US-Based Star Yinka Rythmz Honoured as Bobadara of Ipokia, Wife Crowned Yeye Bobadara

By Taofik Afolabi

It was a moment of glamour, pride, and cultural celebration as Nigerian-American based musician, Adeola Alhazzan , popularly known as Mr. Somebody or Yinka Rythmz, was conferred with the prestigious chieftaincy title of Bobadara of Ipokia Kingdom in Ogun State. The epoch making event was held yesterday, Friday at District Primary School, Ipokia. The wide gathering event was also the 5th year coronation ceremony of Onipokia of Ipokia, Oba Yisa Olusola Olaniyan.

The colourful ceremony, which attracted traditional rulers like Alaafin Oyo, Timi of Ede, Olu of Ilaro, dignitaries, entertainers, and fans alike, also saw his beautiful wife, Dr. Ugonna Hassan Adeola, bestowed with the title of Yeye Bobadara of Ipokia, cementing their place as one of the most admired power couples in the entertainment and professional space.

Yinka Rythmz, who has been away from Nigeria for close three decades, has built a solid reputation in the United States as a cultural ambassador and music icon. Known for blending Afro-fusion with soulful rhythms, his works have earned him several awards, accolades, and an enduring fan base across the globe.

His return home for this historic honour was nothing short of a grand homecoming. The streets of Ipokia buzzed with excitement as the community welcomed him with open arms. The conferment signifies not only recognition of his achievements abroad but also his continuous contributions to promoting Nigerian culture on the international stage.

Speaking at the ceremony, Yinka Rythmz expressed heartfelt gratitude to Onipokia and the people of Ipokia for the honour bestowed on him and his beautiful wife.

He said “This is a blessing and a responsibility. being honoured as Bobadara of Ipokia is a call to service, and I will continue to use my music, my influence, and my resources to uplift my people and showcase our culture to the world,” he said.

Dr. Ugonna, his wife, who combines her career as a medical doctor with her supportive role in her husband’s music journey, also described the chieftaincy title as a privilege.

“Becoming Yeye Bobadara of Ipokia is more than a title; it is a lifetime duty to stand beside my husband and serve our people,” she noted.

The event featured thrilling performances, cultural displays, and tributes from friends and colleagues in the entertainment industry. With this new chapter, Yinka Rythmz and his wife join the ranks of distinguished personalities carrying the Ipokia heritage with pride and honour.

For fans and well-wishers, the conferment of these titles marks not only recognition of past achievements but also the beginning of greater contributions from the Bobadara and Yeye Bobadara of Ipokia.

The colourful event was achored by famous broadcaster, Ambassador Dr Yomi Mate Ifankaleluyah and Alhaji Bashir Adisa Babagboin.

FAD Media Group Celebrates Eight Years of Premier Broadcasting in Nigeria

A vibrant celebration of exceptional broadcasting took place in Calabar, the historic capital of Cross River State, as FAD FM Calabar marked its eight-year anniversary.

Fidelis Duker, the CEO and a renowned figure in the African film industry, expressed his joy at the success of the station. “I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has played a role in our journey at FAD FM Calabar. Reflecting on our beginnings, I am grateful to all the staff, our loyal listeners, the businesses that have partnered with us, guests who have graced our programs, and the support from government and corporate Nigeria. You have collectively nurtured a dream that has blossomed into something spectacular.”

The FAD Media Group also operates a second station, FAD FM Abuja, broadcasting on frequency 101.3, with plans underway for new stations in Agbara and Kano City.

Duker is not only a media pioneer but also the founder of the Abuja International Film Festival, the longest-running African film festival in Anglophone West Africa. Now in its 22nd year, the festival is scheduled for October 26-30 in Abuja. “The film festival is a passion project initiated with my wife that has grown to be widely recognized as one of the premier events in Africa and beyond,” he noted proudly.

With its commitment to quality broadcasting and a bright future ahead, FAD Media Group continues to thrive as a beacon of excellence in the Nigerian media landscape.

Why History Must Be Taught and Remembered.

By George Omagbemi Sylvester | Published by Saharaweeklyng.com

Forget the past and you’ll be forced to live it again; Nigeria is already starting to wake up.

History is not an academic luxury. It is the country’s sternest teacher, the ledger of collective consequence and the only honest mirror that shows us how we failed and why. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” wrote George Santayana; this is not a dusty aphorism to pin on a classroom wall. It is an instruction manual we have willfully left unread. When a nation forgets its history it does not simply lose stories; it loses memory, moral compass, judgment and ultimately, the capacity to choose a different tomorrow.

In Nigeria today, forgetting is not passive. It is active neglect: textbooks that skim over inconvenient truths, civic education squeezed out of curricula, institutions that fail to record and teach the consequences of past errors. The cost is measurable and repeated misgovernance, recycled patronage networks, periodic violence that re-enacts old scars and policy choices that ignore lessons learned in blood and ruin. If history is a map of past mistakes and triumphs, then Nigerians are driving blindfolded through familiar potholes while insisting the road is new.

Why teach history? First, history equips citizens with context. Without context, events become isolated shocks rather than symptoms. The 1967–1970 Civil War (the Biafran War), the long decades of military rule with recurrent coups/counter-coups and the structural economic choices made during the Structural Adjustment era did not occur in a vacuum, they grew from sequences of political miscalculation, exclusion and impunity. Understanding these sequences matters because patterns repeat: GRIEVANCES UNADDRESSED BECOME GRIEVANCES WEAPONIZED. The broad sweep of Nigeria’s modern political trauma is well documented; to ignore it is to invite DÉJÀ VU.

Second, history teaches judgment. Facts alone are inert and interpretation animates them into wisdom. When young people learn that autocratic shortcuts once crippled civic institutions and squandered public trust, they can judge proposals that promise quick fixes. When they learn how corruption metastasized under weak oversight and how weak states left citizens vulnerable, they are less likely to romanticize the next strongman who promises order in exchange for liberty. Good history resists slogans; it trains citizens to ask, “Who benefits?” and “At what cost?” UNESCO and contemporary historians argue that HISTORY EDUCATION STRENGTHENS CRITICAL THINKING and DEMOCRATIC RESILIENCE; an indispensable bulwark against easy populism.

Third, history builds identity without myth. Nations that remember honestly can celebrate achievements and mourn failures simultaneously. The danger is not that history will unsettle pride; the danger is that it will be simplified into myths that obscure cause and effect. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warned us about “the danger of a single story”: when a society accepts only one version of its past, it denies breadth, nuance and the plurality of experiences that make reconciliation and learning possible. Teaching multiple, competing narratives (including the voices of marginalized Nigerians) is not historical indulgence; it is democratic necessity.

Fourth, history deters impunity by naming consequences. Memory is a form of accountability. When public tragedies, human-rights abuses or corrupt betrayals are recorded and taught, they become part of the collective conscience; forgetting them normalizes transgression. Conversely, nations that institutionalize remembrance (through museums, truth commissions, public archives and mandatory curricula) make it harder for NEW LEADERS to CLOAK OLD CRIMES in SLOGANS. The lesson is not vindictiveness; it is prevention.

Some will object: “History is weaponized. It is used to inflame, to divide.” That risk exists, precisely because history is powerful. The solution is not amnesia; it is rigorous, honest, pluralistic education. Sell the binary of “history equals tribal grudge” and you guarantee perpetual cycles of recrimination. Teach history well, with source-criticism, empathy and comparative perspective and you inoculate citizens against simplistic redemptions and cynical political rewriting.

PRACTICAL STEPS NIGERIA MUST TAKE ARE STRAIGHTFORWARD AND URGENT.

Restore history to the core curriculum. Not as rote memorization, but as SOURCE-DRIVEN inquiry that trains students to evaluate evidence, weigh causation and draw lessons for civic life. Scholarly work on history education shows the subject’s central role in forming critical and CIVIC-MINDED CITIZENS not merely exam-takers.

Fund public history and archives. National and state archives, museums and memorials must be resourced to collect and preserve documents, oral histories and artifacts. Memory requires preservation; preservation costs money and political will.

Support independent scholarship and pedagogy. Universities and teacher-training colleges should be incentivized to research under-taught episodes (e.g., regional injustices, labour movements, youths/women’s activism) and train teachers to present complex narratives without sectarian spin.

Promote civic rituals of remembrance. Annual commemorations, responsibly curated exhibits and truth-and-reconciliation style forums can ritualize memory in ways that educate rather than inflame.

Make media partners in public education. Documentaries, serialized radio programs and investigative journalism can reach millions and translate complex histories into accessible narratives for citizens outside classrooms.

History is not only about the great men and battles; it is about ordinary people’s lives, the markets that closed, the clinics that shut, the communities displaced and the laws never passed. When a country loses these storylines, it loses the means to care for its own future.

Llet us be blunt: Nigeria’s current crises (whether economic mismanagement, insecurity or fragile institutions) have roots that would be obvious to anyone who bothered to read a proper civic history. We can trace policy missteps and political bargains to their sources. We can point to moments when accountability was surrendered and warn that surrender is contagious. To insist otherwise is to practice collective amnesia.

Finally, teaching history is a moral act. It affirms that the lives of the LONG-SILENCED matter. It says to those who suffered and to their descendants: we remember you; we will not let your sacrifice be erased. That moral commitment is what transforms memory into prevention.

If Nigerians choose to sleepwalk, future generations will inherit the bills for today’s neglect: loss of lives, diminished opportunity and a republic that has forgotten how it fell apart before. If we choose instead to teach history honestly and widely, we create citizens equipped to recognize patterns, challenge repetition and demand accountable governance.

History is knocking. The question is whether Nigeria will open the door with curiosity, humility and courage or keep sleepwalking into the same darkness.

The lesson of Santayana’s warning is not FATALISM; it is invitation: REMEMBER, LEARN and ACT.