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Fashola’s eureka moment at Lekki tollgate By Tunde Odesola

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STEALING PUBLIC TRUST . Premium Times’ Low Premium Reporting
Fashola’s eureka moment at Lekki tollgate By Tunde Odesola
Donkey’s years ago, before greed overtook leadership and snatched the reins of governance, Lagos was a free society without a tollgate.
Fashola’s eureka moment at Lekki tollgate By Tunde Odesola
Doubtlessly, the tollgate was a taboo in Lagos ages ago. This was in the days when history took culture under its wings together with language and tradition, forming a formidable foursome.
Fashola’s eureka moment at Lekki tollgate By Tunde Odesola
This was before government calamitously embarked on the journey to remove history from school curricula, deify foreign cultures, denigrate Nigerian languages and scorn tradition.
Fashola’s eureka moment at Lekki tollgate By Tunde Odesola
Nowadays, the four-pronged society preservers – history, culture, language and tradition – have been rendered as gaping as the four missing incisors in a mouth sentenced to pronouncing, “Surely, every thief stealing seashells by the Lagos seashore shall die by the sword at Tinubu Square.”
Fashola’s eureka moment at Lekki tollgate By Tunde Odesola
This pronunciation task is an impossibility for anyone without the incisors because the  incisors, what the Yoruba call ‘eyin faari’, are needed to pronounce dental sounds.
If you know Lagos very well, you will know its history, culture,  language and tradition. You will know the Eyo. If you know the Eyo, you should know the opambata, the aro and the agbada.
The opambata is the long, fearsome stalk of the palm tree wielded by the Eyo masquerader. The agbada is the white, overflowing regalia and the aro are the panegyrics of the Eyo.
Born at the Lagos Island Maternity Hospital and raised in Mushin, I memorised the ‘omo alagbada tolonga, tolonga’ Eyo panegyrics, a must-know chant among fellow youngsters back in the day.
That was a season when Lagos was sane, bold and unconquered. It was a time when Lagosians boastfully chanted the Eyo praisesong, recalling how their forebears’, in these tuneful lines, vowed never to pay toll at the boundary: “Eyo baba n’tawa, to nfi goolu se’re, awa o ni sanwo onibode, o di’le.”
But Lagosians now pay toll, to and fro, at the Lekki profit gate everyday. Even the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, a true Lagosian, can’t mobilise fellow Lagosians not to pay at the Lekki bondage, sorry, boundary gate. Iyen ma lewu. Odikwa risky. Baba-Baba mustn’t hear that.
I understand the encumbrances of serving and past Lagos governors. I know how gingerly former Lagos governor and incumbent Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, carries the burden of loyalty. But millions of Nigerians don’t. I’ll jog their memory.
When asked at a senate ministerial screening in 2015 about his view on loyalty, Fashola responded, “The concept of loyalty is a strange one. The real answer is that may our loyalties never be tested. I always pray that may my loyalty never be tested.”
He went ahead to narrate the story of two daughters who were unwilling to donate a kidney to their sick mom after the Lagos State government promised to send their mom abroad for transplant, stressing that he never wished his loyalty to be tested because no one knows the cost.
Fashola, at the intense screening, insisted that he had never been disloyal to any cause he has ever ‘signed on to’, stressing that, ‘no one can accuse me fairly of giving my word and going back on it’.
Fashola is fervently loyal, I know. He’s an unfrivolous Lagos poster boy who minds his business, plays his table tennis and smokes his cigarettes.
Fashola was loyal to his godfather, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, first – as chief of staff and later as first term governor. During his second term as governor, his loyalty was seriously tested, and Fashola doesn’t like his loyalty to be tested.
Several days after Nigerian soldiers murdered many youth protesters at the Lekki tollgate plaza last month, Fashola visited the scene after it had been washed clean of innocent blood.
As he stepped out of his vehicle and made a solitary and determinable peregrination at the scene of the public execution, Fashola’s loyalty was on trial. But remember, he had warned that he doesn’t like his loyalty to be tested.
Fashola wore brown plain clothes underscoring the prevailing sombre mood. The plain clothes were also a foretaste of the breakthrough about to happen. He folded his hands behind his back like a wise man while his roving eyes scanned the drainage, road and tollgate pillars.
Like a prophet who takes the cue when his hour has come, Fashola looked up at the tollgate beacon and continued on his solitary mission…then his eureka moment unraveled in broad daylight when he suddenly discovered the crime-scene camcorder!
As he fetched a handy piece of cloth from inside his plain clothes, headlines for the next day’s newspapers probably flirted around his mind, “#ENDSARS: Fashola unearths secret camera,” “Fashola discovers breakthrough lead at Lekki,” “Detective Fashola!”
Brilliant people are gifted with anticipatory thinking. It’s possible that Fashola envisioned himself being swarmed by reporters after his earthquaking finding, falling over themselves in the bid to ask questions while he basked in smiles of triumphal accomplishment.
But killjoy Nigerians felt Fashola was acting a comedy. They weren’t grateful that Fashola didn’t act like the Greek polymath and inventor, Archimedes, who reportedly ran home naked from a public bath, shouting eureka! upon discovering an insight into volumetric displacement.
Shame on fault-finding Nigerians! They descended on Fashola and smeared his reputation on social media. If Nigerians accuse Fashola of owing his allegiance to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), rather than to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I’m sure they won’t be mistaken as to where the allegiance of the members of the Lagos State House of Assembly lies.
Perpetually in the news for wrong reasons such as staggering corruption allegations, the Lagos legislature is tethered to Tinubu, to whom members of the House publicly pledge their allegiance, always.
By now, former Nollywood actor-turned-lawmaker in Lagos, Desmond Elliot, must’ve seen how his foreign surname has been turned into a rhyme scheme of unprintable adjectives signifying stupidity.
Employing dishonest reasoning, Elliot drew the ire of Nigerians when he called the Lekki protesters ‘children’, warning the Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, about the need for an urgent clampdown on Nigerians using social media users to demand better governance.
Elliot wasn’t outraged about the merciless killings of innocent youths by Nigerian soldiers at the Lekki tollgate, but was scandalised that protesters, in reaction to the killings, could storm the palace of the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, and seize the fleeing king’s staff of office.
Because Elliot must please the gods, he boomed, “When I went through the comments I could not believe it (sic); the curses, the abuses from children, and I asked myself, ‘Is this Nigeria? What is going on?’ Culture is gone!.., Mr Speaker, in the next five years, there will be no Nigeria if we don’t start now!
Start what kwanu? Start a fresh orgy of killings? Elliot’s statement was one of the most horrendous vituperations against the memory of those who lost their lives in the Lekki peaceful protest. The way he feigned annoyance and laboured to string passable sentences in the weirdest accent was dishonorable.
Without living in the Tabon-Tabon area of Agege, the phonetics-speaking Elliot even fired a couple of Chief Zebrudaya bullets, among others. Hear him, “The youth is (sic) not only those who do the peaceful protest!”
Reacting to the fallout of the state-induced riots that greeted the Lekki killings, a colleague of Elliot in the legislature, Mojisola Alli-Macaulay, said most Nigerian youths are on drugs, most of the time. What!?
Alli-Macaulay is a member of the current ninth Assembly that pardoned former Lagos Deputy governor, Femi Pedro, and restored all his outrageous privileges to him while Pedro’s predecessor, Kofoworola Akerele-Bucknor, who committed no offence as Pedro never got her privileges restored.
Shamefully, Alli-Macaulay is a member of a House whose Speaker has a yoke of corruption allegation hanging at his neck.
Which one is it better to be, a drug addict or a chained Assembly?
Facebook: @tunde odesola
Twitter: @tunde_odesola

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NAWOJ: SEKINAT, CHARITY GETS VOTE OF CONFIDENCE 

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NAWOJ: SEKINAT, CHARITY GETS VOTE OF CONFIDENCE 

 

The Nigeria Association of Women Journalists,(NAWOJ), Ogun State Chapter Executives has unanimously passed a vote of confidence on Chairman NAWOJ SEKINAT Salam and the Financial Secretary, Charity James, saying that, their leadership reflect the ideal and objectives of NAWOJ.

 

This was revealed in a communique issued at an Emergency meeting of the Executive held at the NUJ State Council, Iwe-Iroyin in Abeokuta.

 

The vote of confidence on the Leadership of NAWOJ was unanimously signed by all the five executive members that attended the meeting with the vice chairperson taking apology for official engagement outside the state capital.

 

According to the communique ” Consequently, NAWOJ Ogun State Chapter, reaffirms it’s unwavering support and confidence in the Chairperson and the Financial Secretary, Sekinat Salam and Charity James respectively, Urge them to continue in their commitment to purposeful leadership in the best interest of the association and the society at large”.

 

Speaking briefly with Journalists after the emergency Executive meeting, the Chairperson, Nigeria Association of Woman Journalists (NAWOJ), Com. Sekinat Salam, said the meeting was necessary as the news of her suspension was laughable and insulting because it is like a pot calling a kettle black in this case, saying that the Leadership of the State Council, Com. Wale Olanrewaju has no local standing to suspend her or any executive member, even he cannot be a judge in his own case.

 

According to her” The Leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Ogun State led by Wale Olanrewaju has always been misusing power without recourse to the constitution of this noble Union, hence has no local standing to suspend me or any executive member “.

 

She said only the Central Working Committee (CWC) has the constitutional rights to sanction or suspend any members found wanting after due process has been followed.

 

While calling on members to stay calm, Com. Sekinat Salam assured members of positive representation of NAWOJ at both the State and National level, adding the success recorded under her administration cannot be overemphasized.

 

She therefore called on the National leadership of NUJ to critically look into the matter, either by setting up independent committee to investigate the issues and resolve the matter as quickly as possible.

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Adron Homes Chairman Congratulates Oyo State on 50 Years of Progress

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Adron Homes Chairman Congratulates Oyo State on 50 Years of Progress

The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Adron Homes and Properties Limited, Aare Adetola Emmanuelking, has congratulated the Government and people of Oyo State as the state marks its 50th anniversary, describing the occasion as a celebration of resilience, cultural pride, and sustained progress.

He noted that since its creation, Oyo State has remained a strong contributor to Nigeria’s socio-economic and cultural development, emerging as a hub of commerce, education, and innovation.

According to him, the Golden Jubilee offers a moment for reflection and renewed commitment by government, private sector players, traditional institutions, and citizens toward building a more inclusive and prosperous state.

Aare Emmanuelking commended the state’s ongoing transformation through investments in infrastructure, economic expansion, and human capital development, adding that sustainable growth is deliberate and must remain purpose-driven.

He also praised the leadership of the current administration while acknowledging the contributions of past leaders whose efforts laid the foundation for today’s Oyo State.

Reaffirming Adron Homes’ commitment to national development, he described Oyo State as a land of opportunity. He wished the state continued peace and prosperity, expressing confidence that the next fifty years will bring even greater achievements for the Pace Setter State and its people.

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TY BURATAI HUMANITY CARE FOUNDATION CONDOLES WITH BIU EMIRATE OVER TRAGIC ATTACK

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TY BURATAI HUMANITY CARE FOUNDATION CONDOLES WITH BIU EMIRATE OVER TRAGIC ATTACK

TY BURATAI HUMANITY CARE FOUNDATION CONDOLES WITH BIU EMIRATE OVER TRAGIC ATTACK

 

In a profound expression of sorrow, the TY Buratai Humanity Care Foundation has extended its heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and the entire people of Biu Emirate, Borno State, following the recent tragic attack attributed to Boko Haram. This devastating assault, which occurred at a work site in northeastern Nigeria, claimed the lives of dozens, including brave soldiers committed to protecting the nation.

In a statement released to the press and signed by the Chairman of the foundation, Ibrahim Dahiru Danfulani Sadaukin Garkuwan Keffi/Betara Biu, the Grand Patron of the Foundation, His Excellency Amb. Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusufu Buratai CFR (Rtd), former Chief of Army Staff, described the incident as “one too many senseless, barbaric, and ruthless displays of inhumanity.” His Excellency emphasized the heartbreaking impact of such attacks on innocent, hardworking citizens striving to make a positive difference in their communities.

The Grand Patron praised the swift and decisive response of military personnel during this critical time, underscoring their brave commitment to safeguarding the nation. He called upon them to maintain this momentum, commending their courage and sacrifice in the face of adversity. “May Almighty Allah forgive their souls and grant them Aljannah Firdouse,” he remarked, encouraging the nation to honor their spirit of sacrifice as they rally together to rebuild and restore hope across the region.

In his statement, Gen. Buratai highlighted the importance of collective action in overcoming the challenges posed by insecurity, urging concerned citizens to increase their efforts in fostering a virile community that future generations can cherish. “Together, we can surmount these troubles,” he asserted, calling on all patriotic leaders and citizens to unite in the fight against violence and insecurity.

TY BURATAI HUMANITY CARE FOUNDATION CONDOLES WITH BIU EMIRATE OVER TRAGIC ATTACK

The TY Buratai Humanity Care Foundation remains committed to supporting initiatives that promote peace, security, unity, and prosperity. As the foundation extends its condolences to the bereaved, it also calls upon all segments of society to collaborate in creating a better and safer future. May Allah guide and protect the nation and lead it toward enduring peace. Amen.

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