celebrity radar - gossips

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

Published

3 months ago

May 25, 2025

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)

celebrity radar - gossips

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

Published

22 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.

celebrity radar - gossips

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.”

celebrity radar - gossips

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.