled differently depending 

on whether they are intercepted close to 

the border or arrested in towns and 

cities, according to witness testimonies, 

interviews with lawyers and 

government officials, and internal 

military, police, and public prosecutor 

documents. 

Refugees are especially vulnerable 

to abuse if they are intercepted near 

border areas, which are under military 

jurisdiction across Egypt. The areas are 

patrolled by border guard forces, which 

are a key part of the Egyptian military. 

Access, including for humanitarian and 

human rights groups, requires permits 

from military authorities. 

Several lawyers and border guard 

sources said Sudanese refugees 

detained in these areas are rapidly 

deported by border guard forces without 

being registered, and without any legal 

process. The sources said this is not in 

keeping with how border guards used to 

handle refugees and migrants 

Continued on Page 6

Page4 


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The Council of Orisha Elders of 

Trinidad and Tobago was 

honoured to host Honorary 

Alderman Erelu Lola Ajiun Ayonrinde - 

an internationally recognised messenger 

of Olodumare, Orthodox Yoruba Orisha 

Medium, who follows in the footsteps 

of her ancestors with history of 

succession as Iyalorisha and Babalorisa. 

Appointed by His Imperial Majesty, 

Ooni Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi - the 

Ooni of Ife; Hon. Alderman Ayonrinde 

is the Erelu Túnwáṣẹ of Ode Remo and 

a former Mayor of the London Borough 

of Wandsworth. 

Erelu Ayonrinde engaged in 

meaningful discussions with key 

individuals, governmental and nongovernmental 

organisations 

representing the interests of Yoruba 

descendants in Trinidad and Tobago. 

It is not the first time the Orisha 

Community in Trinidad and Tobago 

would welcome someone of Yoruba 

prominence from Nigeria. During the 

country’s 150th Anniversary of 

Emancipation and the end of 

Apprenticeship in July/August 1988, the 

State welcomed the Orisha spiritual 

head - the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade 

Sijuwade Olubuse II, CFR, when he 

visited for the first time. 

A release by the Council stated that: 

“Erelu Túnwáṣẹ’s journey is not merely 

a physical visit but a spiritual pilgrimage 

guided by the wisdom and calling of our 

ancestors, one which duty-bounds her to 

assess the impact of the late Ooni’s visit 

on T&T’s Orisha’s legacy from when he 

visited almost 36 years ago. 

“Further, as a distinguished 

custodian of Yoruba traditions and 

values, Erelu has a rich heritage and a 

deep-rooted commitment to preserving 

the legacy of our ancestors. Her 

connections have significantly 

influenced her involvement in the fight 

for Yoruba sovereignty.” 

The release also explained that 

“During her stay, Erelu Túnwáṣẹ will 

meet members of the Orisha 

Community, including but not limited to 

visits of ancestral sites. These 

engagements aim to foster unity, peace, 

and progress within the Orisha 

community. Her presence serves as a 

beacon of light, illuminating the path 

towards a deeper understanding of our 

shared heritage and the importance of 

honouring our roots. 

“Her title, Erelu Túnwáṣẹ of Ode 

News 

Orisha Elders of 

Trinidad and Tobago 

host Erelu Ayonrinde 

Remo, traces back to the ruling families 

of both Ode Remo and Ijebu Ode. Her 

installation rites are equivalent to those 

of a King, and her ancestral connections 

have significantly influenced her 

involvement in the fight for Yoruba 

sovereignty, guiding her visit to our 

country. As a direct biological 

descendant of Sango of Oyo and Oshodi 

Tapa of Lagos, Erelu has a deep-rooted 

connection to the history and heritage of 

the Yoruba people. This lineage ties her 

to the ancient rulers and traditions of the 

Yoruba nation, instilling in her a sense 

of responsibility to preserve and 

promote the cultural identity and 

sovereignty of the Yoruba people.” 

As a past Mayor, Conservative 

Councillor, Magistrate, Privileged 

Honorary Alderman of the London 

Borough of Wandsworth, Ambassador 

of Peace, and Cross-Cultural 

Relationship Stress Consultant, Erelu is 

a highly sought-after trainer on 

Diversity Management and Lifestyle. 

With extensive experience as both an 

employee and employer within British 

governmental and non-governmental 

institutions, she is internationally 

Honorary Alderman Erelu Lola Ajiun Ayonrinde 

recognised as a politician of conviction. 

She has established ongoing support and 

encouragement for self-help nongovernmental 

community organisations 

and voluntary sector groups in the UK, 

the European Union, Brazil, and 

Nigeria. She advocates for true justice, 

meaningful equity, and fairness for all. 

In an interview, Erelu is quoted as 

saying “I was born into a family of those 

who were at the forefront of the 

Transatlantic Slave Trade between Oyo 

Royals and the Portuguese. 

Consequently, I have traceable ancestral 

history in Brazil, Ijebu, Oyo, Lagos, Aja, 

and Fon Ewe. Accurate representation 

of history is a top item on my agenda. 

My political career in the UK and 

Yorubaland of Nigeria reflects my 

determination to ensure mankind seeks a 

life of doing the right thing, the right 

way, and at the right time.” 

Ahead of her trip, Erelu said: “I 

know now is the right time to visit 

Trinidad and Tobago and I look forward 

to setting foot on both islands, as the 

ancestors have led me on a path of 

reconciliation, truth and justice.”

JUNE 12 - 25 2024 TheTrumpet 

Page5


News 





Sudanese refugees (Photo - Rawpixels, CC0 1.0) 

intercepted in border areas. 

“Previously, deportations occurred 

following the conclusion of a military 

trial and referral to the appropriate 

authority,” said a military officer who 

has served in the border guards for five 

years. “However, we are witnessing a 

new trend where individuals detained 

are neither officially registered nor 

presented before the court.” 

Four refugees told reporters that 

border guard forces ambushed them in 

the desert, with three recounting being 

pursued by military vehicles, and three 

claiming that guards shot at their 

vehicles or in the air, causing panic. 

Two refugees also described their 

Egyptian drivers being tortured and 

beaten by border guards after being 

caught. 

Amina, a refugee who crossed the 

border in February with 13 others, said 

her smuggler driver crashed into a tree 

after border guards engaged them in a 

30-minute car chase through mountains. 

Amina said the driver of the vehicle fled 

after the crash, but his teenage assistant 

was caught and then tortured by a 

border guard officer. The officer forced 

the teenager to remove his clothes, 

kicked him, hung him with a rope, and 

penetrated his rectum with a stick until 

he bled, Amina said. 

“I said to the girls with me: ‘You 

experienced the war and saw atrocities, 

so do not look at what is happening’,” 

Amina told reporters. She added that the 

border guards insulted the group of 

refugees before taking them into 

detention. 

Amina’s experience is unlikely to be 

unique. The New Humanitarian and the 

Refugees Platform analysed local media 

reports, finding 13 car crashes mostly 

involving Sudanese nationals travelling 

on the same southern roads that 

refugees are taking. More than 160 

people were injured and 20 died in the 

crashes – which occurred between May 

2023 and February 2024 – though the 

reports all describe the incidents as 

accidents. 

Reporters also obtained internal 

police and public prosecutor documents 

that detailed three car crashes, one of 

which claimed several lives. The 

survivors mentioned in the documents 

do not accuse border guards of causing 

the crashes, but the cases have not been 

transparently investigated and 

unidentified bodies are not being 

handled with care, according to a wellplaced 

lawyer in Aswan, the largest city 

in southern Egypt. 

The lawyer, who asked not to be 

named, citing the risk of reprisals from 

the government, said civilian police and 

public prosecutors have been asked to 

investigate certain crashes but lack the 

authority to do so when they occur in 

areas where the military has 

jurisdiction. 

Investigations and ‘false 

accusations’ 

Refugees who pass through border 

areas undetected still risk being 

intercepted. This can happen on the 

streets, at bus and train stations in 

southern cities like Aswan, or during the 

1,000-kilometre journey north to Cairo 

or Alexandria, where refugees can 

access UNHCR offices to register 

themselves. 

Unlike those intercepted along the 

border, refugees arrested in these areas 

are not immediately deported. However, 

internal government documents and 

interviews with refugees show how they 

face Kafkaesque investigations without 

access to lawyers and which result in 

deportation no matter the outcome. 

Reporters obtained files on nearly 

200 refugees who faced investigations. 

The files include internal arrest reports; 

Continued on Page 14

Opinion 



Page7 

Kano Emirate and the 

irony of innocence 

There is a ticking time bomb in Kano 

and President Bola Tinubu has to 

move in quickly in a statesman-like 

way to diffuse it. If centuries of upholding 

the tradition have brought peace to the 

ancient city just as we have in Ibadan, why 

uproot hundreds of years of history? Of 

course, that’s why Abdullahi Ganduje, the 

immediate past Governor of Kano State, 

has to accept responsibility because he 

triggered this crisis. 

Like it or lump it, Governor Abba 

Yusuf and former Governor Rabiu 

Kwankwaso also played politics. But then, 

Yusuf didn’t hide it, that he would remove 

Aminu Ado Bayero if he won the 

governorship election; and that promise 

enjoyed popular support among the people. 

For him therefore, he only sees 

Muhammadu Sanusi’s reinstatement as a 

fulfillment of a campaign promise and 

that’s what democracy is all about! 

Nonetheless, the irony of innocence is that 

nobody should be extricated from Kano’s 

current plight because they’re all involved! 

Ganduje shouldn’t have deposed 

Sanusi and upset an Emirate structure that 

dates back to 1805. If God has structured 

everything to be in the right place, the 

former Governor ought not to have kept 

repeating the same mistake. Instead, he 

should have tolerated the Emir and his 

excesses – real or perceived - just as former 

Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo 

State tolerated Lamidi Adedibu. Had he 

done that, the nonsense currently on 

rampage in Kano would have been 

avoided. It’s a real shame and how the 

State is going to get out of the quagmire 

will obviously now depend on the courts. 

One just hopes that the courts would now 

behave sensibly and do the needful. 

The ‘wahala’ in Kano has again 

reinforced the urgent need for a 

constitutional court in Nigeria. Had there 

been one in place, the tendency is that it’d 

originate and get the matter resolved in a 

matter of weeks. Tragically however, the 

Akire stool in Osun State has sufficiently 

shown that only God knows the shape, size 

and duration of the search for justice. To 

put it succinctly therefore, unless God 

takes control, Kano is one case that’s 

destined to be rotating between ‘upandan’ 

and ‘dananup’ for a very long time to 

come. This is where we are and it is 

unfortunate! 

Gate to the Kano Emirates Council (Photo - Mustaphajajjage, CCA-SA 4.0 Int) 

The conflicting injunctions from the 

courts of concurrent jurisdictions and 

forum shopping by the counsels are also 

unhelpful as they have further de-marketed 

Nigeria’s judiciary which, already, is not 

taken seriously by the international 

community. One of the advantages 

countries like South Africa and Kenya have 

ahead of Nigeria is that the perception of 

their competitiveness is stronger than 

Nigeria because the world sees them as 

countries with very strong, independent 

judicial systems. 

Now that the chickens have come home 

to roost, it becomes imperative for the 

gladiators to be cautious because it may be 

tempting for some people to contemplate a 

state of emergency in the State. Of course, 

that’d be dangerous because, unlike States 

like Plateau and Ekiti where a state of 

emergency was awarded and nothing to 

show for the show, Kano is a very 

politically explosive and threateningly 

sophisticated terrain. So, any government 

that will think of emergency rule in the 

State must first think of the country’s 

democracy which, even at 25, is still 

teething. 

Let’s get it right, what is currently 

playing out in Kano is politics; and it’s 

always like that! From the deposition of 

Alaafin Adeniran Adeyemi II in 1955, to 

the dethronement of Oba Olateru Olagbegi 

in 1966, even the reduction of Oba Samuel 

Akinsanya’s annual salary to one penny by 

the Ladoke Akintola-led government in 

Western Nigeria, politics in this part of the 

world has always been a platform by the 

bourgeoisies and the capitalists to grab 

power, secure the spoils of office and pay 

back the favours that got them (s)elected; 

and it is the resources of the State that 

they’re leveraging. In the case of Kano, the 

only culprit is ambition. Of course, there’s 

nothing wrong with ambition. However, 

when ambition drowns deep in dirty 

politics and vain desires, it takes on an 

identity of significant tensions, and, if left 

unmanaged, the representations of its 

subconscious may have nothing to do with 

humanity. 

Unlike Sanusi, that the dethroned Emir 

Bayero decided to return to Kano “amidst 

tight security” smirks of mischief and this 

is where Tinubu must rise above partisan 

politics by choosing the timing as well as 

what’s happening on the weather front 

before the crisis ultimately consumes 

everybody. Presently, it might look like a 

local Kano issue but a blowout is 

something that may ignite all kinds of 

hidden forces and, for a country already 

sitting on a powder keg, one cannot predict 

when, where or how it will end! 

Let it be noted that, in terms of 

population and all kinds of social forces, 

Kano is ideologically and politically 

divided. Thus, any violence in the State 

may be another problem to contain because 

the country is already fragile. There could 

also be a domino effect in neighbouring 

States. Regrettably, Nigeria’s security 

forces are already overstretched and 

overstressed. Added to this is the lack of 

sophisticated munitions to prosecute the 

kind of war that’s already in our domain. 

So, it is a dicey situation! 

The effect of the perception of Nigeria 

abroad - that the country has very weak 

institutions that can’t contain and diffuse 

this sort of thing - is already dire. So, Kano 

provides an opportunity for the President 

to prove the naysayers wrong! A mass 

showdown in a key State like Kano will not 

BY ABIODUN 

KOMOLAFE 

help Nigeria’s investment ratings for no 

man will want to invest in a country where 

his investments are not safe. A credit risk 

analyst who sits in London, analyzing the 

prospects of investments in Nigeria will 

definitely factor in a situation like Kano 

and come to the conclusion that the 

country’s climate is not conducive for 

investment and the spiral effects will not 

spare even those in Ijebu-Jesa in Osun 

State. All the more reason a government 

trying to attract investors must nip the 

tussle in the bud before the enthusiasm 

becomes uncontainable. 

The beauty of the bash is that a 

template has already been set. But how 

have these ‘two-fighting’ distractions that 

politicians always use as a tool impacted 

the people and how has imposing or 

deposing monarchs improved the GDP 

level of our States? In Kano State, poverty 

level is very high and unemployment is 

also nothing to write home about. Come to 

think of it, State funds will be used to boost 

the egos of these monarchs, fight the battle 

in the law courts and underwrite security 

for those who have been deployed to keep 

the peace. So, what have the people 

gained? If Nigeria is truly a Republic, what 

are the roles of Obas, Obis and Emirs in 

this dispensation and what’s their centrality 

to the socio-economic morass that is 

currently pushing the limit? 

In practical terms, Kano is just part of 

the political economy that has sprung up to 

give Nigeria a disheveled appearance. It is 

nothing but a diversion of issues from the 

real issues of sustainable development and 

that’s part of what led to the abolition of the 

Maharajas and the Maharanis in India by 

Indira Gandhi and heavens did not fall! Of 

course, that’s what happens when people 

push their luck. That’s how it has been 

throughout history. Yes, that’s why the 

Bourbons are no longer on the throne in 

France. Pray that, one day, a power-drunk 

leader would not get to power only to make 

mincemeat of these excesses. After all, 

nothing lasts forever! 

A word should be sufficient for the 

wise! 

May the Lamb of God, who takes away 

the sin of the world, grant us peace in 

Nigeria! 

• Komolafe wrote in from Ijebu- 

Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria 

(ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk)


Opinion 

Tinubu and the old/new 

National Anthem 

One of the very easy tactics that a 

government adopts when it sees 

that it is unpopular with the 

public that it governs is to create a 

diversion, fly a kite or invent a subject of 

controversy to keep the people busy and 

draw them away from what exactly they 

should be talking about. The media gets 

easily sucked into the sensational subject 

because that sells the news, and in the 

midst of the frenzy that follows, with the 

commentariat and civil society beating 

their chests and staging a drama of their 

own, and government fuelling the 

narrative, the big issues of the day are 

glossed over and government heaves a 

sigh of relief. This is precisely the 

diversionary tactic that has been adopted 

by the Tinubu administration by making 

the reversion to Nigeria’s old National 

Anthem the big issue of the day as the 

administration marked its one year in 

office. 

One week to May 29, the government 

sent an Executive Bill to the National 

Assembly which worked expeditiously on 

the Bill, taking it through the necessary 

readings and passing it promptly. On 

May 29, Nigerians were further confused 

as to whether the President would address 

the National Assembly or not, with two 

spokespersons working for the same 

President on the same subject of public 

communication working at crosspurposes, 

contradicting each other, on a 

matter that should have generated no 

controversy whatsoever. As it turned out, 

the President finally showed up at the 

National Assembly on May 29, in what 

the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, 

described as a Nollywood “waka pass” 

appearance. But it just wasn’t a “waka 

pass” simply because the President had 

no written script – he spoke extempore. 

The visit acquired a major significance 

when it was disclosed that President Bola 

Tinubu had that same morning signed a 

bill amending the National Anthem Act 

into law, and that a new National Anthem 

Act, 2024 had come into effect, cancelling 

the 1978 National Anthem: “Arise o 

Compatriots” and compelling Nigerians 

to return to the old National Anthem: 

“Nigeria We hail Thee”. 

Many Nigerians were shocked and 

outraged. At the National Assembly, the 

lawmakers recited the old National 

Anthem. The scandal of it was that many 

of them did not even know the lyrics of 

the same Anthem that they were 

supposed to be singing. The government’s 

move, its Nollywood theatrics, wittingly 

or unwittingly, had the prompt effect of 

generating a controversy, a furore. A few 

days earlier, we had been told that the 

Presidency was conducting a Ministerial 

Record Card session where Ministers 

were required to give accounts of their 

stewardship. Most of the Ministers had 

spent about eight or nine months in office 

and before May 29, at least eight 

Ministers made presentations. With the 

National Anthem thrown into the mix, 

nobody talked again about the Minister’s 

score card. Indeed, till this moment, there 

has been very little discussion of the 

Tinubu administration’s score card in one 

year. That subject has been pushed off 

the front pages by the controversy over 

the National Anthem. Even the wise men 

who had advised that Tinubu should be 

allowed to spend one year in office before 

any assessment is done, have been 

studiously quiet. They have refused to 

respect their own deadline. And so, 

Tinubu and his team, in their classical 

“teamship” fashion have as they say, 

played a smart one on Nigerians. And we 

the people got fooled. Cluelessness has no 

better definition. Of all the things that 

assail Nigerians: high cost of living, crude 

oil theft, food inflation, insecurity, 

corruption, divestments by multinational 

oil corporations, the flight of capital to 

other countries, the unabating spread of 

a culture of hate in the country, poor 

governance, bad politics, many Nigerians 

are left wondering why a national 

Anthem should be a subject of urgent 

national importance. 

Some of the immediate responses are 

noteworthy. Oby Ezekwesili, former 

Minister of the Federal Republic (Solid 

Minerals, Education), was quick to create 

a hashtag #NotmyNationalAnthem to 

express her objection to the reversion to 

the colonial National Anthem. She made 

it clear that she would always sing the 

1978 National Anthem “Arise O 

Compatriots”, and not “Nigeria We Hail 

Thee”. She was of the view that this was 

“an egregious case of Majoring in the 

Minor…repugnant to good conscience.” 

She was soon joined by Senator Shehu 

Sani who wondered aloud about the 

Tinubu administration’s misplacement of 

priorities. When the matter was debated 

on the floor of the Senate, Senator 

Adams Oshiomhole (Edo North) had 

objected to the use of the words; “native 

and tribe” in the old National Anthem. 

Many Nigerians agreed with him. 

“Native and tribe” are pejorative words 

with which the colonialists who gave 

Nigeria a National Anthem at 

independence in 1960 identified us. 

Oshiomhole was hushed up. The 

majority had their way. Within days, 

school pupils were already being taken 

through the ordeal of learning the old 

anthem. A video soon went viral of the 

dance-and-song-loving Governor of 

Osun State, Senator Ademola Jackson 

Adeleke trying to re-learn the National 

Anthem. But it was only a matter of time 

before the conscientious objectors took 

centre-stage. Aisha Yesufu, the activist 

was at an event where the old, now new 

National Anthem was played and she 

refused to stand up. Everyone glared at 

her. She neither budged nor flinched. She 

has since defended her choice by 

dismissing the National Anthem as an 

“obnoxious law”. She added: “We are 

citizens, not slaves.” She went a step 

further to claim that “Tinubu was not 

voted for. He rigged his way to office. 

How dare he?” Mrs Yesufu has since 

been supported by Mrs Oby Ezekwesili 

who returned to the subject, stating that 

the National Assembly engaged in “a 

Kangaroo Act of violating the 

Constitution”. 

The legal line highlighted by 

Ezekwesili has also been taken up a civil 

society group: the Association of 

Legislative Drafting and Advocacy 

Practitioners which has now gone to 

court to argue that the court should 

declare the new National anthem illegal 

and unconstitutional on the grounds that: 

(a) the National Assembly did not 

conduct a public hearing as required 

under Section 60 of the 1999 

Constitution. However, the National 

Assembly insists that there was a public 

hearing. The protesters insist that nobody 

was aware of any public hearing: when, 

where, and how was it held? 

(b) no letter of transmission of the 

said Bill was sent to the President as 

required by law. Nigeria is a funny 

country. The said letter can be 

manufactured and backdated. It would 

be a bigger scandal for the President of 

Nigeria to announce a law to which he 

did not append his signature. 

(c) The Association of Legislative 

Drafters also argues that the expenditures 

associated with the National Anthem Act 

2024 are not captured in the 2024 

Budget; 

(d) that the new Anthem would 

impose financial burden on Nigerians 

including costs such as man-hours that 

would be spent updating official 

documents. They forgot to add that 

learning a new Anthem is in itself an 

unnecessary burden but they were quite 

right to say that any law that does not 

follow due constitutional process cannot 

stand as held in AG of Bendel State vs. AG of 

the Federation & 22 Ors. (1981). 

The foregoing objections 

notwithstanding, there have also been 

persons who have supported the reversion 

to the old National Anthem. Senator 

Godswill Akpabio, Chairman of the 

National Assembly, was quoted as saying 

that “the most profound act of Tinubu is 

taking Nigeria back to the old National 

Anthem”. Please, what is profound about 

a thoughtless, impulsive legislative and 

executive act that required no serious 

BY REUBEN ABATI 

reflection and has no bearing whatsoever 

on good governance? My friend and 

colleague, Professor Anthony Kila has 

dismissed Akpabio’s statement as 

sycophancy writ large. But what can we 

also make of the statement attributed to 

Hon. Philip Agbese, Member of the 

House of Representatives 

(Ado/Okpokwu/Ogbadibo Federal 

Constituencies) who reportedly said “the 

old National Anthem is a major step 

towards the country’s return to glory 

days”. Haba! How? The more intelligent 

defence of the reversion to the old and 

new National Anthem came from 

Professor Mike Ozekhome, the legal 

luminary who has argued repeatedly that 

he, indeed, canvassed for a return to the 

old National Anthem at the 2014 

National Conference, a motion that was 

unanimously carried at plenary and 

which formed one of the major 

recommendations of the Conference. 

Ozekhome, who studied English, before 

he studied Law and rose to the very top in 

that chosen vocation rests his argument 

on what he considers the linguistic 

profundity of the old National Anthem. 

He thinks that the phrasing of the old 

National Anthem evokes emotions that 

align more with the Nigerian situation. 

He has also been identified as one 

Nigerian who attended the public hearing 

that the Association of Legislative 

Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners 

insists never took place. Who else 

attended that public hearing? 

Besides, Ozekhome has been 

reminded that the 2014 National 

Conference that he quotes triumphantly 

as “the man who saw tomorrow” had far 

more fundamental resolutions that have 

been ignored most conveniently by the 

Tinubu administration viz: review of 

fiscal revenue sharing formula, creation 

of new States, qualification to become 

President - that is anybody aspiring to be 

President of Nigeria must have at least a 

university degree; rotation of Presidency; 

decamping – any elected official who 

cross-carpets must automatically forfeit 

his seat; acting Presidency – when a 

President dies in office, the Vice President 

can only act for 90 days during which an 

election to the same office shall be 

conducted; open grazing - cattle routes 

and grazing reserves should be phased 

out to encourage ranching; a new State 

Continued on Page 9

Opinion 



Page9 

Tinubu and the old/new 

National Anthem 


for the South East for purposes of equity 

and balance; review of the form of 

government; local government autonomy, 

removal of the immunity clause, State 

police, abolition of sponsorship of 

religious pilgrimages. Out of all these 

weightier issues, it is curious that the one 

that catches President Tinubu’s fancy is 

the recommendation about the National 

Anthem! And the law was passed within a 

week – quite a record in legislative 

efficiency that deserves deeper probe. 

The whole saga got really messy when 

it became apparent, and the social media 

amplified this that indeed in 2022, ahead 

of the 2023 general election, President 

Tinubu, then a candidate and aspirant 

had granted an interview where he 

expressed preference for the old National 

Anthem and vowed in these words: “the 

old anthem is about service, diversity and 

commitment. I don’t know why we 

changed it. If I had my way, I will bring 

it back.” Tinubu won the 2023 

Presidential election and now he is having 

his way and he has changed Nigeria’s 

National Anthem to satisfy his own wish. 

Laws are to be made for the common 

good, not for persons and their whims. 

One of my favourite passages in Lee 

Kuan Yew’s book, “From Third World to 

First” is where he writes about African 

leaders and lawmaking, and how African 

leaders create laws to serve personal 

interests rather than the interest of the 

people. In his view, this hinders 

development and perpetuates poverty. In 

Some Nigerians are left wondering why a National Anthem should be a subject of urgent national importance 

that book, Lee Kuan Yew wrote 

specifically about his visit to Nigeria for a 

Commonwealth meeting hosted by Prime 

Minister Sir Tafawa Balewa. There was 

a banquet at the Federal Palace Hotel, 

Victoria Island, where Minister Yew sat 

opposite Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, 

Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh. Of the Chief, 

Yew reports in his book that: “He was 

going to retire soon. He had done enough 

for his country and now had to look after 

his business, a shoe factory. As Finance 

Minister, he had imposed a tax on 

imported shoes so that Nigeria could 

make shoes. Singapore Foreign Minister 

Sinnathamby Rajaratnam and I were 

incredulous. Chief Festus had a good 

appetite that showed in his rotund figure, 

elegantly camouflaged in colourful 

Nigerian robes with gold ornamentation 

and a splendid cap. I went to bed that 

night convinced that they were a different 

people playing to a different set of rules.” 

Minister Yew is certainly right. 

Nigerians are a different people playing 

to a different set of rules. As it was in the 

60s, so it is now in 2024. The world is 

talking about the future of things driven 

by Generative AI, we are here in 2024 

talking about National Anthem, we are 

busy going back to the past, not knowing 

what to do with the present or the future. 

To worsen matters, President Tinubu also 

wears a splendid cap! And he has made a 

law, with the support of the National 

Assembly to please himself. It must be 

noted that even the Attorney General of 

the Federation and Minister of Justice 

had to intervene to say that the National 

Anthem Act should have been subjected 

to wider consultation. Thus, the country’s 

chief law officer tactically disowned the 

new National Anthem. Law is made for 

the people, not the other way round, and 

the true test of any law lies in its 

acceptance by the people. Dr. Kayode 

Ajulo, SAN, OON and AG of Ondo 

State has put in an opinion that “the 

Nigerian National Anthem Act stipulates 

that failure to stand during the rendition 

of the anthem is an offense punishable by 

imprisonment, fine and or both fine and 

imprisonment.” In other words, if more 

Nigerians follow the Mrs. Yesufu and 

Mrs. Ezekwesili line of protest, Tinubu 

would have more than enough people to 

arrest. Alternatively, he may face a 

situation where most Nigerians regard the 

return to the old anthem as a joke. 

Already, Nigerians ever so ready to create 

a social media skit out of everything have 

invented many versions of the National 

Anthem; fuji, hip hop, juju and reggae 

versions! So, how many people will 

Tinubu arrest? 

Section 24 (a) of the 1999 

Constitution on essential duties of 

citizens says that citizens are required to 

“abide by this Constitution, respect its 

ideals and its institutions, the National 

Flag, the National Anthem, the National 

Pledge and legitimate authorities.” This 

is in Chapter Two, the justiciability of 

which remains a subject of debate. I have 

not seen a copy of the National Anthem 

Act of 2024 - if at all it exists, it is yet to 

be published, but it would be most 

strange indeed to send anybody to prison 

or asked to pay a fine for refusing to sing 

the National Anthem. Mrs Aisha Yesifu 

may well be right when she proclaimed 

that “we are citizens, not slaves.” All 

things considered, the re-introduction of 

“Nigeria We Hail Thee” is a gamble. 

Nigerians who argue that it is wrong to 

return to an anthem written by Lillian 

Jean Williams and set to musical score by 

Frances Berda are beginning to ask why 

the Tinubu government has a colonial 

mentality. In 1978, the then Nigerian 

military government, opted for a new 

National Anthem: “Arise O 

Compatriots,” which was selected from 

the lyrics of five winning entries, fused 

into one. The entries were submitted by P. 

O. Aderogba, Babatunde Ogunnaike, 

John Ikechukwu, Eme Etim Akpan and 

Sotu Omoigui. The Director of Music, 

Nigeria Police Band, Benedict Odiase 

selected the lyrics, fused them and 

composed the music. 

It is most unfortunate that we are busy 

discussing National Anthem rather than 

more important issues. This is the very 

height of cluelessness. We may soon end 

up as a nation with two National 

Anthems. Those who claim that Tinubu’s 

National Anthem is a profound act, and 

an achievement of great national 

importance should cease and desist 

forthwith from sounding so ridiculous.


Opinion 

Ekiti, Osun: Getting the battle 

lines drawn 

By Abiodun Komolafe 

Barring unforeseen circumstances, 

the 2026 Ekiti and Osun 

Governorship elections are less 

than 27 and 28 months away respectively. 

In Osun State, it is believed in the All 

Progressives Congress (APC) family 

circle that former Governor Rauf 

Aregbesola’s tendency worked for the 

then Candidate, now Governor Ademola 

Adeleke and the People’s Democratic 

Party (PDP) in the July 2022 election. 

Prominent among this tendency were 

Wale Bolorunduro and Kolapo Alimi 

who eventually became the State 

Commissioner for Information and 

Public Enlightenment. On the flipside, it 

is also believed that a major tendency in 

the PDP, as represented by the Shuaib 

Oyedokuns and the Dotun Babayemis, 

also worked for former Governor 

Gboyega Oyetola and APC in the same 

election. So, there’s a counter-balance of 

forces! 

As 2026 fast approaches, it is too 

early to predict where the pendulum will 

swing! But, whichever way, Adeleke is 

the incumbent Governor; and, despite his 

administration’s contamination by 

terrible management, poor decisionmaking 

and policy instability, the 

Governor is perceived to be performing. 

For instance, he is paying the backlog of 

salary arrears owed Osun workers during 

the APC years and this may work in his 

favour. Nonetheless, there is nothing 

permanent about incumbency. After all, 

Oyetola was the incumbent Governor 

when he was removed from office. 

Truth be told, PDP is unsettled in Ekiti 

just as APC is gasping for breath in Osun. 

But it is interesting to note that, in Ekiti, 

PDP has been reduced to a non-existent 

political party. It is in tatters, with the 

umbrella torn into many parts, to the 

extent that Ayo Fayose who is seen as the 

leader of the party has already declared 

support for Governor Biodun Abayomi 

Oyebanji’s 2 nd Term bid, that he 

(Oyebanji) may have an edge. The same 

goes for former Governor Segun Oni, 

who also contested as the Governorship 

candidate of the Social Democratic Party 

(SDP), in the last exercise. 

Still on Osun APC, to say that there 

are no challenges for the Tajudeen Lawalled 

party will only amount to an attempt 

at lubricating the ego of pretence. 

Conversely, those who may be thinking 

that giants cannot be defeated had better 

interrogate how David defeated Goliath 

(1 Samuel 17: 50-53) and how the 

fearless Caleb and Joshua reconnoitered 

the Land of Canaan (Numbers 13:30). Be 

that as it may, a political party that wants 

to wrestle power from a very stubborn 

ruling party must truly take the bull by 

the horn! Since election victory is a factor 

of the number of votes lawfully secured, 

Osun APC must try to win the people’s 

hearts, including the State civil servants’. 

For Osun APC, South Africa’s 

landmark elections have again shown that 

there’s strength in unity! Therefore, the 

search for unity and peace has become a 

sine qua non if it is to stand a better 

chance against the ruling party in the 

State. Towards achieving this, the starting 

line is to sincerely admit that avertable 

mistakes were made before, during, even 

after the July 16 2022 Osun governorship 

exercise; and that genuine efforts are 

being made to rebuild the party. 

In a three-part intervention entitled 

‘Osun APC and some hard home truths’, 

seven months ago, yours sincerely did 

highlight some of the ills that have 

deepened mistrust in Osun APC and I 

believe that a word should be sufficient 

for the wise! Therefore, as 2026 nears us 

by the eyelids, let the party prefer selling 

its sweet stories as an attractive 

alternative to getting drenched in the 

miasma of political brickbats. What Osun 

APC needs at this crucial time is 

prioritizing election victory over 

humiliating ‘monkey-dey-work-baboondey-chop’ 

attitudes. Most importantly, it 

will be in President Bola Tinubu’s 

objective interest as APC National 

Leader to reconcile all the feuding 

factions in the State chapter; and that’s if 

Osun APC sincerely wants to draw 

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lessons from the past. 

Yes, Osun and Ekiti are a tale of two 

destinies and it is all about transformation 

capabilities. Take, for instance, while one 

Governor is acting in line with the 

common sense interpretation of 

development by building an exportoriented 

economy and the right types of 

infrastructure that can generate revenue, 

the other is just feeding his herds and 

emphasizing white elephant projects, 

thereby mindlessly diverting the meagre 

resources that are meant to construct 

Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and rural 

roads to unnecessary charades. 

Since Oyebanji is on the right track, 

the opposition doesn’t seem to exist in 

Ekiti. His considerable investment in the 

power sector in a bid to fix power 

infrastructure and boost economic 

activities in line with his Shared 

Prosperity agenda is a demonstration of 

the seriousness of intent. Thankfully, the 

National Electricity Regulatory 

Commission (NERC) recently transferred 

electricity regulatory oversight to the 

State in line with the new Electricity Act 

2023. Surely, this momentous milestone 

has made an immeasurable impact on the 

lives of the people. 

Continued on Page 11

Opinion 



Ekiti, Osun: Getting the battle 

lines drawn 

Page11 


Fondly called BAO by his admirers, 

Oyebanji is reportedly the first Governor 

to pay “the new Hazard Allowance and 

the newly-adjusted CONMESS”. He is 

also reputed as “the second to pay the 

Medical Residency Training Funds 

among State Tertiary Health Institutions 

in the Southwest region.” No doubt about 

it, these steps will go a long way towards 

encouraging Resident Doctors as well as 

improving their “commitment to work 

and training at this critical period of 

economic hardship.” 

The Governor’s “dedication, hard 

work and unwavering commitment to the 

service of Ekiti State” was reflected in his 

incredibly significant trip to the United 

States of America to attract investments 

to the State. But one important 

investment destination of interest BAO 

must explore is The Netherlands, to learn 

about how the country got its agriculture 

right! Ekiti needs to learn about how a 

country with the geographical size of the 

State has become the world’s 2 nd largest 

exporter of food and agricultural 

products, after the United States of 

America. 

Discreet investigations have also 

shown that ‘Land of Honour and 

Integrity’ is blessed with a number of 

micro- and mini-hydro possibilities, 

including Ero and Itapaji Dams. Again, 

this is where accessing a sense of 

fraternal ties with countries like Denmark 

and Vietnam comes in! A trip to the 

former will intimate the Governor with 

how to turn slow running rivers into 

electricity while the latter will treat him 

to how the once war-ravaged country 

now has the lowest unit cost of electricity 

globally. 

‘History is falsified because the 

victors write history’, so says the East 

African proverb. Put differently, ‘if the 

hunter writes the story, the lion will look 

like a weakling.’ Well, those who carried 

out pioneering studies like Gunnar 

Myrdal, René Dumont and André Gunder 

Frank have shown conclusively how to 

Governor Ademola Adeleke 

develop a country. In their seminal 

works, they argued that in democracy, 

development processes like the provision 

of clean water, dispensary, primary 

schools and State banks, among others, 

always starts from the base. Dumont’s 

classic, ‘False Start in Africa’, came out 

in 1966. But it is sad that Africa continues 

to swim irresistibly in the same mistakes, 

even in 2024. For God’s sake, why 

should a book written in 1966 about the 

systemic inadequacies in Africa still be 

relevant in this time and age? But again, 

this is how we have fared as a continent 

and it’s a shame! 

Obviously, our continent is being 

ravaged by what Frank referred to as the 

‘The Development of 

Underdevelopment’. However, it is 

believed that Oyebanji is in a determined 

confrontation with this leadership deficit 

in Ekiti. With the inauguration of the 

MSME Clinics Garment Hub and the 

proposed establishment of an Information 

Communication Technology (ICT) hub in 

the State by the national government, it 

can only get better! 

May the Lamb of God, who takes 

away the sin of the world, grant us peace 

in Nigeria! 



(ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk) 

Ekiti State Capital - Ado-Ekiti (Photo - Blacadeyemi - CCA SA 4.0 Int)

Page12 TheTrumpet JUNE 12 - 25 2024 

Opinion 

Democracy, governance and 

credible elections (2) 

By Abiodun Komolafe 

Let’s come to the issues of 

recruitment and selection. All over 

the world, leadership is what 

changes history. Think of the Bolshevik 

Revolution of 1917, led by leftist 

revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, 

aka, Vladimir Lenin, and come to terms 

with the fact that followership are just 

extras in a movie! Or, was it ‘the people’ 

or a determined leadership comprising few 

people like Awolowo, who made the 

deserved changes during the Action Group 

days? Was it ‘the people’ who built 

Ghana’s Volta Dam as a testimony of 

tenacity and human courage for which 

Kwame Nkrumah was ultimately 

sacrificed? 

In Nigeria, what’s the position of 

training a cadre? Mhairi Black was 20 

years and 237 days old when she was 

elected into the British House of Commons 

but she has been involved in politics since 

the age of 12. Gordon Brown who 

eventually became the British Prime 

Minister was already distributing leaflets 

for the Labour Party at the age of 13! In our 

clime, politicians are not there because 

they are interested in politics but because 

it’s a survival kit. Most of the taxi drivers in 

Ghana have converted their cars from 

Petrol to GAS (LPG). With good leaders in 

the saddle, shouldn’t Nigeria have attained 

this feat some five years back? Since 

cassava is grown in large quantities, 

shouldn’t there have been ethanol plants 

that could turn cassava into ethanol? 

Yes, we can have all the Bimodal Voter 

Accreditation Systems (BVAS) in the world 

but an election starts from the ease of 

registration, ease of changing the 

registration and allied stuff. With these in 

mind, why has it been cumbersome for 

people to be registered in Nigeria? Of 

course, this wasn’t so in the past! More 

importantly, to change one’s registration at 

that time when there was no technology 

wouldn’t take more than two days! 

Tragically, Nigeria is now a different story 

entirely! Consider the amount of 

disenfranchisement going on in our 

universities and you’ll pity dear fatherland! 

The optics of the situation are so bad that 

even with technology in place, a student 

who registered at Osun State University in 

Osogbo but who is now on the post-study 

compulsory year-long national service in 

Calabar cannot vote. With technology, it 

should be easy for such a soul to change 

his or her registration! But that’s not so 

here! At every step, a man who registered 

in Katsina State but has now secured a job 

opportunity in Ogun State shouldn’t find it 

difficult to change his registration within 

two minutes. After all, aren’t we now 

sending money from Oyo State to Abia 

State via the telephone in seconds? 

Keiichiro Hirano, in ‘At the End of the 

Matinee’, remarked: “People think that 

only the future can be changed, but in 

fact, the future is continually changing the 

past. The past can and does change. It’s 

exquisitely sensitive and delicately 

balanced.” Beyond any doubt, change is in 

the possibility of time and the total resolve 

of the critical mass of the population of a 

given society is what makes a change to 

come. For change to happen in any society, 

the governance aspect must be headed by a 

man or woman of understanding who can 

see the vision through. What’s more? The 

flow of change must be smooth and 

seamless; otherwise, social hiccups are 

capable of disorganizing any society. Well, 

were this dispensation to be headed by one 

Bola Ahmed Tinubu 

nincompoop somewhere, one would have 

been sensing danger in the foreseeable 

future. But President Bola Tinubu is one 

king of the street who has an advantage of 

street wisdom. He is also an enigma who 

has mastered the business of governance. 

As fate would have it, these have mushed 

together to project the leadership structure 

for this administration. 

Much is expected from Tinubu because 

he already has a track record of being a 

progressive. He commendably fought the 

Olusegun Obasanjo regime on the basis of 

a sensible federalist position. And now that 

the starting gun has been fired, it only 

remains for him to take control of the 

ladder. Now that history is right therefore 

before him, Nigerians expect the President 

to demonstrate his commitment which is 

laudable to a federalist state. The President 

must first and foremost see himself as a 

patriotic, original Nigerian who is above 

tribal, religious and clannish sentiments. 

Tinubu’s government is expected to 

dust the Uwais Report which so far has 

attacked all forms of elections and 

democratic deficits in Nigeria. Since 

governance and credible elections are 

interwoven, that the Report has continued 

to gather dust has only shown that 

successive governments were not 

interested; and that’s too bad for 

democracy. 

Unlike countries like Brazil, Australia, 

Argentina and Seychelles where voting is 

mandatory, it is because Nigerians have 

switched off that voter turnout in Nigeria 

has successively become pathetically low. 

In the aforementioned countries, a 

defaulter could be fined the equivalent of 

the minimum wage but do our leaders even 

pray for mandatory voting in Nigeria? 

Unlike what obtains in sane climes where 

elections are permanent campaigns of 

sorts, elections in Nigeria are just fouryearly 

rituals. 

In the normal manner, Nigeria should 

by now be thinking about Diaspora voting, 

for Nigerians abroad cannot be 

contributing more than $20b to the 

country’s economy annually without 

having the right to vote. Remove $20b 

from Nigeria’s Balance of Payments and 

current accounts and one doesn’t need to 

be an econometrician before understanding 

that NGN would by now have been 

standing at N1,800.00 to the dollar. Again, 

if Diaspora voting could happen in Kenya, 

why has Nigeria remained an effort flying 

in the air? 

Tinubu’s government also needs to 

fight for a living wage to act as a 

reflationary stimulus to attract investments. 

In doing that, it should go to the Awolowo 

school of thought which saw the living 

wage as an investment thing. Besides, it’s 

time Nigeria went back to the past in terms 

of a constitutional rearrangement that’s 

based on production, not consumption, to 

prevent the roads of governance and 

elections from being tarred with sharing, 

for he who controls the government 

controls the cutting of the cake. Nigerians 

are suffering and are finding it difficult to 

breathe. But, since the poor on this part of 

the globe are not organized, they can only 

cry but their voices won’t be loud enough 

to attract reasonable attention. 

Have we forgotten that majority of the 

adherents of ‘dìbò kóo sebè’ (vote and 

collect money for a pot of soup) political 

arrangements are the uneducated and the 

unlettered? Of course, when this class is 

obliterated, it means that the country is 

growing. After all, we all know what that 

means in a country like Nigeria where the 

poor must be kept perpetually poor! The 

notorious truth is that there will be no 

peace until the masses get back their 

society for, when the people are not 

gainfully employed, they will be engaged, 

of course at a cost that governments across 

board don’t seem to understand. 

Obviously, that’s what’s giving the 

government some leverage; and that’s what 

has paved the way for all sorts of mix. 

That’s what the fracas in Rivers State is all 

about! That it is about good governance is 

just a rumour in the Tea Room! 

Lastly, let it be noted that a country that 

allows a people who formed themselves 

together for the reason of the security of the 

stomach has already opened the door to 

terror and associated consequences. 

Therefore, unless Nigeria goes back to the 

spirit of the 1963 Constitution, the country 

will continue to be a familiar figure in 

labour loss! 

May the Lamb of God, who takes 

away the sin of the world, grant us peace 

in Nigeria! 



(ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk)

JUNE 12 - 25 2024 TheTrumpet 

Page13


News 





investigations conducted by police, 

border guards, the Mabahith secret 

police agency, and the Department of 

Combating Illegal Migration and 

Human Trafficking; and decisions taken 

by public prosecutors. 

In the investigation documents, 

refugees are often accused of being part 

of smuggling groups or are labelled as 

“suspected outlaws” responsible for 

“causing serious harm to the dignity and 

reputation of Egypt”. The language and 

allegations are identical in several 

different documents, which local 

lawyers said indicates that the charges 

are premeditated. 

Many of the refugees were brought 

in front of a public prosecutor, yet guilty 

verdicts appear to be rare: In 34 cases 

where reporters obtained documents 

detailing public prosecutor decisions, 

the proceedings all ended with 

prosecutor statements calling for the 

release of the accused because of a lack 

of evidence. 

Following the release decisions, 

refugees are handed over to security 

agencies, according to lawyers and 

refugee testimonies. They then have 

deportation orders processed against 

them anyway, raising questions as to 

why they are being put through the 

proceedings in the first place. 

Throughout the process, refugees are 

consistently denied legal defence and 

the chance to initiate asylum procedures, 

said Mahmoud, the 31-year-old from 

Khartoum. He said he was detained in 

mid-January and accused by secret 

police of smuggling offences. 

“We’ve endured injustice and false 

accusations without the opportunity to 

defend ourselves or contact a lawyer,” 

Mahmoud told reporters. “This is 

despite authorities being aware of the 

perilous journey we have undertaken in 

pursuit of asylum in Egypt.” 

Since his deportation, Mahmoud said 

he has been “tormented” by the question 

of why refugees fleeing a war zone are 

being punished. Still, he said he 

considers himself fortunate to have 

survived, given that others endured 

“even harsher experiences along the 

same journey”. 

Rodents, sewage, and stifling heat 

Reporters identified six of the main 

military bases where refugees are being 

detained. Some former detainees 

provided coordinates of the facilities, 

while in other cases reporters matched 

Google Earth and Maxar satellite images 

with open source photographs and 

videos of the sites, and with verbal 

descriptions from refugees. 

The facilities verified are all in 

military-controlled bases in the southern 

Aswan and Red Sea governorates. Five 

are operated by border guard forces 

under the control of the Ministry of 

Defence, and one is operated by a police 

unit under the Ministry of Interior. 

None of the bases are designated as 

official detention centres by the Ministry 

of Interior, which is a legal requirement, 

according to three local lawyers who 

asked not to be named because of the 

risk of reprisals. They said the detentions 

are therefore illegal under Egyptian law. 

Satellite images for four of the 

facilities show pick-up vehicles of the 

kind that refugees said are used by 

smugglers. In one facility, over 200 cars 

are visible, while in pictures of another 

– taken in December and March – the 

number of cars increases. The images 

support the conclusion that the facilities 

are housing refugees and that border 

guards are engaged in large-scale antirefugee 

and anti-smuggling operations. 

All the former detainees said they 

were denied access to lawyers and 

UNHCR workers, and that security 

forces requested their phones, though 

some were able to hide them. Only one 

said they were able to speak to relatives 

during their detention period. 

Videos, photographs, and refugee 

testimonies reveal harrowing conditions 

inside the bases, which The New 

Humanitarian and the Refugees 

Platform are identifying in order to 

provide information that could be useful 

for the relatives of missing refugees. 

Nasifa, the refugee deported in 

January, stayed in a place that reporters 

verified as the Aswan border guard base. 

She said refugees were held in a part of 

the facility that looked like “a horse 

stable”, and that space was so cramped 

that new arrivals were put out in a cold 

courtyard. Among the detained refugees 

was a woman suffering from bleeding, 

another with high blood pressure, and a 

man with throat cancer, Nasifa said. 

Amina, the refugee involved in the 

car crash, said she stayed in a “very bad” 

facility verified by reporters as the Abu 

Ramad military base. Amina said there 

was no light, insufficient water, and a 

bathroom without a door. She said she 

asked for diabetes medication from 

soldiers but was not given any during 

her detention. 

Three refugees said they stayed 

inside a facility that reporters verified as 

the al-Shallal base, which is managed by 

a police unit known as the Central 

Security Forces. They said the base is 

being used for refugees detained outside 

of border areas, and that brief family 

visits were occasionally allowed. 

Mahmoud, the refugee accused of 

smuggling, said he stayed in al-Shallal 

for 70 days. He said hundreds of people 

were packed into small spaces, and that 

many were suffering from respiratory 

infections and skin diseases due to 

outbreaks of lice and ticks. “It is like a 

grave,” Mahmoud said. “The lack of 

sunlight, coupled with the closed doors, 

created an environment conducive to the 

spread of diseases.” 

Another facility identified and 

geolocated by reporters is Abu Simbel 

military base. Former detainees, 

lawyers, and local government officials 

said refugees are transferred to the base 

from other military camps ahead of them 

being deported through the nearby 

Ashkit border crossing. 

Nasifa said she was transferred to 

Abu Simbel from the Aswan border 

guard base. She described 

overcrowding, sewage overflowing in 

front of a kitchen, and women and 

children with food poisoning. She said a 

pregnant woman in labour was left on 

the floor for 90 minutes without medical 

help. The day after her arrival she said 

buses brought dozens more refugees to 

the camp, all of whom were awaiting 

deportation. 

Nowhere to go 

Interviews with refugees and other 

sources identified two key places where 

refugees are being deported from: the 

Ras Hadaraba crossing, for refugees 

intercepted in the disputed Hala’ib 

Triangle; and Ashkit, a busy crossing 

where deported refugees are sent to the 

adjacent town of Wadi Halfa. 

Seven refugees said they were 

transported to the border crossings 

alongside hundreds of others and then 

handed over to Sudanese authorities. 

Their accounts are backed up by a social 

media video of a mass deportation that 

has been geolocated and verified by 

reporters. 

Two refugees said local aid workers 

gave them humanitarian support on the 

border, though others said they were 

given no assistance, and some said they 

were even asked to pay for their own 

deportation by Egyptian authorities. 

Several refugees deported to Wadi 

Halfa said they stayed put in the border 

town, which has an Egyptian Consulate 

and has attracted tens of thousands of 

people seeking visas over the past year. 

Several dozen have succumbed to 

dehydration, heat stroke, and infections 

while waiting for visas, according to 

local hospital records shared with 

reporters by a human rights activist. 

Amina, the refugee involved in the 

car crash, said she was deported via Ras 

Hadaraba in early March. She said 

Sudanese soldiers picked her and 200 

others up at the border, and then drove 

them to the eastern city of Port Sudan in 

tractors usually used to transport cattle. 

They were given sandwiches and water 

on arrival in Port Sudan but had no 

accommodation, Amina said. 

Despite her ordeal, Amina did not 

stay in Port Sudan for long. She soon 

contacted smugglers and set off again 

for Egypt, this time successfully 

reaching Cairo. She said Egyptian 

soldiers had even encouraged her to 

make the journey again: For every 30- 

40 vehicles that cross the border, “we 

catch three or four”, the soldiers told her. 

After being deported to Sudan’s 

remote northern border region in late 

January, Nasifa told reporters she had no 

way of returning to her home state of Al- 

Jazira, where RSF forces have 

reportedly killed hundreds of civilians in 

recent months. Yet she said risking her 

life with smugglers in the desert to get 

back into Egypt isn’t an option either. 

“The situation in Sudan might be dire 

enough to make survival impossible,” 

Nasifa told The New Humanitarian and 

the Refugees Platform. “But nobody 

would venture out under these 

circumstances.” 

• Edited by Philip Kleinfeld. 

• The New Humanitarian puts quality, 

independent journalism at the service 

of the millions of people affected by 

humanitarian crises around the 

world. Find out more at: 

www.thenewhumanitarian.org.



Page15 

Produced in Association with HM Government 

It’s never too late to tackle addiction 

If you or someone you know is having issues 

with drugs or alcohol, there are lots of ways 

to access free & confidential advice and 

support from local experts 

Drug and alcohol problems 

can affect anyone, with 

many people keeping it a 

secret, adding pressure to holding 

down a job and juggling family 

life. This can have a serious 

impact on the people around you, 

including those you love. 

Whether you’ve become 

dependent on drugs and alcohol, 

or just find it difficult to control 

your use, it can be difficult to 

acknowledge and talk about what 

is happening. 

But it’s important to remember 

that effective, confidential, and 

non-judgemental help is available 

for anyone who feels they, or 

anyone they know, struggles with 

alcohol or drugs. Support is also 

available for families affected by a 

loved one’s alcohol and drug 

use.The government is investing 

additional funding to improve the 

capacity and quality of treatment. 

This means that there will be 

more help available in your local 

area so you can get the help you 

need quicker and the help you 

receive will be better, including 

from better-trained staff who can 

spend longer with each person. 

“You’ve got to 

do it for yourself, 

or nothing is 

going to change” 

*Aleena (name changed for 

privacy), 37, has lived through 

some challenging times. Her 

father was killed in a road 

accident when she was 11 years 

old, triggering her to go “off the 

rails” as she went into a spiral of 

drug and alcohol use. 

When she became pregnant in 

late 2020, she reached a crisis 

point and approached her local 

drug and alcohol treatment 

provider for support. 

“When I was pregnant, I 

thought enough is enough, and 

became determined to change my 

ways and surroundings. The 

penny had dropped,” says 

*Aleena. 

“I was a mess when I walked 

into drug and alcohol support 

services and now, I’m more 

confident and have my selfesteem 

back. I don’t have cravings 

and I’ve got the willpower to carry 

on. 

“The talking support groups 

are intense, but they have got to be 

intense to work. It opens your 

eyes to a lot of stuff - especially 

what you thought was normality. 

“I told my life story over six 

months, from childhood to now. 

You’re encouraged to open up to 

your key worker and once it is off 

your chest, you can put it in a box 

and forget about it. 

“I can’t thank my service 

provider enough. My key workers 

took the time to sit down with me 

and make me feel a lot better 

about myself. They are like my 

family and have been excellent 

with me and my little girl. 

“You’ve got to do it for 

yourself, or nothing is going to 

change. Even if you’re proud. I 

didn't want to ask for help, but you 

need it. Grab it with both hands 

and give it a go. Then stay calm 

and keep focused and busy. If 

you’re bored, your mind starts 

wandering. You need a routine 

and structure.” 

With a fresh start, *Aleena is 

now raising her daughter and 

continues to rebuild her life. She 

is also still in touch with her local 

treatment service, who continue to 

offer support. 

How to find help 

You can find details of treatment services on your 

local authority’s website. FRANK also has a 

directory of adult and young people’s alcohol and 

drug treatment services at talktofrank.com/help 

If you are worried about a friend or family 

member and they are happy for you to do so, 

contact FRANK, or the local drug and alcohol 

service on their behalf . You, or the person you 

are worried for can call FRANK anytime on 0300 

123 6600 for confidential advice and information. 

You can talk to your GP, who can then refer you 

to services, but if you are not comfortable doing 

that you can approach your local drug and 

alcohol treatment service yourself without a 

referral or a friend or family member can, contact 

the local service on your behalf. 

Remember that expert help is out there. Treatment 

is available for anyone who is dependent on drugs 

or alcohol. Staff in the local service will talk you 

through all of your personal treatment options and 

agree on a plan with you. 

Community support alongside treatment 

There are also lots of groups within the community 

of people in recovery that offer support, including 

Alcoholics Anonymous, Cocaine Anonymous, 

Narcotics Anonymous and UK SMART 

Recovery - and, for families and friends, Al-Anon 

and Families Anonymous. 

These self-helps groups can provide a vital source 

of support, alongside the help provided by the 

local treatment service. 

You can call FRANK anytime on 0300 123 6600 

for confidential advice and information. 

Help is at hand: Scan to reach out to the nation’s 

drug and alcohol advisory service FRANK


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