Protest Against Marginalization of the South East in the CBN
@cenbank

A thread We, the umbrella body of South East Socio-cultural Associations in the diaspora, express deep concern and disappointment over the recent directorship appointments at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). A particular publication by Rufai Oseni, a respected columnist and TV personality, has brought to light serious allegations of lopsided and exclusionary appointments within the CBN. The article, which can be found here veonewsng.com/index.php/2025…  provides a detailed and well-researched analysis of these appointments.

The Tinubu-Wike alliance is not a political partnership; it is an unholy merger of ambition and ruthless pragmatism. Together, they have reduced Nigerian politics to a zero-sum, winner-takes-all game – a dangerous, short-sighted strategy that threatens democracy, economic stability, and national cohesion.

But while Wike plays the game for relevance, Tinubu is operating at an entirely different level. His moves are not reactionary; they are premeditated and calculated. Unlike his political allies and opponents, Tinubu does not play for survival – he plays for absolute control. What is his endgame? How does he intend to manipulate 2027? What will be the consequences for Nigeria?

This is not just a battle for power; it is a battle for the soul of Nigeria. And if history has taught us anything, it is that unchecked ambition often leads to self-destruction.

Unmarked Vans. Secret Lists. Public Denunciations. Our Police State Has Arrived.

🧵 “It’s the unmarked cars,” a friend who grew up under an Argentine dictatorship said. He had watched the video of the Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil’s abduction. In the video, which Khalil’s wife recorded, she asks for the names of the men in plainclothes who handcuffed her husband.

“We don’t give our name,” one responds. “Can you please specify what agency is taking him?” she pleads. No response. We know now that Khalil was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security.

Those of us who have lived in countries terrorized by a secret police force can’t shake a feeling of dreadful familiarity. “I never realized until this moment how much fear I carried with me from my childhood in Communist Romania,” another friend, the literary scholar Marianne Hirsch, told me. “Arrests were arbitrary and every time the doorbell rang, I started to shiver.”

Chief Tony Anenih Memoirs.

Abiola Invited Abacha To Overthrow Shonekan And Handover To Him After. - SDP Party Chairman.

🧵 “I was returning from one of such trips to a prominent Emir one afternoon when I heard from my car radio Chief Abiola calling on General Abacha to come and ease Chief Shonekan as he eased out Babangida, I was shocked.

I called Chief Abiola and asked for an explanation of what I had just heard.

His reply was, “Mr. Chairman, I am very happy to have worked for you. You are a strong-willed man, but you see, if you want to go to Kano by road and you later decide to go to Kano by air, as long as you get to Kano, there is nothing wrong with that”.

At this time, the party did not know and I did not know Chief Abiola was having discussions with General Abacha who had promised him that if Chief Abiola supported, and if he, General Abacha, took over from Chief Shonekan today, he would hand-over the reins of Government to Chief Abiola the next day, and Chief Abiola bought the idea.

We later got to know that there were series of meetings in Ikeja where names of those who would serve in Abacha government were discussed and forwarded. When we found out that things were not moving well and that the interim government was a lame duck, I went to have a meeting with the then Secretary for Agriculture, Alhaji Isa Muhammed, and I expressed my disgust at the way the government was being run.

Nigeria's Triangle Of Incest

"No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session."
- Gideon J. Tucker

🧵 A Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos would not vacate his seat for anyone appointed illegally from Abuja - or from anywhere. If the heavens wanted to fall, he would ask them to fall. He would not go hide somewhere in his wife's handbag, and from the safety of his ghetto be issuing gutless press releases. If Abuja insisted on his suspension, he would mobilise the law and lawyers for eruptions of seismic proportions. He would ask the Supreme Court to determine whether the president could sack or suspend elected governors, appoint caretaker governors and take over the role of state Houses of Assembly. He would ask the apex court to reconcile this case with its earlier verdict which outlawed caretaker governments for one of our tiers of government. He would put everything he had into the mix; he would count the teeth of the tiger in Abuja. But Rivers is not Lagos, and Siminalayi Fubara is not Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The difference between both is the difference between courage and cowardice.

There is a royal family in Lagos called Oniru. In the earliest times when there was no Lagos and Eko knew its boundaries, that family owned all lands that house today’s Awolowo Road, the prime area called Falomo, Tafawa Balewa Square, the Independence Building, Island Club, Yoruba Tennis Club, et cetera, et cetera. Add Oyinkan Abayomi to that list, and, in addition to those places, input 18 other villages – all in pricey Lagos Island. The family that owned all those is the family that produced the new and contentious speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Mrs Mojisola Lasbat Meranda. Do not mind her surname; she is an Oniru. Her brother is the reigning Oba of their Iruland. She is a princess but being a princess is not enough for her to join the big league of Lagos. Her election as speaker by almost all her colleagues, means little or nothing. In the pantheon of Lagos politics, there is always one god whose one vote trumps a million ballots. In some places, you do not have to enter the grove before you become an elder; grey hair is enough. Not in Lagos. In Lagos, the godfather is the igbó’rò, the sacred grove that confers age, that vests authority in and breathes life into all figurines.

SENATOR AKPABIO: I CAN NO LONGER HOLD IT

🧵 I “kind of” like Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and his lovely wife, Unoma. She is Igbo, married to Akwa Ibom, so she also bears the name Ekaette.

When Akpabio was the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, I admired the couple so much. The two usually displayed their love for each other publicly. Unoma would use fan on her husband each time she was there and he was making a speech. Atimes, she would use a white handkerchief to wipe sweat off Akpabio as he read. Akpabio also reciprocated in kind. He did the same for her.

In five parts, thirteen chapters, six appendices, including an interview; a prologue and an epilogue, he sought to give a definite definition of himself. But, for me, the deepest insight into the person of General Ibrahim Babangida is not in his expensive book (it fetched him billions; I bought a copy for N40,000). The greatest revelation was at the launch of the book in Abuja. His comrade-in-arms and childhood friend, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, revealed that a cleric told them about 80 years ago that Babangida would one day be president of his country. Now, when you, a seer, tell a child that he would be king one day, the palace cannot be safe until the child becomes man and he becomes king – or he dies. We read exactly that in Shakespeare’s story of the Scottish General, Macbeth. Three witches tell Macbeth that he will be King of Scotland. Macbeth becomes impatient; he kills the reigning king and takes the throne. Because of the security of his throne, paranoia pushes King Macbeth to take other desperate measures. People die; civil war erupts, more people die. Darkness falls. Please, go back and read again your Macbeth.

In recent days, the United States has begun a major gutting of USAID, the agency responsible for administering foreign aid. Many Americans are celebrating this as a victory—finally, no more taxpayer dollars wasted on countries that, in their view, give nothing back. Elon Musk, the billionaire who only arrived in the U.S. at 24, went as far as calling USAID a “criminal organization,” declaring, “Time for it to die.” Donald Trump has labeled those in the agency as “radical lunatics.” American adversaries, eager to see the U.S. retreat from the global stage, have cheered them on. But the most ecstatic of all are everyday Americans, convinced that their country has been bleeding money for too long on nations that seemingly offer nothing in return.

🧵 It’s a tempting narrative. A compelling soundbite. The idea that the U.S. is simply throwing billions at ungrateful nations makes for good political theater. But peel back the layers, and this argument falls apart. Foreign aid is not charity; it is a business transaction, a diplomatic tool, and an economic strategy. It benefits the giver far more than the receiver. The problem is that ordinary citizens in donor countries, including the United States, rarely see how this system enriches their own economy, sustains their industries, and extends their country’s global influence.

A Nigerian lawyer, Kenneth Ikonne Esq., narrates his saddest experience in court. The story is about love and betrayal. It throws up the issue of DNA on the spotlight again, leaving the reader spell-bound. If you are able to control your emotions and manage a few drops of tears, then get on with the story below.

🧵 The scene in the courtroom of the Family Division of the Lagos State High Court, Ikeja, evoked deep pathos. The judge, a Lady, was sobbing. And so were the parties, the lawyers, and everyone else in that rattled courtroom, including me! It was at the hearing of a case instituted by me on behalf of my client, Dapo, against his former consort. Their relationship more, than thirteen years earlier, had produced a baby girl, but it did not eventually lead to marriage, even though Dapo had assumed full responsibility for the child’s upkeep and maintenance, and was at the time of the hearing bearing full responsibility for her schooling and upkeep at the very expensive Turkish – American secondary school at Victoria Island, Lagos! Dapo was well – heeled, a chartered accountant, and loved the child – his only child – dearly.

Nwanna, Many years ago, the General, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu spoke about the “Biafra of the mind.” Only a few, I think, understood him. Well, they say, only the deep speak to the deep.

But let me attempt here to tease out Dim Ojukwu’s prescription: the greatest proof of Igbo survival and aspiration must be to model, wherever Onye-Igbo stands, the ethos of innovation, excellence, ingenuity, and ability that marked the Igbo endeavor in Biafra. We must also use Biafra as the stepping stone to a higher vision of the Igbo place in the world. There is no single proof or evidence today that the Igbo of this generation are capable of transforming any nation to which they lay claim. I have looked; I have studied the Igbo situation, and I have listened to my Igbo kinsmen, and I think something is fundamentally wrong: the Igbo are trapped in a deadening hate, self-pity and nostalgia. It is the kind of nostalgia that is both defeatist and deadly because it continues to romanticize the past while the future speeds away.

The Igbo cannot wait until they achieve Biafra or a separate nation in order to build and secure Igbo land. Soon after the end of the war, Igbo survivors of the war, girded their loins and embarked on the work of restoration. With singular grit, they revived the economy of the East, and by 1979, just nine years after the end of the war, were ready to take on the rest of the nation again. We their children are a disgrace to the spirit of those men and women.

Two major projects were announced in Abuja last week: a polytechnic and a military barracks. Both were named after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I thought the president would say no to such fawning sycophancy. But no. He appears to love it. He actually sat and presided over the inauguration and naming of the barracks. A man goes to the stream to bathe and all maidens of the village struggle to be his wife or at least his mistress. That is the fortune of our president today; every loin scrambles for his hood. A sycophancy championship is afoot. If I were the president, I would be afraid and worried. Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar was offered the crown three times, and three times he rejected it. Yet, that gesture was used to consummate a conspiracy against him.

INVESTIGATION: Nigerian lawmakers demand N480 million from universities to approve 2025 budget
The lawmakers are forcing the vice-chancellors of about 60 federal universities to pay N8 million each to approve their allocations in the 2025 budgets.

🧵 Again, some lawmakers in the Nigerian National Assembly have set up a bribery scheme targeting federal universities and other tertiary institutions in the country.

Premium Times can report that lawmakers are using intimidation and threats to force the heads of universities to pay N8 million each to approve their allocations in the 2025 budgets.

This newspaper’s investigation revealed that the extortion scheme involves senators and members of the House of Representatives. The lawmakers, operating through the Senate Committee on Tertiary Education and TETFund and the House Committee on University Education, are demanding money from universities to approve their budgets.

A leader with an eye on posterity won’t have the appetite for the vanity of naming projects after himself. This is because true immortality will be bestowed by history, not monuments that can be renamed. Tinubu needs to submit himself to some clear-eyed, sober reflection. This preoccupation with self-glorification and immortalisation is a telltale sign. There is now a Tinubu Barracks in Abuja. It’s a frenzy of self-immortalization. There is a Tinubu Airport in Minna. There is a Tinubu Polytechnic in Abuja. It was approved this week. There is a Tinubu Library at the National Assembly. The NASS wants to establish a Tinubu University of National Languages. All these naming ceremonies have happened in less than two years.

On 22 August 2024, Olukayode Ariwoola, the penultimate Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) retired from the bench and transitioned into a published author. At a well-attended event in the Abuja, the former CJN beamed at the public presentation of his autobiography. Published under the title Judging with Justice, the book was ghost written by Olanrewaju Akinsola (the author better known as Onigegewura). Laid out in 13 chapters and 496 pages, the author tells his story in the first 250 pages. The remainder of the book is dedicated to testimonials on the author from colleagues in the judiciary, lawyers, friends, peers, and family members.

ORIGIN OF BRITISH PROJECT OF DE-IGBONIZATION OF RIVERS IGBO AND
THE ROOT CAUSES OF IDENTITY DENIAL IN IKWERRE, OGBA AND MOST IGBO TRIBES IN RIVERS STATE

🧵 1. The British project of De-Igbonization of Riverein Igbo/Plot of War against the Igbo has basis in Resources Control and started actively after the Iva Valley/Enugu Coalmime Massacre of 1949. The British, after World War II, had a policy of using resources from the Colony to rebuild war devastated Britain. Coal, mined at Enugu and shipped to Britain was part of the grand plan. The 'rebellious' Igbo had other thoughts. The British were plundering the Igbo coal and paying pittance to the Igbo Coalminers. The miners protested and the British massacred. The immortal Osadebe song "Onuigbo" memorialises the massacre. The Enugu massacre didn't end at Enugu. It led to a general strike, led by Michael Imoudu, in Nigeria. It reverbrated across the British empire, particularly, Africa and speed up the independence campaigns. The British marked out the Igbo for destruction, including war. This is the origin of the plot for the Biafra War, which was originally scheduled to take place before or by 1958. Sir Robert Stapledon, Governor of Eastern Nigeria pressed Britain to defer the War.

The door of life is binary; it opens either ways, inwards or outwards. So goes an age-long wisdom. When the ThisDay newspaper, on 1 January announced President Bola Tinubu as its Man of the Year pick, emotions of Nigerians ran riot. Was that decision a product of editorial science or newspaper shamanism? Nigerians asked. To many, the newspaper’s editors must have meandered into some kind of trance, communed with with some unseen spirits and emerged therefrom with their odd pick. To others, ThisDay hit the bull’s eye. Suffering Nigerians were even ready to, in the lingo of the millenials, cut the ThisDay some slacks. So, they reason: could the newspaper have been seized by some inexplicable emotion of sympathy for the president on account of unprecedented attacks against his government? Did it merely want to decorate him to charm his vanity? So, like Lord Henry said in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, did the newspaper just go “bankrupt through an over-expenditure of (their) sympathy (for Tinubu)”? For a journalism profession which thumps own chest as “the rough draft of history,” the idea of the newspaper media choosing persons as ‘Man of the Year’ began in 1928, five years after the founding of the Time magazine on 3 March, 1923. The “Man of the Year” cover reflects individuals selected for their contributions for that particular calendar year. American aviator. Charles Lindberg, became the first person to grace the magazine’s “Man of the Year” cover that 1928. The choice of Lindberg, according to Time, which has coasted home with the coveted trophy of the world’s largest and first weekly news magazine, was based on his daring audacity of being the first solo aviator to fly across the Atlantic Ocean. He had flown from New York to Paris. With the decision to have Lindberg adorn its front page cover, which the editors said was a mere happenstance, the magazine began an annual ritual that has lasted almost a century.

Innovate or die!

As we cross into 2025, be aware that changes in the world will happen in the near future, beginning from 2025; here are some possibilities:

Innovate or die! Petrol stations will disappear just like video stores went moribund.

A futuristic thread 🧵 1. Car repair shops, lubricants, and radiators will disappear

2. Petrol/diesel engines consist of 20.000 pieces. While the electric car engines have 20 pieces, sold with a lifetime warranty, they are repaired at the dealer centres. They only take 10 minutes to unlock and replace.

3. Broken electric vehicle engines will be repaired in regional offices, e.g., robot repair workshops.

4. When your electric motor breaks down, you will head to a station; like a car wash station, you will pull your car in with your coffee, and you will come out with a new electric motor!

5. Gasoline pumps will be gone.

Dear Aare Afe Babalola SAN, I hope this meets you in the right condition because even though God has granted you grace of wealth and health, you are on a delicate level and must be managed.

🧵 You are highly blessed to have chosen a profession that made you such a great person. With over 6 decades of practice, 37 of it as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, the Guinness Books must create a record for longevity of professional calling with distinction. It is not only long but positively eventful. You have made lawyers and senior advocates, judges and Justices and attorneys- general including the present Attorney- General of the Federation.

Contrary to assertions by some so-called experts who have been prattling all week that Dele Farotimi wrote what he could not logically substantiate in his book Nigeria and its Criminal Justice System, this was a pre-meditated confrontation. Having depleted the legal means to get justice, he wrote to re-litigate the case in the court of public opinion. He seems calculatedly driven by the Yoruba proverb that says no one dies at the same spot they uttered blasphemy. In the time between your speaking and being punished, much can happen to change social dynamics. From the potpourri of events in the past week, Farotimi got what he wanted. One cannot say the same for Afe Babalola who, by now, would have realised that giving a traducer what they want is not the most prudent battle move. My reading is that Farotimi knew Babalola’s peculiar weakness and worked it to advantage. I will get to that momentarily.

🧵 The blowback from this case is another instance that hopefully teaches our elites to rein in their tendency to exploit the warped Nigerian justice system that allows criminal defamation as a legal recourse. Criminal defamation might be legal, but it is unjust. It is a law that exists to regulate the differentials of power and access, one of the many ways rich people further privatise public resources. Since lawmakers are too compromised to expunge the law and law enforcers incapable of the reflexivity that will enlighten them on the stupidity of using state resources to fight an individual over another’s integrity, the best we can do for now is pressure the entitled “big man” not to take that path. In a criminal case, the prosecutor investigates to convict. The Nigerian police, perennially short of resources, spares no expense when sent to prosecute criminal defamation on behalf of another narcissist. Why should the state do that on behalf of an ordinary individual? Babalola, especially, is a man of ample resources, who can afford to fight for his reputation on his own dime.

In the Matter of Dele Farotimi before the Star Chamber

Paul Anyebe was a judge of the High Court of Benue State in north-central Nigeria who had a young son with sticky fingers and a sense of adventure. It was his role as a dad that endangered his job as a judge.

One night around 1983, Anyebe caught his son attempting to steal from his bedroom. In response, Anyebe pulled his gun in an effort to scare the boy. The gun went off, discharging a bullet which hit and seriously injured the boy. The Attorney-General of Benue State decided to prosecute Paul Anyebe for attempted murder. The Penal Code applicable in Benue State at the time had ample provisions for the crime of attempted murder.

The Attorney-General also added a charge of illegal possession of firearms, a federal offence. Unlike the crime of attempted murder, which was a state crime in Benue State, all firearms offences are federal. The Attorney-General of Benue was well within his powers to prosecute for attempted murder but only the Attorney-General of the Federation could prosecute or authorize prosecution for federal offences.
🧵 At the conclusion of the trial, the High Court of Benue State discharged Paul Anyebe on the charge of attempted murder, a state offence, but convicted him on the charge of illegal possession of firearms (a federal offence) for which it sentenced him to three years in prison. The Court of Appeal reduced this sentence to six months in prison or a fine of one hundred Naira. Following this decision and while his appeal was yet to be heard by the Supreme Court, Paul Anyebe was dismissed as a judge.

When the Supreme Court decided Anyebe’s appeal in January 1986, Dahunsi Olugbemi Coker, a Justice of the court, summed up the issue for decision in one sentence: “The short point is whether a State Attorney-General can prosecute an offence created by an Act of the National Assembly.” To this question, the court unanimously responded in the negative. They nullified Anyebe’s trial and ordered the fine paid – one hundred Naira – refunded to him. The Court of Appeal ordered his reinstatement with full benefits.