Author: The Elites

The earliest example of personal rule gone awry in the world was given in the biblical account of Eli, the prophet. Personal rule has become prevalent in Africa and other Third World countries. In the account, Eli was High Priest and Judge of Israel in the city of Shiloh. Kind-hearted to the troubled and oppressed, the prophet’s renown for kindness became weightier in the narrative of his comforting words to Hannah, one of the hitherto barren wives of Elkanah. When Hannah eventually gave birth to a son named Samuel, Eli extended his affable disposition to Samuel’s upbringing at the tabernacle. Powerful man of God that he was, Eli was however irredeemably lax in the upbringing of his two children, Hophni and Phinehas, who served as priests at the Tabernacle. The children were corrupt, wicked, greedy and morally bankrupt. They abused their father’s priestly office and authority at the sanctuary.

Hophni and Phinehas deployed their positions for personal gains and in the process, were embroiled in acts of adultery with women who served in the sanctuary. Again, whenever sacrificial offerings of meat were being offered to God, even before the fat was burned, Eli’s sons stormed the venue, forcefully appropriating the best portions of the meats for themselves. In Israel of the time, this was a profound contempt for God’s law and a grave sin. Eli’s rebuke of his sons was tepid and weak. In His wrath against this selfish use of personal rule, God’s judgment on Eli was fierce. Hophni and Phinehas were both killed in battle. When he heard the news, Eli fell headlong from his chair and died. Worse still, his lineage was forever de-linked from priestly reign.

Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegal’s first president from 1960 to 1980, co-founder of the Negritude movement, poet and cultural theorist, gave an apt definition of personal rule. According to him, it “is not… the art of governing the State for the public welfare in the general framework of laws and regulations. It is (a) question of politician politics: the struggle… to place well oneself, one’s relatives, and one’s clients in the cursus honorum, that is, the race for (benefits)”.

Personal rule, otherwise known as presidential monarchy, is a plague in Africa. It is another variant of despotism. It operates where institutions are replaced with persons and systems with individuals. Arising from another plague called the Big Man syndrome, the state is ruled by a strong man who informally distributes offices to friends, relatives and associates, according to the dictates of his whims. The state is then informally captured by patronage and a distribution networks of spoils of office. Individuals who are not formally recognized take over the formal functions of the state. What we then have is widespread corruption, impunity and abuse. This leads to the atrophy of public institutions, thus severely limiting the ability of public officials to make policies in the general interest of the people.

In Nigeria’s 65 years of self-rule, either under military or civilian, personal rule has been very prevalent. In it, government is run like a monarchy or, in the lingo of lawyers, as chattels personal. Personal rule has little or no demarcation of private and public domains, or even purses. Apart from giving official responsibilities to cronies and family members, being relative of the Big Man opens doors, vaults and commands attention.

The first publicly known instance of the familial brand of personal rule in Nigeria was under General Sani Abacha. Before him, little was known in the interface of the families of military despot leaders and the public. For instance, little was known about the excesses of families of Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Muhammed, Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari or even Ibrahim Babangida. Under Abacha, however, familial impunity reigned. It came in the form of usage of Nigeria’s presidential aircraft by children of the military leader. On January 17, 1996, for instance, Ibrahim, son of the late despot, was on a jolly ride in the Nigerian Air Force presidential Falcon jet. He was headed to a party and private family engagement in Kano. Lagos being his departure, he was flying with 14 other friends, including his Yoruba girlfriend, Funmi; Bello, younger brother of Aliko Dangote and a wealthy young man called Dan Princewill. The jet was almost landing in Kano when it mysteriously exploded mid-air, swallowing all and their dreams.

Obasanjo was particularly loath to this deployment of public assets for personal use. So also were there no public examples of such deployment during Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan’s time in office. Perhaps taking a cue from their parents’ personal rule disposition, children of successive Nigerian presidents have made this a pastime. Deploying public asset and office for private advantage resurfaced in 2020. Late President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter, Hanan, flew the presidential jet on a private photography trip to Bauchi State. By convention, only the president of Nigeria, the First Lady, Vice-President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Justice of Nigeria, ex-presidents and a presidential delegation are authorized to use the presidential jet. The convention does not grant the president any powers to transfer his right of usage of the presidential jet to any of his children.

Hanan had then recently graduated with a first-class in photography from Ravensbourne University, London. She was in Bauchi on the invitation of the Emir, Rilwanu Adamu, as special guest of honour. Photographs, which Nigerians considered presidential obscenities, showed Hanan disembarking from the presidential aircraft and being welcomed by Bauchi State government officials. The Buhari government justified Hanan’s action. Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, said the shameful act received the blessing of Buhari. Shehu turned logic and protocol on their head to accommodate this perverse usage of a common wealth.

Following in these footsteps, in October 2023, First Son, Seyi Tinubu, flew the presidential aircraft to attend polo games in Kano State. Before him, children, spouses of Nigerian leaders and top government officials who should have no business with the aircraft, had become forerunners of this aberration. This provoked the question: is this an endemic problem that should bother us as a people, or it is a mere frivolity that we have allowed to detain us overtime? Why do Nigerian public officials always fail to see the divide between the public and the private?

Of particular interest has been the two children of the current Nigerian president, Seyi and Folasade Tinubu-Ojo. In a May 4, 2025 piece I entitled Tinubu’s Ajantala son, I articulated how, if indeed all those democratic flowery words ascribed to the Nigerian president are not cosmetic, Seyi Tinubu must be a pain in the neck of his father, as he is to responsible parenting. I wrote, “In Nigeria’s history, I am not aware of any president’s child who has threatened public peace, public decency and the public space as Seyi. His name has come out in every socially distasteful national issue.” I also wrote further: “You will recollect that this same young man was one who, but for his father’s peremptory scold, would probably have been attending Executive Council meetings with ministers. Seyi has no precis in illicit behaviour, so much that he outperforms himself in irresponsible public acts. He is reputed to have nominated ministers and behaves in socially anomalous manner that baffles… He causes so much stir with his long convoys of glittering automobiles and is chaperoned to occasions by Nigerian security apparatuses.”

Around the time when he paid “official visits” to northern states early this year to donate billions of Naira to victims of Nigeria’s social malady, an allegation by the NANS President that Seyi ordered him tortured, beaten and his nude pictures taken for his voyeuristic pleasure took over the stratosphere. There are allegations that he will be put forth as the next governor of Lagos

The president’s daughter, Tinubu-Ojo, who christened herself ‘Iyaloja-General of Nigeria’ – whatever that means – is another sore thumb pointing at the evil of deploying personal rule for familial advantage. The eldest daughter of Nigeria’s president, from inception of her father’s presidency in 2023, Tinubu-Ojo has positioned herself as ‘godmother’ of Nigerian open-air markets. Immediately her father came into office, in a baffling manifestation of an inflated hubris, she was said to have updated her Twitter bio with the title, “First Daughter of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN)”. She thereafter sent tongues wagging when a viral video of hers, with Nigerian flags flying behind her, positioned her as addressing what looked like a national broadcast. It was seen as pointing at a desire to appropriate all the perks from her father’s presidency.

Capitalizing on the low capacity to stick to rules that is Nigeria, Folasade catapulted herself from Lagos market headship where she made herself Iyaloja. That position was appropriated by her after the passage of Mama Abibatu Mogaji who occupied same position. After this, she then made herself the market godmother of the whole of Nigeria. She was apparently yielding to an earlier call for an Hobbesian flee after power by her father in that famous counsel, to “fight for it, grab it, snatch it and run with it.” Folasade has made a pastime of positioning her representatives in various markets across Nigeria. The ultimate aim, it is said, is to protect her personal financial interests. In a Nigeria where genuflection before public office is widespread and public officials are like god, the president’s daughter, with the panoply of power and wealth at her disposal, is dreaded and worshiped.

Edo State, it will seem, will prove a fatal limitation of this hubris. In 2024, Folasade was said to have begun an attempt to impose an “Iyaloja of Edo State markets” on the ancient city of Benin. Last Tuesday when she visited the palace of the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, the president’s daughter however met her match in the impregnable culture of the Edo people. She must have assumed that, like other states, Edo palace bows before ineptitude dressed in the garment of political power. Either out of stiff-necked resistance or inability to mentally penetrate, appreciate and understand the ancient culture of the Benin, the president’s daughter had continued in her imposition gambit which seems to have become a familial trait. At the palace, she told Oba Ewuare 11 that a Pastor Josephine Ivbazebule would be her surrogate for all markets in Edo State.

After she was done talking, the palace taught her a lesson with words that were harmless on the surface but lacerating in deed. Not only was she taught that she couldn’t recreate her power drunkenness in Edo, she was told in plain terms that the cultural and historical foundations of market leadership in Edo State were far different from what obtains elsewhere in the country. Speaking through an interpreter as he does whenever he considers it demeaning to exchange verbal reply with a guest, Oba Ewuare told Folasade that in Benin culture, market leadership is not a political creation nor is it an external imposition. It is the product of tradition and which is under the suzerainty of the Oba of Benin.

If Nigeria’s No 1 citizen is not embarrassed by the activities of his children, parents all over the world are. The Yoruba, deploring this grotty descent in character of the First Family, say when an elephant trumpets, its child should not, too. They also counsel that, if one’s barn posts a bountiful yam harvest, a wise man would cover it from prying eyes. Apart from the raw power to browbeat and be kowtowed to, as well as illicit funds and majesty associated with being the president’s children, Nigerians will be glad to harvest what these ones’ parents planted inside their skulls for national benefit. Certainly not the cunning that produces quick wealth and unearned advantage. Folasade Tinubu-Ojo could have attracted more umbrage from the people of Edo State for her audacity if not for the decency of the palace. Let the little darts from the Bini palace remind the president’s daughter that it is the over-ripe orange that invites throwing of stones at the mother tree.

Former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, has charged the Kwara State Governor, Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq, to take responsibility as the state’s chief security officer and show empathy for the plight of residents facing incessant bandit attacks.

In a strongly worded statement issued by the Head of Abubakar Bukola Saraki Media, Yusuph Olaniyonu, Saraki condemned AbdulRazaq’s comments during his belated visit to Oke-Ode, where bandits recently killed 21 people. The statement described the governor’s remarks as “reckless” and accused him of attempting to divert attention from his government’s failure to protect lives.

“The handling of the security situation has proven Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to be an incompetent, insensitive, irresponsible, clueless, and unresponsive governor. Using the words of the governor, “it is laughable” that a state governor whose state experienced the killing of 21 people in just one community with many others being killed in other communities waited for five days before visiting the affected town while he had the time to junket to another state outside his zone to rejoice with another governor in far away Imo State who was commissioning projects for the benefit of his people,” the state read.

Saraki’s also faulted AbdulRazaq for equating the ongoing spate of killings across Kwara North and South with the Offa robbery of 2018 saying: ‘In a reckless manner that put on display his usual clueless and weird way of responding to issues, Abdulrazaq equated the frequent attack by bandits ravaging two of the three senatorial districts in the state with the Offa robbery incident and made false, defamatory, and irresponsible insinuations about former Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki concerning the sad event that happened seven years ago.

Our view is that it is either insensitivity or a lack of capacity to appreciate and process issues that will make a governor equate the widespread killing, kidnapping, and maiming of people across two of the three senatorial districts with a robbery incident. The state of insecurity has forced residents of over 50 communities in the two senatorial districts to abandon their homesteads and relocate to Ilorin or leave the state entirely.”

The former Senate President argued that his earlier call on federal authorities to intervene in Kwara’s worsening security was justified, stressing that his intervention had drawn national attention to the killings and compelled the governor to eventually visit Oke-Ode.

“If Dr. Saraki called the attention of the state governor and the entire government to the widespread violence against the people and called for action from federal agencies, it amounted to dereliction of duty, lack of valid appreciation of the plight of the people, and total disregard for the safety of the constituents for the governor to resort to throwing tantrums and blackmail over an unrelated incident that has nothing to do with the former Senate President.

This Office believes Dr. Saraki has achieved his objective if his statement has led to national attention being paid to the killings in Kwara State. Also, Dr. Saraki’s speech had eventually compelled the governor to pay a visit to Oke Ode, one of the many towns that have witnessed Killings, kidnappings, and maiming of innocent people.

The handling of the security situation has proven Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to be an incompetent, insensitive, irresponsible, clueless, and unresponsive governor. Using the words of the governor, “it is laughable” that a state governor whose state experienced the killing of 21 people in just one community with many others being killed in other communities waited for five days before visiting the affected town while he had the time to junket to another state outside his zone to rejoice with another governor in far away Imo State who was commissioning projects for the benefit of his people.

Now that he has been compelled to visit Oke Ode to “assess the situation on the ground”, we would like to know when he will visit other local government areas in the state like Edu, Patigi, Isin, Irepodun, Oke Ero, and other towns in Ifelodun that have been witnessing incessant attacks by the bandits.

Again, using Abdulrazaq’s words, “It is also laughable” that after six and a half years as governor, one could count on the fingertips how many times the Kwara State Governor called a security council meeting in the state. Dr. Saraki’s advice is that the governor needs to expand the membership of the Security Council to include all first and second class traditional rulers so as to engage them in fighting the menace. If he fails to tackle the crisis squarely, it will define his eight years in office and this will be a horrible legacy to bequeath to his successor.

He made reckless insinuations against Dr. Saraki because the former Senate President called him out on his failure to do his job, we wonder what he would do to the Governors of the South-west states who were reported in yesterday’s edition of the Punch Newspaper to have “Tighten Borders Amid Banditry Surge in Kwara”. We also expect Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq to descend on the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Abimbola Akeem Owoade who has expressed concern over the recent killings in Oke Ode.

Dr. Saraki is not interested in bandying words with the Kwara State Governor. His call is meant to get the governor to show more empathy for the plight of the people and live up to his responsibility as the state’s chief security officer. It is obvious that never in the history of Kwara State has the State of Harmony witnessed this level of insecurity which is also being fueled by the insensitivity of the government of the day.

Like Dr. Saraki stated in his speech in Ilorin on September 27, 2025, we challenge anybody who has a contrary claim that there was any time in the past that Kwara State had been this unsafe and confronted by the threat to lives and property at this level to come up with the evidence,” the statement read futher.

Saraki advised AbdulRazaq to expand the State Security Council to include traditional rulers, warning that failure to act decisively would leave a “horrible legacy” at the end of his tenure.

On the governor’s reference to the Offa robbery, Saraki dismissed any link between him and the incident. Citing official documents, the statement recalled: “In two separate reports dated 22nd June, 2018, and 23rd August, 2018 respectively, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) of the Federation, in the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation, Mohammed U. E. stated that there was no evidence directly or indirectly linking Dr. Saraki to the Offa robbery.

We know that the Kwara State Governor will not only find it difficult to comprehend the contents of such reports, but he will also not believe the fact that one of the planks of the campaign of calumny which propelled him to the Governor’s Office has since collapsed like a pack of cards.

In the video clip under reference, Abdulrazaq gave himself out on his dubious move that we have known all the while. We knew that he had induced some family members of victims of the Offa robbery to file a civil case in court against the state government, himself as governor, and join Dr. Saraki as a party as a way of further embarrassing the former Senate President.

The fact is not lost on us that the lawyer defending the aide of the governor, Michael Yinka Fafoluyi in a libel case filed by Dr. Saraki is also the same lawyer who has been briefed to handle the case filed on behalf of the so-called selected families of Offa robbery victims.

We also called the attention of members of the public to the press conference by some members of the Offa community under the platform of “Offa Koya, Offa Kowosi” where they distanced the community from the dirty politics of using an unfortunate robbery incident as a tool of blackmail and smear campaign.

Again, some members of the families of the victims of the Offa robbery represented by Alhaji Abdul Oseni Aditu Eniolohunopa, Hajia Mulikat Jimoh, and Mrs. Danjuma Comfort on August 17, 2025, spoke on a radio Programme at the TNT Radio Station, Offa, where they publicly dissociated themselves from the malicious case in court and warned politicians to “stop seeking to score cheap political points at the expense of their grief”.

We would like the governor to know that if this slanderous and ridiculous statement he made at Oke Ode is his way of diverting attention from his failure to live up to his responsibility as the chief security officer of our dear state, then he has failed.

The Abubakar Bukola Saraki Media Office will advise Abdulrazaq to stop politicising the unfortunate plight of the victims of the Offa robbery and their families. His devious scheme and dirty politics have delayed getting justice and closure for the victims, their families, and the Offa community.”

Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka has offered candid insights into why he accepted the Federal Government’s decision to rename the National Theatre, Lagos, as the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and Creative Arts, despite his long-standing criticism of public monuments being named after individuals. 

Speaking at the event, Soyinka admitted that the honour came with “mixed feelings,” noting his reputation for opposing indiscriminate renaming of national assets by past leaders.

“I’m notorious for criticising personal appropriations of public monuments,” he said.

“Most times, everything is named after leaders, and I think only about 25 percent truly deserve it. At one point, I even publicly challenged one of your predecessors in Abuja over these naming ceremonies.”

However, Soyinka explained that after reflecting on the history of theatre in Nigeria and recalling the contributions of his predecessors, he decided it was a recognition he could not entirely dismiss.

“I just said someone has to carry the can, and if a group of bankers using some of my ‘money’ decide to honour me, what’s wrong with that?” He quipped.

The literary icon also revisited his past criticism of the National Theatre, describing it once as a “slum” and even jokingly advising organisers to “plant a bomb and blow it off.”

But he conceded that its recent rehabilitation had proved him wrong. “If eating one’s words produces a muscle like this, then it’s a very tasty set of words,” he remarked, commending those behind the restoration.

Reflecting on the building’s origins, Soyinka recalled that when the National Theatre was erected during the military era, it was mockingly nicknamed “the general’s hat” because of its roof design, which he said reflected little of Africa’s architectural intelligence.

Soyinka further disclosed that his acceptance of the honour was influenced by what he described as a “personal debt” owed by the building.

He recounted how two of his actors almost lost their lives during a performance years ago due to leaking roofs and faulty electrical wiring.

“I nearly lost two performers here when pools of water from the leaking roof met exposed electric wires. That’s how decrepit the place had become,” he said.

Although he admitted feeling “ambushed” by the government’s decision, likening it to being “shaved in the absence” as the late MKO Abiola once described, Soyinka concluded that the restored edifice had finally lived up to its potential.

Temi Ajibade, daughter of billionaire Femi Otedola and wife of singer Mr Eazi, has explained why she chose to drop her famous surname after marriage.

Speaking in a recent interview with the BBC, the actress and fashion influencer said it was simply a matter of personal choice.

“It’s not anything I thought about before. Obviously, when I’m now a married woman, the obvious thing for me is to take my husband’s name but it’s my personal choice,” she said.

Temi stressed that while she was happy taking her husband’s surname, she equally respects women who decide differently.
“It’s my personal choice, I respect everybody’s personal choice, it’s what I’m comfortable and happy doing but I respect a woman’s ability to choose.”

On why she chose to marry Mr Eazi, Temi described the singer as her “best friend” and “her person.”
“First and foremost, he’s my best friend, that’s my person and I think when you meet your person you know. I can’t imagine spending the rest of my life with anybody else,” she said.

The Nollywood star added that she looks forward to building a life with him.

“He’s the person that I’m excited and can’t wait to spend every day with and build our lives together, work through our ups and downs, celebrate together and solve problems together. He’s simply my person so we’re just excited for what’s to come.”

Queen Chanel has reacted to recent allegations circulating in the media and public space, purportedly involving His Imperial Majesty, the Ooni of Ife and categorically stated that such statements “are venomously untrue, misleading, and highly damaging to the sacred institution of culture and traditional affairs in Yorubaland.”

Below is her Press Statement:

From HRH Queen Chanel, Mother of Prince Oduduwa of Iwo Kingdom

My attention has been drawn to recent allegations circulating in the media and public space, purportedly involving His Imperial Majesty, the Ooni of Ife. I wish to categorically state that such statements are venomously untrue, misleading, and highly damaging to the sacred institution of culture and traditional affairs in Yorubaland.

For the avoidance of doubt:

I was introduced to Mr. Akanbi by a Popular Lagos Monarch at a party in Ikeja, not by His Imperial Majesty, the Ooni of Ife.

During my time as Olori Oluwo, I respectfully regarded this Lagos Monarch as my Royal Father and continue to hold him in that regard till this day.

At no time did this Monarch introduce me to Mr. Akanbi to unalive him or with any malicious intent.

I also recall with fondness that Mr. Akanbi and I once visited the said Monarch and his gracious Olori in Lagos with Prince Oduduwa as a baby. Those remain personal and cherished memories.

It is important to note that Mr. Akanbi has not been involved in the life of his son, Prince Oduduwa, emotionally or financially for over five years. He only reached out in August this year during a visit to Canada. On that occasion, he refused to sign the necessary documents for Oduduwa to obtain his Canadian passport, yet he dropped the sum of $500 as if to cover up for his long absence but I was thankful because this is the first support Oduduwa received from his father since we left the palace 5 year ago. Despite this, I remained silent because I have always advocated for peaceful co-parenting and have continued to shoulder the full responsibility of ensuring that my son does not lack his basic needs.

I therefore plead with the general public to disregard any falsehoods being peddled against His Imperial Majesty, the Ooni of Ife, who remains the foremost monarch of the Yoruba race.

Furthermore, I implore the traditional institution to call Mr. Akanbi to order to prevent him from further degrading the sacred institution which he himself is meant to represent.

This shall be my final statement on matters concerning Mr. Akanbi. Prince Oduduwa remains my beloved son, and nothing will ever change that fact. I hold the Yoruba people in deep love and respect, and I remain confident that the truth shall prevail.

Signed,

HRH Queen Chanel

Mother of Prince Oduduwa of Iwo Kingdom

• TUNJI OLAOPA
  

As a very critical part of her 65th birthday celebration, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, restructured the usual pomp that attend the birthday celebration of the political class as we know it. Rather than submitting herself to the numerous treats, felicitations and pageantries that would be sure to have been deployed to mark the auspicious occasion, she demanded that anyone who needed to celebrate her should focus their largesse on the furtherance of the National Library project, and possibly its final completion. And that appeal has generated a beautiful sum of N20b. This is all so grand, and noble but unusual. It is an unusual gesture because a member of the political class, rather than the government itself, is the one championing the resuscitation of the National Library project. Maybe it is the government by association, but then the gesture is not the result of an intentional and deliberate policy commitment that enable the government to connect the library to the larger goal of national development. How do we read this strange but commendable gesture into the overall development status of the Nigerian state?

The current state of the Nigerian National Library speaks tremendously to the possibilities and failures of the national development project in Nigeria. In many nations of the world, from the Library of Congress in the United States to the Bibliotheque de France and also the National Library, Singapore, the national library signals the single repository of books, manuscripts, orature, archival materials that connects cultural heritages, knowledge production programmes, critical ideas and paradigms, historical documentation and national memories. Adolf Hitler perfectly understands this fundamental significance of the knowledge base of any nation. And this is why, in a most pernicious manner during the Second World War, he ordered the massive destruction of books and materials that were considered to be subversive of, or even contrary to, the ideals of the German Third Reich project. And quite fortunately and pragmatic enough, the allied forced, led by the United States thought it significant and strategic to fight back by making the book resurgent from their crematorium.

This speaks to the indomitable spirit of ideas, ideals and knowledge that books embody. It is in this critical sense that books and library connect a state to not only its historical and cultural knowledges and heritages, but also signal the state’s willingness to project itself into the emerging knowledge and information society that ultimately define the progress and wealth of nations. Libraries connect reading and learning culture, the dynamics of literacy, educational projects, human capital development and the generation of ideas, as well as paradigms fashioned purposely for creative innovation and policies especially in sociopolitical, socioeconomic, development and governance contexts. Libraries therefore connect a state’s willingness to become a legitimate participant in the evolving fourth industrial revolution while also keeping alive its own credentials as an entity that keeps generating culturally and historically relevant knowledge.

Knowledge, ideas and books—indeed the entire educational structures—reinvigorate the ways a state keep reengaging its problems, challenges and the solution and resolution frameworks for understanding and undermining them. Education is the fundamental bedrock that instigates individual, collective and national enlightenment and progress. And this therefore ultimately connects not only with the creative policy intelligence that is enabled by the availability of knowledge preserved in libraries (especially as it denotes the repositories of global knowledge, ideas and paradigms), but also how leaders connect with these ideas and knowledge through what they read. When I wrote my op-ed piece on the reading habit of HE Vice President Senator Kashim Shettima, I opened up the possibilities for a nation that an enlightened leadership embodies.

Unfortunately, Nigeria does not have a national library. Or more precisely, the national library project that was formulated in 1981 has refused to materialize into a symbolic and concrete structural manifestation of Nigeria’s willingness to join the global knowledge society. The idea of the national library was muted in 1981, but it took the next twenty-five years for the idea to get an enabling contract in 2006. And yet forty-three years later, the structure remains a pipedream that refused to take off. And so, while it was all too easy to build the National Ecumenical Centre and the National Mosque within which the dilapidated library structure located, this significant element of Nigeria’s progress has remained uncompleted. This is simply just emblematic of the general institutional and structural dysfunctional experience that characterize the Nigeria Project right from independence to date. Knowledge production and the entire educational structure in Nigeria have faced significant limitations that derive from the myopic inability to connect development with an enlightened human development capital. There is also the tightrope of anti-intellectualism that the Nigerian political class has always been walking in its relationship with the institutions and structures of knowledge production and idea generation in Nigeria. The ongoing adversarial industrial relations between consecutive Nigerian governments and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) over transforming universities into a significant force in nation building efforts in the state is a clear evidence of this a-developmental elite orientation.

All these dysfunctional issues are surprising given that the Nigerian state is very concerned about both her geopolitical status and credentials as a democratic and developmental state in the world—as the Giant of Africa—and also to achieve a stable and empowering economic growth that measurably improve the life prospect and economic lives of her citizens. However, efforts at making the lives of Nigerians better are usually concentrated on purely economic, econometric and macroeconomic indices of development. If reading and education come into reckoning, it is strictly to the extent that they are inescapable to the fruition of any particular human capital development policy. And yet, the quality of a nation’s human capital is measurable only to the extent of the place of an enlightened reading culture, symbolized by a functional and efficient library systems.

Thus, a state is instigated not only by the economic but also informational and educational resources at its disposal. In other words, the availability and the rate of access to the information resources and the extensive reading rate per capita are the development indices of a society. The number of published books, journals, libraries, readers, writers, translators and publishers of a country are all indices and fundamental criteria of its development. Extending the culture of studying and book reading, developing libraries, publications and distribution of books and utilizing these unrivaled cultural instruments are therefore the requirements and necessities of each society’s growth. This connects the functional and efficient library system to a reading culture that stimulate the young people into the consumption of ideas and paradigms that enable creative and critical thinking.

Building a Nigerian national library—that possibly will be replicated in all the states of the federation—signals a symbolic aspiration by the government to ground learning and reading as a key variable in the determination of the quality of the human capital that Nigeria needs for her development process. It also determines the quality of Nigeria’s democratic experiment founded on the enlightened status of the Nigerian citizenry. Thus, a lot is riding on Nigeria’s capacity to build a functional and efficient national library as a repository of local, national, regional and global experiences, histories, ideas, paradigms, ideals, perspectives and creative innovation. So, does it matter who lead the crucial initiative to jumpstart and crystallize the national library project as long as it is done? The First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, saw what should be considered a national embarrassment, and responded to it while also ensuring that the gesture is funneled through government institutions, like the Federal Ministry of Education. Having woken up the nation from its slumber on this unarguably defining project with deep essence, it is now an all-stakeholder national challenge to get the noble gesture by the First Lady concluded and put into use. That seems like a long stretch given the forty-three years of policy and implementation inactivity. And I think we should all support this very unique and very ardent attempt to push a significant dimension of Nigeria’s development effort to bring to life what ought to have been alive and kicking many years ago.

However, whether we like it or not, the fact that it is an individual and not the government that is pushing for the realization of this project is an indictment of national proportion. One way to read this is that the National Library project is happening on the sideline of whatever consecutive Nigerian governments considered to be significant policy initiatives that aligned with development visions and implementation frameworks. But then, the redemption comes from the fact that the Nigeria Project, unlike the national library project, is a work in progress. And this allows for the government to pick up where there is any glaring historical and political failure and provide redemptive policy reclamation and reconstruction. I think this is the most important lesson that Senator Oluremi Tinubu’s gesture towards the National Library project has provided us. The government and other stakeholders cannot afford to have this project to remain at the individual level. This gesture has therefore become an instigator in terms of what the citizenry can do to push the government to implementing the general will. And this is even all the more crucial because it is coming from a bona fide member of the government itself. This then implies that the government is now instigating itself to action on behalf of the Nigeria Project.

*Prof. Tunji Olaopa, Chairman, Federal Civil Service Commission & Professor of Public Administration, Abuja. 

Interpol Nigeria has dismantled an international kidnapping and human trafficking ring run by foreign nationals, following an intelligence-driven operation led by Commissioner of Police Bode Ojajuni, head of Interpol at the Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID) Annex, Alagbon, Ikoyi, Lagos.

Eight suspects, who are citizens of Ghana, Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire, were arrested in coordinated raids across Lagos and Ogun States. 

They were arraigned before a Lagos Chief Magistrate’s Court on Friday and remanded in a correctional facility for 30 days pending further investigation.

Those in custody include four Ghanaians, Gabriella Ewenam (25), Oscar Semekor (25), David Abban (25), and Tefutor Obed (25); an Ivorian, Dissa Latif (22); a Beninese, Gnango Gerrad (26); two Burkinabes, Niamba Kikao (23) and Kalizeta Zon (22).

Police prosecutor, Morufu Animashaun, told the court that the gang had lured victims from Ghana, Benin Republic, and other West African countries into Nigeria under the guise of securing Canadian work visas. 

Victims were then kidnapped, trafficked, or defrauded, with ransoms paid through mobile money accounts traced to the suspects.

One victim was trafficked from Ghana after his family paid $1,007 (about N2 million) for a fake work permit. 

In another case reported through Interpol Abidjan, victims were abducted and ransoms of N12.2 million were collected before they were freed in Badagry, Lagos, and Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.

The breakthrough was the result of painstaking work by Ojajuni’s team, who tracked the suspects’ movements with digital surveillance tools before storming their hideouts. 

Inspectors Sanusi Akindele and Oyebisi Oni, both of Interpol Lagos, deposed to affidavits detailing the gang’s cross-border operations, rescue of victims, and seizure of evidence.

Magistrate Azeez Alogba granted the police request to hold the suspects for 30 days to allow Interpol to conclude investigations and obtain legal advice from the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP). 

The case was adjourned to November 17, 2025.

The arrests, carried out in collaboration with Interpol bureaus in Accra and Abidjan, marked another major breakthrough against cross-border organised crime in Nigeria.

The Church of England has named Bishop Sarah Mullally as its new archbishop of Canterbury, marking the first time in more than 1,400 years that the post will be held by a woman. 

The announcement, made on Friday, means Mullally will serve as the 106th holder of the office and take on the role of spiritual leader for some 85 million Anglicans across the globe.

Mullally, 63, who has been bishop of London since 2018, succeeds Justin Welby, who stepped down last November following a report criticizing his handling of historic sexual abuse allegations linked to Christian summer camps.

Before entering church leadership, Mullally worked as a cancer nurse and went on to become England’s chief nursing officer. A strong advocate for women’s rights within the church, she has long been seen as a leading voice for reform.

Her elevation was anticipated by some, as two other women were also on the shortlist of potential candidates. Still, her appointment signals a landmark moment in Anglican history — one that may also test unity across the worldwide Communion, where some regions maintain more conservative positions than the Church of England.

Welby’s decade-long tenure was marked by historic public occasions, including the state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of King Charles III. He also spoke out on polarizing political debates such as immigration. While never accused of abuse himself, Welby’s career was ultimately undone by the fallout from the sex-abuse crisis, which has also shaken the Roman Catholic Church. He leaves behind a denomination wrestling with disputes over same-sex marriage, credibility issues around safeguarding, and declining attendance in an increasingly secular Britain.

Mullally now inherits those challenges. Restoring trust in the church’s protection of children and navigating internal divisions over doctrine and marriage are likely to be among her first priorities. She must also contend with a fractured Anglican Communion, where conservative leaders in Africa, Asia, and Latin America have openly resisted the authority traditionally associated with the archbishop of Canterbury.

A Federal High Court sitting in Warri, Delta State, on Friday ordered the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to “maintain the status quo” in the contentious tinted glass permit dispute. 

The case, filed as Suit No. FHC/WR/CS/103/2025, pits lawyer, John Aikpokpo-Martins against the IGP and the NPF.

The court directed police authorities to respect judicial processes and refrain from further enforcement until the substantive matter is resolved.

The ruling comes amid public outrage after police in Asaba impounded the vehicle of Justice O. A. Ogunbowale of the National Industrial Court on the first day of tinted glass enforcement. 

The NBA described the move as “an embarrassing and avoidable situation” that starkly exposed the risk of abusing such policy.

Leading the petitioner’s legal team, Kunle Edun, SAN welcomed the directive as a significant step toward upholding the rule of law while the court considers the broader constitutional issues.

The tinted glass permit regime, recently reactivated by the police after earlier suspensions, has drawn criticism for alleged harassment of motorists, demands for permit fees, and claims of extortion. 

Critics argue many modern vehicles come with factory-fitted tints, making the policy impractical.

Defenders of the policy cite the Motor Vehicles (Prohibition of Tinted Glass) Act and earlier statutes, maintaining the police must regulate tinted glass for health, safety, and security. 

The Force has urged motorists to register via the official POSSAP portal or remove tint if they do not wish to apply.

Nigeria’s First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu has been conferred with the traditional title of Sarauniyar Yaki, the Queen Warrior of Akko Emirate in Gombe State.

The honour, in recognition of her passion for defending the interest of the weak across the nation, was conferred on her by the Lamido Akko, Alhaji Umar Muhammad Atiku during her two day working visit to the State.

Acknowledging the recognition, the First Lady pledged to sustain her intervention for the girl child, and further enlisted the support of traditional rulers in the state to drive her advocacy.

Her conferment ceremony was witnessed by the State governor, Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya and the Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, Hon. Usman Bello Kumo.

While in the state, the First Lady will perform the national launch of Renewed Hope Initiative Flow With Confidence, a vital menstrual health intervention for school girls.