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AFRICA, O MOTHER AFRICA By Femi Fani-Kayode

Published

5 years ago

April 16, 2020

First to come to Africa were the Arabs. They hunted us down like animals, captured us, castrated us, sold us into slavery and kept us in total bondage for 1300 years.

What the Arabs did to Africans over that period of time makes everything else that they were subjected to after that by others, including the trans-Atlantic slave trade, look like childsplay.

Worse of all is the fact that in places like Saudi Arabia and Mauritania many black Africans still live in slavery till today.

After the Arabs came the Europeans arrived and also enslaved us, shipped us overseas, subjected us to barbarous cruelty and bestial servitude and described us as nothing more than chattel with the brain of a quarter of a man.

After the Europeans came the Chinese. They have come in their full power and glory with their enticing and intoxicating massive bags of money, cheap loans, suspect grants, fake and deceptive smiles and evil intentions with a view to turning us into perpetual serfs, debtors, beggars and economic slaves.

Like a snake coiled around our hapless necks, they are snuffing and suffocating the life out of us more and more as each day goes by and they are turning us into their slaves and minions just as others that came before them once did.

Sadly we may never be in a position to free ourselves from the bondage of their sinister and pervasive yoke or to pay off our debts to them. That is where we are today.

O Africa, who has bewitched thee? O mother Africa, who shall deliver thee?

I have asked myself these two questions over and over again over the years and I still do not have the answers.

Yet such is our pitiful plight today that it calls for some painful introspection and the sharing of some home truths.

In William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, the character Cassius said,

“the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings.”

Nothing could be more appropriate than these words when trying to analyse, decipher and comprehend the African condition and mind-set.

I apologise in advance if anyone is offended by my assertions in this essay but if we are really interested in making progress as a race and if we wish to change our dastardly ways and improve our fortunes then the truth, no matter how bitter, must be spoken. That is the purpose of this contribution.

The illustrious West Indian revolutionary and foremost intellectual, Marcus Garvey, who was undoubtedly one of the most brilliant minds in history, once wrote the following. He said,

“having had the wrong education as a start in his racial career, the negro has become his own greatest enemy. Most of the trouble I have had in advancing the cause of the race has come from negroes”.

On his part another great thinker and formidable intellectual, the celebrated black American Booker T. Washington, aptly described the black race in one of his many lectures by stating that they were “like crabs in a barrel”.

He said that none would allow the other to climb over the top and, in the event of any such attempt, ALL would continue to pull back into the barrel the one crab that makes the effort to climb out.

I wholeheartedly agree with both Garvey and Washington. The black man is his own worse enemy and in the case of the African this is even more pronounced and self-evident. Permit me to expand on this.

There are a few exceptions to the rule but generally speaking the greatest weakness of the African is his inability to provide good leadership, his inability to demand for good quality leaders, his ignorance, his cowardice, his envy and his poverty.

This combination and cocktail of deadly afflictions makes us nothing but expendable prey to the rest of the world.

As the famous 19th century Arab slave trader Mehmet Ali once wrote, “you do not need to destroy the black African because he always ends up destroying himself and his people for you”.

He went on to say that “the minute ANY black African rises up, emerges, starts talking sense and telling the others how to escape our bondage and slavery it is his fellow Africans who he seeks to help that will undermine him, insult him, expose him, ridicule him, destroy him, sell him and kill him. That is the nature of the black African. He reasons more like a wild ape than any other creature on earth”.

Standing up for Africa is a risky business because those that will hate you most of all for doing so are the Africans themselves.

They would rather listen to a heartless and savage beast and support and follow him than to someone that truly loves and cares for them, that treats them with restraint, dignity, respect, compassion and kindness and that wishes them well.

I do not know where this sickness of mind and malevolent and self-destructive disposition derives from but I suspect that it is a deep-seated case of self-hate and self-loathing and a touch of what psychiatrics describe as the ‘Stockholm syndrome’.

The African always loves his slave-master more than he does his liberator. Worse still he resists the notion of good education and he barely reads. There are a few exceptions to the rule but this is true of most of them.

If you want to keep a secret from an African put it in a book or write it in a long essay. He cannot and will not read either of the two because he is mentally immature, chronically lazy, morbidly indisciplined and utterly shortsighted and because he sees no immediate personal gain or value in it.

He would rather listen to music and dance for one hour non-stop or watch a football or a boxing match instead. To him that is far more important and gratifying than anything else. Simply put he is stirred and motivated by his excitable and primitive passions and not by reason or logic.

Nigeria, which was meant to be the leading light of Africa, has now become its irredeemable and irretrievable basket case and the laughing stock of the world.

This is a “country” of 200 million hapless and ill-fated people who are still struggling with the very concept of nationhood and who have their own internal colonial sysytem of bondage and servitude where one small race of non-indegineous and non-negroid people have enslaved all the others and laud it over them.

This is a country where genocide, mass murder, ethnic cleansing, islamist terrorism, poverty, the persecution of political opponents and religious minorities, failure, evil, incompetence, insensitivity and wickedness is not only perceived as being a normal way of life and system of governance but also encouraged and celebrated.

Like the proverbial zoo or jungle, only the strongest and fittest can survive or get to the top in such a hellish place and shithole of a country. There is literally no hope for the weak, the poor, the vulnerable or the decent in such an environment and callousness, doublespeak, deceit and impunity appear to be well rewarded.

If this were not the case how can one explain the fact that a so-called nation that once had the greatest, most progressive, most dynamic and most educated people in Africa will accept a barely educated and clearly unfit neanderthal like Muhammadu Buhari as its leader on three separate occasions and continue to support and hail him even after he openly insults them before world leaders and treats them like filth.

His Army has failed woefully in its war against Boko Haram because he has refused to empower and equip them adequately and because he pampers and encourages the terrorists.

His economy is heading for the greatest recession in Nigeria’s history due to his incompetence and inability to save money for a rainy day.

His impoverished and desperate people are marching, robbing and rioting in the streets of Lagos, in the outskirts of Abuja and in one or two other major cities looking for food and threatening the worse if they cannot find any.

As anarchy looms and sets in on parts of the country, Nigerians are being attacked openly and robbed by massive rampaging and hungry mobs made up of very angry, desperate and wild young men and he has said nothing about it let alone try to put a stop to it.

His airforce bombed scores of innocent and defenceless civilians, including women and children, to death two days ago yet it was barely reported in the press, there was no sense of outrage about it from the people and no-one in the country really gives a damn.

He has locked down his people at home in the nation’s densely populated commercial and administrative capitals of Lagos and Abuja and one or two other provinces in an attempt to prevent the spread of the corona virus without providing any provisions, money, food, water and electricity for them and without offering them any meaningful palliatives even though he knows that they are suffering badly and that his country has been officially designated as the “poverty capital of the world” by numerous international institutions!

It takes a cruel and callous man to do this and turn his back on his people in their time of need. Worse still when it comes to the fight against coronavirus itself in the last 3 weeks he has only managed to test between 10,000 to 20,000 people for the disease in a country of 200 million!

As if that were not bad enough, as his citizens are being beaten up, tortured, humiliated, insulted, dragged out of their homes and hotels and made homeless in China and as they are being accused by the Chinese authorities of “creating” and “spreading” Covid 19 he encourages, supports and commends the Chinese Government for doing all this and he welcomes Chinese doctors into his country for an unknown and unstated purpose even though the Nigerian people and the Nigerian Medical Association have expressed their grave concerns and deepest fears about this and kicked and warned against it.

Yours truly was so disgusted and appaulled by Buhari’s servile and cowering disposition towards the Chinese that he was constrained to tweet the following this morning.

“The support and defence that Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria’s otherwise erudite Foreign Minister, provided for China yesterday, even in the light of the barbaric atrocities that Africans are being subjected to in China, was embarrassing, gutless and shameful. Must Buhari always lick foreign arses?”

I am still waiting for an answer to the question but needless to say I will not hold my breath.

Things are so pitiful in Buhari’s Nigeria today that even the IMF has refused to touch her with a barge pole and has excluded her from the massive $21 billion USD bail-out and pay packet that they have just offered many other African nations as their contribution to fighting Covid 19 on the African continent.

If there were ever a country that could be best described as a nation of self-flagellatiing masochists it would have to be Nigeria. It is a country in which the worlds most cruel and heartless sadists are in power and the people appear to like it just like that.

Those that go by the name of IPOB and that have had the presence of mind, decency and courage to protest and say that they have had enough and wish to break out and establish their own country have been locked up, demonized, insulted, maligned and murdered and they have been declared as terrorists even though they never threatened or used violence to effect their purpose.

To say that you want to be free from bondage, tyranny and subjugation and that you wish to chart a new course for your ethnic nationality or tribe because the accursed Lugardian amagamation and forced marriage union between the north and the south of 1914 has never worked has now become a mortal sin and an unforgivable crime in Nigeria and self-determination has become a dirty word. What a tragedy!

Africa does not need to be conquered because she has already conquered itself. Today Africans are slaves in Libya, they are treated like animals in the Middle East and China, they are barely tolerated in Europe and they are hated and treated with contempt and disdain in Asia and North and South America.

All this yet they still believe that their leaders will lead them to the promise land and cut them a better deal in the world. This is nothing but delusion. What a sorry lot we are.

Sent from my iPhone

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Why Babangida’s Hilltop Home Became Nigeria’s Political “Mecca”

Published

14 hours ago

August 18, 2025

Sahara Weekly

Why Babangida’s Hilltop Home Became Nigeria’s Political “Mecca”.

By George Omagbemi Sylvester | Published by SaharaWeeklyNG.com

Former President Goodluck Jonathan’s birthday visit to Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) in Minna (where he hailed the octogenarian as a patriotic leader committed to national unity) was more than a courtesy call. It was a reminder of a peculiar constant in Nigerian politics: the steady pilgrimage of power-seekers, bridge-builders and crisis-managers to the Hilltop mansion. Jonathan’s own words captured it bluntly: IBB’s residence “is like a Mecca of sorts” because of the former military president’s enduring relevance and perceived nation-first posture.

Babangida turned 84 on 17 August 2025. That alone invites reflection on a career that has shaped Nigeria’s political architecture for four decades; admired by some for audacious statecraft, condemned by others for controversies that still shadow the republic. Born on 17 August 1941 in Minna, he ruled as military president from 1985 to 1993, presiding over transformative and turbulent chapters: the relocation of the national capital to Abuja in 1991; the creation of political institutions for a long, complex transition; economic liberalisation that cut both ways; and the fateful annulment of the 12 June 1993 election. Each of these choices helps explain why the Hilltop remains a magnet for Nigerians who need counsel, cover or calibration.

A house built on influence; why the visits never stop.

Let’s start with the obvious: access. Nigeria’s political class prizes proximity to the men and women who can open doors, soften opposition, broker peace and read the hidden currents. In that calculus, IBB’s network is unmatched. He cultivated a reputation for “political engineering,” the reason the press christened him “Maradona” (for deft dribbling through complexity) and “Evil Genius” (for the strategic cunning his critics decried). Whether one embraces or rejects those labels, they reflect a reality: Babangida is still the place where many politicians go to test ideas, seek endorsements or secure introductions. Even the mainstream press has described him as a consultant of sorts to desperate or ambitious politicians, an uncomfortable description that nevertheless underlines his gravitational pull.

Though it isn’t only political tact that draws visitors; it’s statecraft with lasting fingerprints. Moving the seat of government from Lagos to Abuja in December 1991 was not a cosmetic relocation, it re-centred the federation and signaled a symbolic neutrality in a country fractured by regional suspicion. Abuja’s founding logic (GEOGRAPHIC CENTRALITY and ETHNIC NEUTRALITY) continues to stabilise the national imagination. This is part of the reason many leaders, across party lines, still defer to IBB: he didn’t just rule; he rearranged the map of power.

Then there’s the regional dimension. Under his watch, Nigeria led the creation and deployment of ECOMOG in 1990 to staunch Liberia’s bloody civil war, a bold move that announced Abuja as a regional security anchor. The intervention was imperfect, contested and costly, but it helped define West Africa’s collective security posture and Nigeria’s leadership brand. When neighboring states now face crises, the memory of that precedent still echoes in diplomatic corridors and Babangida’s counsel retains currency among those who remember how decisions were made.

Jonathan’s praise and the unity argument.
Jonathan’s tribute (stressing Babangida’s non-sectional outlook and commitment to unity) goes to the heart of the Hilltop mystique. For a multi-ethnic federation straining under distrust, figures who can speak across divides are prized. Jonathan’s point wasn’t nostalgia; it was a live assessment of a man many still call when Nigeria’s seams fray. That’s why the parade to Minna continues: the anxious, the ambitious and the statesmanlike alike seek an elder who can convene rivals and cool temperatures.

The unresolved shadow: June 12 and the ethics of influence.

No honest appraisal can skip the hardest chapter: the annulment of the 12 June 1993 election (judged widely as free and fair) was a rupture that delegitimised the transition and scarred Nigeria’s democratic journey. Political scientist Larry Diamond has repeatedly identified June 12 as a prime example of how authoritarian reversals corrode democratic legitimacy and public trust. His larger warning (“few developments are more destructive to the legitimacy of new democracies than blatant and pervasive political corruption”) captures the moral crater that followed the annulment and the years of drift that ensued. Those wounds are part of the Babangida legacy too and they complicate the reverence that a steady stream of visitors displays.

Max Siollun, a leading historian of Nigeria’s military era, has observed (provocatively) that the military’s “greatest contribution” to democracy may have been to rule “long and badly enough” that Nigerians lost appetite for soldiers in power. It’s a stinging line, yet it helps explain the paradox of IBB’s status: the same system he personified taught Nigeria costly lessons that hardened its democratic reflexes. Today’s generation visits the Hilltop not to revive militarism but to harvest hard-won insights about managing a fragile federation.

What sustains the pilgrimage.
1) Institutional memory: Nigeria’s politics often suffers amnesia. Babangida offers a living archive of security crises navigated, regional diplomacy attempted, volatile markets tempered and power-sharing experiments designed. Whether one applauds or condemns specific choices, the muscle memory of governing a complex federation is rare and urgently sought.

2) Convening power: In a season of polarisation, the ability to sit warring factions in the same room is not small capital. Babangida’s imprimatur remains a safe invitation card few refuse it, fewer ignore it. That convening power explains why movements, parties and would-be presidents keep filing up the long driveway. Recent delegations have explicitly cast their courtesy calls in the language of unity, loyalty and patriotism ahead of pivotal elections.

3) Signals to the base: Visiting Minna telegraphs seriousness to party structures and funders. It says: “I have sought counsel where history meets experience.” In Nigeria’s coded political theatre, that signal still matters. Outlets have reported for years that many aspirants treat the Hilltop as an obligatory stop an unflattering reality, perhaps, but a revealing one.

4) The man and the myth: The mansion itself, with its opulence and aura, has become a set piece in Nigeria’s story of power, admired by some, resented by others, but always discussed. The myth feeds the pilgrimage; the pilgrimage feeds the myth.

The balance sheet at 84.
To treat Babangida solely as a sage is to forget the costs of his era; to treat him only as a villain is to ignore the architecture that still holds parts of Nigeria together. Abuja’s relocation stands as a stabilising bet that paid off. ECOMOG, for all its flaws, seeded a habit of regional responsibility. Conversely, June 12 remains a national cautionary tale about elite manipulation, civilian marginalisation and the brittleness of transitions managed from above. These are not contradictory truths; they are the double helix of Babangida’s place in Nigerian memory.

Jonathan’s homage tried to distill the better angel of IBB’s record: MENTORSHIP, BRIDGE-BUILDING and a POSTURE that (at least in his telling) RESISTS SECTIONAL ISM. “That is why today, his house is like a Mecca of sorts,” he said, praying that the GENERAL continues to “mentor the younger ones.” Whether one agrees with the full sentiment, it accurately describes the lived politics of Nigeria today: Minna remains a checkpoint on the road to relevance.

The scholar’s verdict and a citizen’s challenge.
If Diamond warns about legitimacy and Siollun warns about the perils of soldier-politics, what should Nigerians demand from the Hilltop effect? Three things.

First, use influence to open space, not close it. Counsel should tilt toward rules, institutions and credible elections not kingmaking for its own sake. The lesson of 1993 is that subverting a valid vote haunts a nation for decades.

Second, mentor for unity, but insist on accountability. Unity cannot be a euphemism for silence. A truly patriotic elder statesman sets a high bar for conduct and condemns the shortcuts that tempt new actors in old ways. Diamond’s admonition on corruption is not an abstraction; it’s a roadmap for rebuilding trust.

Third, convert nostalgia into institutional memory. If Babangida’s house is a classroom, then Nigeria should capture, publish and debate its lessons in the open: on peace operations (what worked, what failed), on capital relocation (how to plan at scale), and on transitions (how not to repeat 1993). Only then does the pilgrimage serve the republic rather than personalities.

At 84, Ibrahim Babangida remains a paradox that Nigeria cannot ignore: a man whose legacy straddles NATION-BUILDING and NATION-BRUISING, whose doors remain open to those seeking power and those seeking peace. Jonathan’s visit (and his striking “Mecca” metaphor) reveals a simple, stubborn fact: in a country still searching for steady hands, the Hilltop’s shadow is long. The task before Nigeria is to ensure that the shadow points toward a brighter constitutional daybreak, where influence is finally subordinated to institutions and where mentorship hardens into norms that no single mansion can monopolise. That is the only pilgrimage worth making.

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Ajadi Celebrates Juju Legend Femolancaster’s 50th Birthday in the UK

Published

2 days ago

August 17, 2025

Sahara Weekly

Ajadi Celebrates Juju Legend Femolancaster’s 50th Birthday in the UK

Nigerian Juju music legend, Otunba Femi Fadipe, popularly known as FemoLancaster, is being celebrated today in London as he clocks 50 years of age.

Ambassador Olufemi Ajadi Oguntoyinbo, a frontline politician and businessman, led tributes to the Ilesa-born maestro, describing him as a timeless cultural icon whose artistry has enriched both Nigeria and the world.

“FemoLancaster is not just a musician, he is a legend,” Ambassador Ajadi said in his birthday message. “For decades, his classical Juju sound has remained a reminder of the beauty of Yoruba heritage. Today, as he turns 50, I celebrate a cultural ambassador whose music bridges generations and continents.”

While FemoLancaster is highly dominant in Oyo State and across the South-West, his craft has also taken him beyond Nigeria’s borders.

FemoLancaster’s illustrious career has seen him thrill audiences across Nigeria and beyond, with performances in the United Kingdom, Canada, United States of America, and other parts of the world. His dedication to Juju music has projected Yoruba traditional sounds to international stages, keeping alive the legacy of icons like King Sunny Ade and Chief Ebenezer Obey while infusing fresh energy for younger audiences
He further stressed the significance of honoring artistes who have remained faithful to indigenous music while taking it global. “In an era where modern sounds often overshadow tradition, FemoLancaster stands as a beacon of continuity and resilience. He has carried Yoruba Juju music into the global space with dignity, passion, and excellence,” he added.

The golden jubilee celebration in London has drawn fans, friends, and colleagues, who all describe FemoLancaster as a gifted artist whose contributions over decades have earned him a revered place in the pantheon of Nigerian music legends.

“As FemoLancaster marks this milestone,” Ajadi concluded, “I wish him many more years of good health, wisdom, and global recognition. May his music continue to echo across generations and continents.”

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Gospel Songstress Esther Igbekele Marks Birthday with Gratitude and Celebration

Published

3 days ago

August 16, 2025

Sahara Weekly

Gospel Songstress Esther Igbekele Marks Birthday with Gratitude and Celebration

By Aderounmu Kazeem Lagos

Lagos, Nigeria — The gospel music scene is aglow today as the “Duchess of Gospel Music,” Esther Igbekele, marks another milestone in her life, celebrating her birthday on Saturday, August 16, 2025.

Known for her powerful voice, inspirational lyrics, and unwavering dedication to spreading the gospel through music, Esther Igbekele has become one of Nigeria’s most respected and beloved gospel artistes. Over the years, she has graced countless stages, released hit albums, and inspired audiences across the world with her uplifting songs.

Today’s celebration is expected to be a joyful blend of music, prayers, and heartfelt tributes from family, friends, fans, and fellow artistes. Sources close to the singer revealed that plans are in place for a special praise gathering in Lagos, where she will be joined by notable figures in the gospel industry, church leaders, and admirers from home and abroad.

Speaking ahead of the day, Igbekele expressed deep gratitude to God for His mercy and the opportunity to use her gift to touch lives. “Every birthday is a reminder of God’s faithfulness in my journey. I am thankful for life, for my fans, and for the privilege to keep ministering through music,” she said.

From her early beginnings in the Yoruba gospel music scene to her rise as a celebrated recording artiste with a unique fusion of contemporary and traditional sounds, Esther Igbekele’s career has been marked by consistency, excellence, and a strong message of hope.

As she adds another year today, her fans have flooded social media with messages of love, appreciation, and prayers — a testament to the profound impact she continues to make in the gospel music ministry.

For many, this birthday is not just a celebration of Esther Igbekele’s life, but also of the divine inspiration she brings to the Nigerian gospel music landscape.