Connect with us

celebrity radar - gossips

THE “TERRORISTS” OF KANU NNAMDI LED IPOB BY FEMI FANI-KAYODE 

Published

on

Nnamdi Kanu’s ‘Disciple’, Ekpa Writes UN, Announces Himself As Prime Minister Of Biafra Government In Exile, Lists Other Ministers, Office Holders Simon Ekpa, the self-proclaimed disciple of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu has described himself as the Prime Minister of the Biafra Republic Government in Exile (BRGIE). Ekpa, in a letter to the United Nations General Assembly, dated April 13, 2023, which he personally signed, urged the global community to recognise Biafra Republic Government in Exile, which he said was established to undertake the political and administrative governance of the ‘Biafra nation’ from outside of ‘Biafra’ territory. He also appealed to the UN to prevail on the government of Nigeria to unconditionally release Nnamdi Kanu and all ‘Biafrans’ held captive in any dungeon in Nigeria, and conduct a peaceful referendum to enable a peaceful and bloodless exit of Biafra from Nigeria. According to the letter obtained by SaharaReporters on Thursday, Ekpa stated that the indigenous people of ‘Biafra’ set up the exile government in their determination to exit the Nigerian state, while enumerating a plethora of reasons why IPOB wants the South-East region to exit from Nigeria. He said the Biafra Government in Exile will "undertake diplomatic and foreign relationships, arrangements and agreements, negotiations and pacts with other nations and interest organisations of the world on behalf of Biafra People”. “They are to be accorded all diplomatic privileges as due to any government official of their respective level. Biafra people, through their government in exile are sourcing for supports from all nations of the world to assist it exit Nigeria peacefully," he added. According to the letter to the United Nations General Assembly, an election was conducted and "Mazi Simon Ekpa was elected as the Prime Minister together with other Biafra Government in Exile officials, namely; Head of Finance –Mazi Ogechukwu Nkere; Deputy Head of Finance –Hon Lady Azuka Charlesnwankwo; Defense Minister –Hon. Lady Azuka Charles Nwankwo; Home Land Liaison –Dr M O & Prof C. O. N; Diplomatic & Foreign Affairs –Dr Sam Agubosim. Deputy Prof Anthony Nwannebuike Nwiboko; Coastal Region Orientation Coordinator-Madam Anirejou Josephine Erewa”. Others are Group Secretary –Victor Adim/ Dr Ruby Nnadi; Dept. Of Planning & Strategy –Paul Adinam; Information/ Media & Communication –Dr. Florence Agie & Mazi Ralph Chiamaka Ajere; Secretary to World Igbo Union –Madam May Ndirika; Military –Prof Anthony Nwannebuike Nwiboko/Mazi Solomon Nkwocha; Ministry of Health –Dr Ngozi Orabueze, Dr Offorma, Dr Sam and Dr Mora; Education –Dr Ruby Nnadi; Oil & Gas –Dr Ngozi Orabueze & Emma Maduabu; Pharmacy & Laboratory Science, Board of Nursing –Dr Benedict / Dr Florence Agie and Transport & Logistics –Amobi Eneh.
I watched my brother Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s interview with my brother Chief Dele Momodu on Thursday evening and I was inspired and encouraged.
Nnamdi spoke with such eloquence, passion, courage and strength. He is brilliant and irrepressible. He cannot be underestimated or ignored.
Every African should listen to that interview. He cleared a lot of misconceptions about himself and made his position clear on so many issues.
Most important of all is the fact that he had the decency and humility to tender his regrets and apologies where he may have got things wrong. That is the mark of a great leader.
I have loved and trusted him dearly ever since the first day we met and spoke for 3 hours when we were both incarcerated at Kuje prison in 2016.
From the first minute we got on like a house on fire and we have been close ever since. There is nothing that binds men together more than being locked up together in prison or being on the battlefield together and fighting side by side and shoulder to shoulder against a common enemy.
The truth is that Nnamdi is not just a friend but a brother. We do not agree on everything but we agree on many things and the fact that we can tell each other the blunt and bitter truth whenever we feel either of us has gone wrong is the source and strength of our relationship.
Most importantly we stand as a moderating influence on one another both in our public and private affairs and trust me when I tell you that this man is a stabilising force, a good family man and a peacemaker.
Yet whatever anyone chooses to say or feel about him the truth is that he won millions of new friends and supporters after that interview from all over the country.
I thank Dele for giving this great man the opportunity to express himself to the Nigerian people on a mainstream platform such as his which has a massive reach.
After listening to the discussion I was prompted to meditate and ponder on how IPOB is wrongly perceived by many Nigerians and to write the following. Fasten your seat belts and enjoy the ride.
You call members of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) terrorists yet you refuse to bring to justice those that have slaughtered or illegally detained and incarcerated 30,000 of their members in the last 5 years.
This number was given to me by Barrister Ifeanyi Ejiofor, IPOB’s lawyer, whose home and community in Orifite, Anambra state was also attacked, burnt down and plundered whilst many of his people were slaughtered in a joint operation by the Nigerian military and police in a matter of hours.
I was there to spend the day with him and mourn the loss of his brother on a Sunday and the tanks rolled in on Monday morning just a few hours after I left!
When Ifeanyi called me early in the morning to say that they were under attack, that his house and his late brothers house had been burnt to the ground, that his elderly mother had been beaten to a pulp, that the Church building that I had given a speech in the day before had been pulled down and destroyed and that many of his people had been killed for no just cause, tears rolled down my cheeks.
Had he not fled for his life and gone into hiding Ifeanyi himself would have been killed on that day.
Any group of people that have been subjected to that kind of barbarism from the Nigerian state would have resorted to an open armed struggle by now but Nnamdi Kanu’s IPOB have refused to do so.
Their struggle and quest for Biafran independence has remained relatively peaceful despite the provocation from the Nigerian state and the massive persecution they have been subjected to for 5 years.
Now tell me between IPOB and the Nigerian state who are the real terrorists? Who has done the killing? Who has terrorised? Who has spilled the blood of the innocent? Who has operated unlawfully and committed genocide and crimes against humanity?
Who has sponsored and protected the Fulani herdsmen and refused to curb and condemn their barbaric activities or declare them as a terrorist organisation?
Who has been soft on ISWA and Boko Haram and released and reintegrated thousands of their members into our Armed Forces even after they slaughtered hundreds of thousands of defenceless Nigerians, including women and children?
Who has unleashed their troops and security forces on their own people and killed thousands of their own citizens? Who has crushed and destroyed the lives and families of the innocent?
Who has burnt down Churches, slaughtered priests at the alter and who has sacked, pillaged, levelled, captured and renamed towns and whole communities?
Who has seized the land of farmers and raped their wives and children, butchered Christians and Shia Muslims and slaughtered thousands in Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina and the core North.
Who has hacked to pieces thousands in Southern Kaduna, Taraba, Plateau, Adamawa, Benue and murdered protesting children in Mushin and at the Lekki Toll Gate?
Was it IPOB or members, associates and friends of the Buhari regime and those they encourage and protect?
I am not a man of violence and I do not support the use of arms. Where anyone or group of persons, including IPOB, involves themselves in violence I am the first to condemn it.
I despise those that shed innocent blood and those that unleash mayhem, havoc and tyranny on innocent people.
Yet the bitter truth is that those that have done more of this than anyone else in this country over the last 5 years are the Federal Government and their friends, associates and allies and not IPOB, OPC, YOLICOM, MASSOB, YWC, Yourba Summit Group, MEND, NDVF, IYC, the Lower Niger Congress or any of the other regional or self-determination groups.
I am not a coward and neither am I chicken-hearted. Truth is my sword and the Lord is my shield and armour. I fear nothing and nobody other than God.
It is for this reason that I refuse to be cowed or browbeaten into joining the gullible and ignorant herd of lily-livered cheerleaders who take pleasure in attacking and demonising the victims of the state like IPOB instead of condemning the unbelievable cruelty and crushing wickedness that has been unleashed upon them by agents of the state.
And the only reason they do this is because IPOB has not been given adequate fair hearing in the nations media or the public space to explain and defend themselves or tell their own side of the story to the Nigerian people.
The bitter truth is that more than any other group in this country over the last five years IPOB have been misepresented, villified, attacked, demonised and subjected to the greatest and most horrendous form of misrepresentation and negative propaganda. If anyone is attacked in the south or any police station burnt, according to our media, it must be IPOB.
Thousands of their members are in cells all over the country as we speak and yet no-one speaks for them, no one cares for them and no one empathises with them. This is unacceptable. This is inhuman. This is unfair. This is unjust. This is evil.
Worse still to compare IPOB to Boko Haram, ISWA or the Fulani herdsmen is like comparing Little Red Riding Hood to the hungry and ravenous wolf or like comparing Mother Theresa to Jack the Ripper: it simply does not make sense.
Some have alleged that IPOB youths committed acts of violence throughout the East and parts of Rivers state during the #EndSARS protests. Unconfirmed reports suggest that some of them even killed policemen and other innocent Nigerians. I find these reports troubling but I do however question them.
The Nnamdi Kanu that I know can be impulsive and say some very harsh things at times but he is not a killer or a violent man. He is a formidable intellectual and a visionary leader and not a merciless, bellicose, violent, murderous and bloodthirsty barbarian.
God forbid such a thing but if he was a man that took pleasure in the spilling of blood he would have put one million Ak 47’s in the hands of his followers by now and all hell would have broken loose. Violence is not in his blood and neither is it in his interest.
On several occasions he has told me privately and has said publicly that IPOB’s struggle is and must always be a peaceful one and he is wise enough to know that anything outside of that will be counterproductive and would lose him a lot of support and sympathy.
If indeed IPOB youths, as opposed to thuggish hoodlums that are claiming to be IPOB or rogue elements within the organisation, have killed anyone anywhere then I wholeheartedly condemn it and such barbaric behaviour must stop forthwith.
Two wrongs can never make a right. The fact that the Nigerian state indulges in mass murder does not mean that their victims must also soil their hands with innocent blood.
And if anyone doubts that the Nigerian state is indeed a brutal and bloodlusting killing machine which seeks to crush dissent and silence those that do not key into its inherent barbarism then I challenge them to find out how many young innocent Igbos are being targeted and killed by security forces in Obigbo, Rivers state today in the name of fighting IPOB.
According to Amnesty International in Obigbo innocent people have been kept in inhuman conditions in a 24 hour curfew for the last 10 days without access to medicare, food, water and power and there are  reports of extrajudicial killings with dead bodies all over the streets.
The group torture, psychological trauma and mass murder of Igbo people for whatever reason and under whatever guise in Obigbo is unacceptable. I condemn it in the strongest terms.
Where is our humanity? Must the Igbo always be slaughtered like flies in Nigeria? Do they not have red blood too? Does any race or human being deserve this type of targetting and treatment?
I condemn the killing of security agents by anyone in that community but does that mean that every Igbo there must be treated like a prisoner of war or massacred?
What moral right do we have as southerners to complain when northerners kill our people when we in the south are so ready to kill one another in such a barbaric and cruel way?  Today I weep for the South and I weep for Nigeria.
Children and youths were massacred by soldiers at Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos just two weeks ago and today children and youths, of Igbo extraction, are being targeted, hunted down like animals and massacred by soldiers in Obigbo in Rivers state. This inexplicable MADNESS and unconciable BLOODLUST must stop!
If the truth be told the real terrorists in this country are in Aso Rock and not on the streets of Igboland or in the ranks of IPOB.
Calling for a referendum and seeking to peacefully exercise your right of self-determination after being subjected to and confronted with 60 years of subjugation, murder, ethnic cleansing, tyranny and genocide does not make  you a terrorist, it makes you a courageous man of conscience and a freedom fighter.
I am not from the old Eastern Region of Nigeria and therefore I am not a member of IPOB. I hail from the old Western Region where we have our own struggles and where we also seek to chart our own course and determine our own future.
That struggle is for either restructuring of the country or, failing that, the peaceful establishment of our own nation which we shall call Oduduwa Republic.
This is a noble quest because Nigeria has failed us just as it has failed everyone else. And if things do not change quickly it is a quest that will be achieved sooner than later.
Yet the struggle for freedom is not for the Biafrans and the sons of Oduduwa alone: it is also for the ordinary people of the core North who have been through hell and who have been subjected to unprecedented levels of carnage and savagery.
Again it is also for the people of the Middle Belt and the so-called minorities of the north who have suffered for so long and who have been denied, deprived and suppressed more than any other people in Nigeria. They too shall be free from the yoke, bondage and cruelty of imperial Nigeria.
Permit me to conclude this contribution with the following. No matter how many IPOB members you torture, jail and kill and no matter how many of them you misrepresent and demonise, they cannot be stopped because an idea whose time has come cannot be successfully resisted.
Like the great Libyan warrior Omar Al Mouqthar who was known as the ‘Lion of the Desert’, their battle cry is “we win or we die”.
Like the gallant and courageous Patrick Henry, who led the American people in their struggle for independence from Great Britain, their song is “give me freedom or give me death!”
That is their story, that is their song and it is ours too. Freedom calls and liberty beckons: one million tanks cannot stop them and all the misrepresention, disinformation, misinformation and lies in the world cannot deter them.

Continue Reading
Advertisement

celebrity radar - gossips

Retired, Not Tired: Buratai’s Fitness Routine Sparks Motivation Nationwide

Published

on

Retired, Not Tired: Buratai’s Fitness Routine Sparks Motivation Nationwide

 

After years of distinguished service at the helm of the Nigerian Army, Lt. Gen. Tukur Yusufu Buratai (rtd) is redefining what life after uniform looks like—with energy, discipline, and a commitment to personal wellness.

 

Recent photos of the former Chief of Army Staff in the gym, widely shared on social media, show a man who has swapped combat boots for training shoes but not his signature resolve. Relaxed yet resolute, Buratai continues to lead by example—this time, in the pursuit of health and balance.

In a caption accompanying the viral images, Buratai emphasized that his workout routine isn’t just about staying fit—it’s about celebrating a life of service with renewed purpose. “This gym walk-out is about more than exercise; it’s about enjoying the fruits of a long, honorable career,” he wrote.

The message has struck a chord. Admirers across the country have commended his discipline and positivity, lauding his transition from top military leadership to a model of healthy living in retirement. For many, Buratai is not just a retired general—he’s now a wellness ambassador.

His journey offers a powerful reminder: retirement isn’t the end, but the beginning of a new chapter—one where growth, self-care, and inner peace can thrive.

Retired, Not Tired: Buratai’s Fitness Routine Sparks Motivation Nationwide

Photos and full message available on his verified Facebook page:
Read more here

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/16hgxtnhXu/

Continue Reading

celebrity radar - gossips

TRUMP, MALEMA, RAMAPHOSA AND THE OVAL OFFICE GRILL by Chief Femi Fani-Kayode

Published

on

THE ISRAEL OF SHAITAN

TRUMP, MALEMA, RAMAPHOSA AND THE OVAL OFFICE GRILL by Chief Femi Fani-Kayode

It was quite a show at the Oval office in the White House a few days ago when South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met with American President Donald J. Trump to discuss bilateral issues and world affairs.

 

It began with Trump’s unsubstantiated and frankly asinine allegation that the white Boers of South Africa are being subjected to mass murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide.

 

This is not only false but also painfully absurd.

 

Sadly it did not stop there. Trump went on to assert that Julius Malema, the inspirational charismatic and colourful M.P. and leader and founder of the South African Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), is a hate-filled black supremacist and racist and a cold-blooded murderer and ruthless terrorist whose intention it is to kill every white person in South Africa.

Needless to say these allegations are baseless and false. The Americans are attempting to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it. It is nothing but yet another well-crafted but unsubstantiated mendacity.

 

Even though Malema is very vocal and highly controversial he does not strike me as a hater of whites but rather as a hater of injustice, oppression, persecution and institutional racism.

 

He is a man with a social conscience who speaks for the poor, the weak, the vulnerable and the oppressed and who has constituted himself into a major thorn in the flesh of the political establishment and the ruling elites in South Africa both white and black.

 

He is very eloquent, well-informed, well-read and quick off the mark and these qualities, coupled with his obvious courage and strength, make him a formidable adversary which every person of class, rank or privilege in his country has every reason to be wary of.

 

He also speaks a good deal of sense and his passion for truth, justice and equity for the black majority population of South Africa and commitment to the emancipation of the African continent from the forces of imperialism and neo-colonialism cannot be denied.

 

To millions of South Africans Malema is a deeply courageous, insightful and profound man and possibly the greatest post-Mandela hero and rising star that their nation has ever known.

 

To add to this millions of Africans (including Nigerians and Zimbabweans) who live in South Africa regard him as a loyal and trusted friend who has always spoken up for them and sought to protect them from the rabid xenophobia that most black South Africans suffer from and who has a strong and commendable Nkrumaist Pan-African vision.

For Trump and his White House to attempt to disparage such a man that brings so much to the table and that has done so much to restore the self-respect and dignity of black South Africans and Africans all over the world simply because he sang an old outdated, pre-independence, apartheied-era, anti-Boer war song at his political party rally is uncharitable and unkind.

 

To turn down the lights of the Oval office, watch a film on him on television for four good minutes and make him the centre of discussion at a bilateral meeting between the Presidents of two of the most respected nations on earth only proves the fact that he is no longer only an African phenomenon but also a global brand and a rallying point for blacks from all over the world.

To that extent Trump has inadvertently elevated his profile rather than diminish it.

 

Like in the case of the Biblical Joseph, what Trump meant for evil, God meant for good.

Yet perhaps the most shameful thing that Trump did on that day was not what he attempted to do to Malema but rather the following.

 

He presented a picture to Ramaphosa and his delegation of what was purportedly “1000 white South African graves with white crosses on them of white South African farmers” that were supposedly “dispossessed of their land by black terrorists” and “murdered in cold blood”.

Contrary to the American Presidents assertions it was later confirmed that the picture was NOT of the graves of white farmers in South Africa but rather of a burial ground in a completely different country called Congo!

 

One wonders how the President of the most powerful nation on earth could make such an egregious and monumental blunder and indulge in such deceit and doublepeak all in an attempt to humiliate the South African President.

 

Sadly it didn’t stop there. Trump literally ambushed Ramaphosa, lectured him, bullied him, spoke down to him, accused his Government and people of heinous crimes, kept interrupting him when he attempted to speak, mocked his role as a peacemaker in the Ukraine/Russia conflict and sought to utterly humiliate him.

To behave in this unacceptable manner and indulge in such mendacious falsehood is below any President let alone the most powerful one in the world.

 

I see the hand of Elon Musk, who himself is a South African and who has not hidden his contempt and disdain for the ANC-led South African Government and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu, whose Government has been accused by South Africa of genocide and indeed taken to the International Court of Justice and to the International Criminal Court both at the Hague, in all this.

 

Both must have thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle!

 

Yet the truth is that even if his predominately white right-wing MAGA base in America may have been excited and thrilled by his proverbial lynching and carpeting of a helpless and whimpering black President at the Oval office it has also alienated a lot of black and particularly African Trumpers like yours truly who have always refused to regard Trump as a racist but rather as a man who was specially chosen, prepared, raised and anointed by God to destroy the American Deep State, to terminate the Godless agenda of the globalists, to stop the wars of the world, to put God at the centre of affairs when it comes to politics and governance, to re-establish and re-instill the Christian virtues and values that America was built on, to break the back of the unholy, Luciferean trinity and anti-Christ philosophy of Obama, Clinton and Biden in world affairs and American politics.

I sincerely hope that we do not end up regretting our support for him but if he continues in this way that support shall undoubtedly dwindle.

Why do I day this? Consider the following.

First it was “let us grab Greenland, Canada, Mexico, the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal and rename the Gulf of Persia”, then it was “let us turn Gaza into an American Riviera”, then it was “let us wage a tariff war against the nations of the world”, then it was “let us alienate and abandon our European allies”, then it was “let us provoke China”, then it was “let us go to the three richest nations in the Middle East and compel their Kings to invest trillions of dollars in America and even give us a new presidentiel jet”, then it was “let us bring the little African leader who leads a country with the largest and most properous economy on his continent to the Oval office, humiliate him before the world and bully him into leaving our white brothers in South Africa alone” and the latest is “let us stop foreign students from attending Harvard University because the authorities of that school have refused to bring to an end the pro-Palestinian
demonstrations that are taking place on campus”.

These actions are increasingly troubling and whether we have hitherto admired, loved and prayed for Trump or not we cannot support a confirmed bully and racist. That would be ungodly.

We cannot support a man that finds it difficult to empathise with the suffering of others or that is fast losing his humanity. That would be incorrigible.

 

Trump needs to retrace his steps, divest himself of these glaring and obvious symptoms of meglomania, obsessive vanity and extreeme narcissim and get real.

 

God did not deliver him from the hands of his enemies and make him President to do this sort of nonsense but rather to make America great again and to make the world a better and safer place. If he fails to do this God will leave him, remove him and replace him with another.

Back to the episode at the White House.

 

Cyril Ramaphosa’s responses to the grilling were equally embarrassing and frankly disappointing.

 

Most western commentators have described his disposition, body language and reaction as “weak”, “cowardly” and “cringeworthy” and I am constrained to concur.

 

No President should bow and tremble before another no matter how rich and powerful the latter may be.

 

In the African context Nelson Mandela would not have done so and neither would Murtala Mohammed, Olusegun Obasanjo, Jerry Rawlings, Thomas Sankara, Ahmed Ben Bella, Muammar Ghadafi, Patrice Lumumba, Gamal Nasser, Sani Abacha, Ibrahim Babangida, Kwame Nkrumah, Muhammadu Buhari, Robert Mugabe, Samora Machel or Ibrahim Traore.

 

This ritual of inviting foreign leaders to the Oval office like King Hussein of Jordan (who literally had to bow and lick Trumps posterior), President Vlodomer Zelensky of Ukraine (who was insulted, rubbished, humiliated and finally thrown out) and now Cyril Ramaphosa (who was forced to watch an embarrassing scene about his country on television) and belittling and denigrating them must stop.

 

The humiliation of the South African President particularly was painful for me to watch because of the frightful history of his country and the terrible atrocities and apartheid system that the white Afrikaaner Boers subjected the black Africans to for hundreds of years.

 

They went through all that and now they have to suffer this in the hands of yet another white man.

 

This same white minority that oppressed and enslaved them in their own land for hundreds of years control 80% of the economy and own 90% of the land in their country today despite the fact that they only constitute 8% of the population.

These are the people that Trump is claiming are being subjected to genocide and is offering asylum in America.

 

These are people that in the main and in the past have regarded black Africans as being “no better than animals”.

 

These are people that practised apartheid and that described black people as the biblical “hewers of the wood and drawers of the water”.

These are the people that once regarded a black man as being a quarter of a human being and that not only refused to have legal inter racial sex or marriages but compelled black people to live in shanty towns that were little better than concentration camps and subjected them to pass laws much in the sane way as the Israelis are subjecting the Palestinians to such inhumanity and degradation today.

If a Nigerian leader had been treated like this at the Oval office and I was in the room believe me all hell would have broken loose and Trump, his VP, his Ministers, his team and the American White House Press Corps would not only have got more than they dished out and bargained for but they would have been given a curt history lesson about the past and present atrocities of their nation and a thorough and precise lecture about the matter at hand.

I am a Trump supporter but in all matters my nation and continent must come first.

I despise the way he bullied Ramaphosa and I hope and pray that if he or any other foreign leader tries this with any Nigerian leader that I am in the room.

The days of talking down to African Presidents are long over.

 

More importantly the days of cowardly, weak, subservient, spineless, grovelling, corrupt, compromised and ignorant African lichspittles and
quislings who call themselves leaders but who lack self-esteem, self-respect and pride in their people and who have no shame or dignity, who are hopelessly compromised, who have no knowledge of world affairs or world history, who are pawns of the neo-colonialists and imperialists and who have sold their soul and destiny of their nation to the western powers are long over.

This fact can be confirmed by what can best be described as the “Traore spirit” that is blowing into all the nooks and corners of our continent today.

As much as I love and support Trump his attitude and policy on Africa and Gaza leaves much to be desired.

He needs to do better and he must understand that the Palestinians and the Africans, though facing challenges, are far more resilient than his people ever were and come from a far older and greater civilisation than his country ever did.

 

We may not have their money and power but we have God.

 

Their time is now but tomorrow belongs to us. That God that put them up there and established their hegemony and empire shall remember us.

 

We too shall rise and at that time all men shall say that the rejected stone has become the corner stone, that the Lord uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wisdom of the wise and that in truth all things are possible with God.

 

(Chief Femi Fani-Kayode is the Sadaukin Shinkafi, the Wakilin Doka Potiskum, a former Minister of Aviation and a former Minister of Culture and Tourism)

Continue Reading

celebrity radar - gossips

Power, Protocol, and Papal Grace: The Inside Story of How It All Went Down in Rome By Bianca Ojukwu

Published

on

Power, Protocol, and Papal Grace: The Inside Story of How It All Went Down in Rome By Bianca Ojukwu

There’s something about the Vatican that strips away titles and trappings. In the shadows of St. Peter’s Basilica, under the searing Roman sun, global leaders, power players, and everyday pilgrims become equals—bound by reverence and ritual.

Power, Protocol, and Papal Grace: The Inside Story of How It All Went Down in Rome By Bianca Ojukwu

I should know. I was there.

On my last trip to the Vatican—during the funeral of Pope Francis just weeks earlier—I had witnessed something unforgettable. As President Donald Trump arrived and a crowd of dignitaries swarmed to greet him, a sharply-dressed, no-nonsense priest cut through the noise with a firm:

Scusi. This is St. Peter’s Basilica, not the White House. Kindly take your seats.

Boom. Order restored. And a reminder: here, no one upstages the moment.

So when I returned for the Installation Mass of Pope Leo XIV, I knew I’d be witnessing not just history, but human theater—with the Nigerian delegation right in the mix.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, leading the delegation, arrived in good time—early enough to soak in the atmosphere, greet dignitaries, and observe the ancient rites. As we settled into the square, I spotted Peter Obi and Kayode Fayemi, former governors and political heavyweights, already seated. After the President had taken his place, I went over to greet them—and in a rare gesture of statesmanship, they chose to accompany me to pay their respects to the President.

What followed was a surprisingly warm and humorous exchange. Far from the icy tensions back home, Tinubu welcomed them with ease, smiling, laughing, and trading quips like old friends reunited at a family function. They soon returned to their seats—but that moment, however brief, spoke volumes about what’s possible in Nigerian politics when the ego is set aside.

But Rome doesn’t care who you are. The sun showed no favoritism. Under the blazing Vatican heat, everyone—presidents, pilgrims, priests—sat exposed. The square is merciless. People faint. They’re carried off in stretchers. It’s part of the experience.

One man, seated directly in front of me, collapsed mid-Mass. Paramedics were far off, and panic briefly rippled through the crowd—until Seyi Tinubu, the President’s son, leapt into action. He darted to the vestibule and returned with a cold bottle of water that was used to revive the man before medics arrived.

Meanwhile, the President—stoic and composed—sat through the entire three-hour liturgy, standing and kneeling as required, skipping only Communion. Afterward, he lingered. He chatted with Nigerian priests, seminarians, posed for selfies, and shared laughs, showing none of the fatigue one might expect.

And oh—that suit.

Tailored to perfection, the President’s power suit turned heads across the square. The cut, the stride, the confidence—it was presidential flair meeting ecclesiastical ceremony. He walked up to greet the new pontiff with grace and gravitas.

So yes, Vatican ’25 wasn’t just a religious event—it was a convergence of power, humility, diplomacy, and humanity.

From protocol to personal moments, this was history not just witnessed, but lived.

And for those of us lucky enough to be there, one thing is clear:
In Rome, you don’t just attend a Mass. You become part of a moment that echoes through eternity.

Continue Reading

Cover Of The Week

Trending