In this interview with The Entertainer, Adeolu, a cultural ambassador to the Ondo State government bares his mind on his career, his past, and his relationship with God among others.

Excerpts:

In the beginning I was born on May 9, over four decades ago. I hail from Ondo State and I read Guardian and Counselling at the Ondo State University (OSUT). But I was already acting before I concluded my university education because of the passion I had for the entertainment industry even when I was growing up. For me, growing up was like fun because I had time for myself and to the glory of God, I’m able to achieve what I have set my mind to achieve in the industry.

Today, I’m one of the Ondo State Cultural Ambassadors for Culture and Tourism. The Ondo State government under Governor Olusegun Mimiko honoured a few of us making the state proud in the industry and it was interesting that people up there could appreciate us.

I feel humbled by the honour.

How I got into acting

Before I got into acting, my aim was to make a name for my children, my grandchildren and myself. I have set my mind to make a name they can live on, even when I’m no more. I had wished that my name could help my generation and the next generation after me.

So, I developed the interest because of the passion I have for the entertainment industry. My secondary school days were at the Baptist Academy. Then, and even when I was a Higher Student Certificate (HSC) student, I used to attend the Baptist Church.

I was one of the instrumentalists at the Baptist Church in FESTAC Town then. As a choir leader of the church, I later met Niyi Ojemakinde, the broadcaster, who also was a choir leader in another church, also in FESTAC. That was how we met and started a dancing crew named Monidex. We gathered quite a number of young boys and girls and floated the group.

At the time, we were also young, and we were just enjoying ourselves. But the passion, the interest later grew beyond that and we later invited Mr. Antar Tunde Laniyan to be our trainer. He was to train us and put us through since he was a professional.

That was how it all started sometimes in the late ‘80s. But interestingly, Antar saw the talent in me. He noticed the passion that drove me and quickly developed a special interest in me. He immediately took me on and I became what I am today.

Those who made me First, my parents are wonderful. They gave me the time to express my God-given talent. Antar Laniyan also played a very important role in my life. He was like a mini-god that held my hand and led me to my destiny. At a particular time in my life and career, he’ll be there to play the role of this messiah. So, he has been wonderful to me.

For instance, the first film I featured in was Ida Oluwa. The late Funmi Martins produced it. Antar Laniyan was the director. So, he really played wonderful roles in my life. My wife has been wonderful too. She remains my very close friend and has played the role of a mother, a wife and a friend. We are that close and God has on so many occasions used her to touch my life positively.

Apart from acting…

I am a total entertainer in the real sense of the word.

I do general entertainment, I have a band, I compere events as a Master of Ceremonies, and I cover events and manage events. And as an event manager, I do all sorts of entertainment. I’m not an office person. I am involved in entertainment at all levels.

How I get inspired God inspires me. I’m also inspired by the script from the director. Let me say for instance, in one of the movies I featured in not long ago, I played the role of a blind man. It was in the movie entitled Agbaakin, a Yoruba movie.

It eventually turned out to be a fantastic role because I did it differently. In the movie, as a blind man I didn’t wear eyeglasses. I opened my eyes and it worked. I did it perfectly. Most times, I like to be different in whatever I do. For me, money is not the determinant factor.

Money matters because I have to pay some bills, but I don’t see it as the most important factor to whatever I do in life. I’m not that rich but I’m comfortable and I enjoy what I do for a living. That’s where I derive my joy. So, for whatever role I play in movies, I’m inspired by God.

For instance, if a certain producer invites me for a role in a movie, I don’t charge a constant figure. It all depends on my mood. It depends on how rich I am at that particular point in time. More so, if I like a script, I will do it. Sometimes, my fees are high and sometimes they are not. But I thank God that I’m still relevant in the industry.

My social life I’m not a party person, but I do attend parties every weekend as a Master of Ceremonies and Event Manager. Sometimes, I attend family outings when I’m invited. What I value most I value what people say about me when I’m not around.

What people say about me matters most. So, I make sure that in everything I do, people must see me as a role model. I want to be real and original in everything I do. I don’t pretend and I hate pretenders. My most memorable day That was the day I got married. It was on December 18, 2004, about nine years ago. That was the day I got married to the only friend I had. She’s very close to my heart. She’s Mrs. Victoria Adeolu Adegeye from Akwa Ibom State.

My God and me

I’m a religious person. I attend church always. I am a devoted member and worker in a parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in my area. My wife is even a very active member of the church. In truth, I don’t joke when it comes to the issue of my relationship with God. Sometimes I go on long days of dry fasting while on location, without eating anything. It’ll never affect my mood even when I’m on set.

That’s me. For instance in my church, we do our annual 21 days of fasting and prayer and most of the times, it coincides with the days I would have to be on location. I don’t break the fast, and it has never affected the role I play or how I act in movies.

Source: The Sun

Ombatse Chief Priest, Alla Agu (left); Police van burnt on May 7 by suspected members of Ombatse cult in Lakyo, Nasarawa State …on Wednesday

The chief priest, who spoke through an interpreter, said the security operatives did not come to arrest him, but to kill him “and cut off my head and take it to the governor.”

“It is the governor that asked the people (police officers) to come here and arrest me, cut my head and take my head to him.

“When they came, because they were themselves drunk, my god did not allow them to come to me and they died on the way.

“The question I asked is, ‘has the governor ever invited me and I refused to go?’ If am invited, I will go. But he sent people to come and kill me and to destroy Lakyo as a whole. That is just what it is.”

Al-Makura had rushed to the Presidential Villa, Abuja on May 8, 2013 to brief Vice-President Nnamadi Sambo on the security situation in the state, saying that 20 policemen were killed in Lakyo by cultists.

The governor had said that members of Ombatse laid ambush and killed security agents sent to arrest the members in their shrine.

On Wednesday, Baba Lakyo said that he had never been invited by security agencies, contrary to reports that the police invaded the village after he shunned their invitation.

The chief priest said that he was willing to honour any invitation either by the governor or the police.

Although Lakyo is peaceful, besides the sight of burnt vehicles used by the security men, Agu said he was unhappy with what happened and was apprehensive of what might befall him afterwards.

Ewuga toured Lakyo community, and led reporters to the home of Agu, which represents the “shrine” of the Ombatse.

Agu however denied ever forcing people to join the group through any initiation or drinking of concoction.

“I am grateful for your coming, Senator. I am very, very grateful for your coming. Even if the Senator did not come here, I had intended to go and see him in his house but since he is here, I am very grateful,” he told the senator.

Agu also said that he was in a nearby village when the incident took place only for him to come back to be informed that the governor sent people to come and kill him.

Asked whether the incident had anything to do with the politics of the state, he said, “If you are talking about politics, it does not bother me. I don’t even understand Hausa language. Politics is not for me because I am not a politician. Politics is for politicians but I hear that the time for politicking has not even come.

“If I ever opened my mouth to force anybody to take oath, God should punish me”.

He said that Ombatse was an association of Lakyo boys into which nobody was forced to belong.

He said he was ready to honour any police invitation but insisted that nobody had invited him.

According to him, it is even more saddening that he is being linked to the incident, especially when he knew nothing about what happened to the policemen.

But Al-Makura on Wednesday dismissed Agu’s claim that he was never invited for any meeting.

The governor, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Iliya Aliu, in a telephone interview, said it was on record that the head of the cult group did not honour several invitations extended to him.

He said, “It is not true that he was never invited. The Emir of Lafia who is the Chairman of the Nasarawa State Council of Chiefs invited him, he refused to honour it.

“Are Eggon, who is the chief of his area invited him, he refused; the Police, the SSS all invited him before this incident but he refused to honour any of them.

“His followers attacked and killed people in Asakiyo Alago; they went to Arga Migili, Kwadere and did the same.

“No responsible government will sit by and watch such things happen without taking action.

“It was after he refused to answer all of these invitations that the state security council met and decided that he should be arrested.

“Even their name, Ombatse, means it is our turn. Their turn for what?

“In any case, no matter the grievance, no individual or group has the right to kill innocent security officials.

“He and all those responsible must face the consequence of their action.”

The President of the Egon Cultural Development Association, Mr. Chris Mamman, said the only way to get to the root of what happened at Alakyo was for the Federal Government to set up a judicial commission of inquiry.

Ewuga said he decided to tour the affected area as a matter of national responsibility, saying he needed to see things for himself since he is also an Eggon man even though it was not within his senatorial district.

Source: Punch

Maj. Gen. Mohammed Buhari

A member of CPC merger committee and 2011 governorship candidate in Enugu State, Mr. Osita Okechukwu told Vanguard in a telephone interview that Buhari’s statement about his ambition of becoming the presidential candidate of the APC in 2015 was misunderstood and misconstrued.

Okechukwu said if eventually Buhari did not emerge as APC’s presidential flag bearer, he will support a better candidate than him that will emerge as the presidential candidate, and his position was very clear when he made that statement, because Buhari is a liberal democrat.

“If you understood what Gen Buhari said, he indicated interest to run under the banner of the four political parties that will merge to be APC.

He gave a caveat that if there will be a better or more formidable candidate he will support the person. So is not as if Gen Buhari going out of his way to say if I am not the presidential candidate there will be no APC, of course he did not say so.

“To be honest and sincere, Gen Buhari had always said, ‘I support the merger wholeheartedly and if the merger adopts or elects me as their presidential candidate, but if they don’t I will support the person that they will be elected as their presidential candidate. I think it is as clear as that, he (Buhari) has been very clear on that,” Okechukwu added.

Source: Vanguard

Recently, there was the allegation that Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, was too close to government and, therefore, it was being run as a government entity?

Close to government? No! I am the National Treasurer of CAN, government doesn’t pay me. I don’t receive salary from it; I don’t know what is too close. If there is anything, at every particular time, we have criticized this government on various policies and programmes; so, I think it’s erroneous to say we are part of government.

What is your take on the call to impose tax on religious bodies?
Tax for what? Do we have the money? We don’t have much money that they will tax us on. What we do is we give more back to the society than what we receive. Even the national cake, the oil money that is going to government presently, we have not seen them use it judiciously. So, tax on what basis? On what grounds? I think that statement is not right. There is no need to think of taxing the Church in Nigeria.

What about the call to license preaching to curb insecurity?
In any organized society, things are regulated, and I can tell you, go outside this country, where will you see people open churches any how? You can’t do like that in UK, not in Singapore. The authorities will ask you, what is your background? What is your training? You can’t just get up and say you are a medical doctor, and you want to open a hospital, the body will ask you, are you a doctor? The hospital you want to open, they find out what are the basic things.

Now in US or UK, for example, there are various procedures. The government will tell you the laid down rules. If you don’t have the requirements, you can’t open a church. You have not been to any training theologically, you can’t just wake up and open a church, and start shouting halleluiah. It is not the issue of licensing; it is the issue of being regulated, nobody should just wake up and say he is a preacher.

In northern Nigeria, it was properly regulated during the colonial rule. If you had Almajiri School, they will ask what you are teaching there. What is the content of your curriculum? And that is the problem we are having today with the Almajiri. People just gather some youths, you don’t know what they are teaching them; they teach these people all manner of things; they come out and become violent. They can kill; the school where they were being taught, nobody wants to find out what type of man is teaching them, and anybody can teach anything.

The issue is that any society that things are not regulated, that society will not move forward. Even in your home, there must be some rules governing every aspect of life; there is no aspect of life that should be left; even the church, on the street, everywhere; what kind of teaching is going on there?; the person preaching, what is the background? What is the qualification? A graduate of economics says he is a preacher; no conditions, no basic tenet for it.

So, sincerely speaking, the way religious organizations are run in this country is faulty. And if we continue like this, we will not get the desired result. There must be checks and balances. So, we have to check ourselves, and it is not the responsibility of CAN; CAN is not government, there is a department of government in most organized societies that regulates religion.

In UK or US, religious organizations are known as non-profit organizations and what happens is checked. If you say, for example, that you own a church and you have 500,000 Naira, that money you must show evidence of how you use it; you are not using it for yourself; government believes you are using it for the benefit of the community. You will send your expenditure profile, how much is coming in, how you use it, they will see where you use it and people will monitor what you use 500,000 Naira for. But in Nigeria, the money they make in churches, they use it for personal things. And the most painful part of it is that our leaders always go there and know these things.

The agitation for Northern Minorities Commission, are you in support?
It is just that we have a collapsed system, and when you have a collapsed system, you have all kinds of agitations, all kinds of expressions, because the system has collapsed. The Northern Minorities Commission or anything of such is nothing that can solve our problems. What will solve our problems is a government that is accountable to the people and the resources are used for the generality of our people. I think that the desire for commissions comes because people feel they are neglected.

Go to the Niger Delta Ministry, despite the fact that money is being pumped there, you will not see the impact of that ministry. So, creating ministry upon ministry, we will just be moving round and round and no problem would be solved.
In America of about 300 million people, how many ministries do they have? They have 14 ministries, 300million people, double our own, and they have 52 states; they don’t have a minister per state. But in this country, we have one minister per state, and there is another one, they say the six geo-political zones, you have one minister each. So it is not the creation of all these ministries that will solve the problems.

Taking cognizance of the removal of Christian Religion from school curriculum in some parts of the country, can we say we have religious freedom in Nigeria?

We have cried over and over about it that Christians in the North are not enjoying the freedom they should enjoy. It is true that for quite a long time, Christian Knowledge is not taught in primary and secondary schools in most northern states, and government is aware of this; they can’t claim to be ignorant. The issue of freedom to worship is just there in our constitution, but in practical terms, especially in the North, it is not there; to get land for churches is difficult in many places in the North.

To get a land for church, you have to disguise that you are not a church. If you want to build it, you are monitored, you are asked not to build, you are asked not to do this or do that; that doesn’t happen in the country that wants to allow freedom of worship. Sincerely speaking, in the far North, there are lots of hindrances against the church and the governors know that Christians are suffering in silence.

On the issue of security, what is your view on the amnesty committee set up by government?
I think government finds it difficult to find solution to the problem of insecurity in the country, and, possibly, it doesn’t know what to do. And when you have a problem and you don’t know how to solve it, you do trial and error. The world today is a global village, and we know how all these problems are solved in other parts of the world. There is nowhere in the world you have terrorism and you solve it by amnesty; not in America, not in Britain, not in Pakistan, not in Iraq, not in Indonesia, not in Malaysia, and we have records; go to the internet, you will see these things, how they are dealt with.

When people rise against the government, rise against the people, to kill and destroy, the government takes a stand against the assailants; you don’t go about begging them; there is nowhere in the world where terrorism is solved by amnesty. I have not read it anywhere and Nigeria cannot be an exception. For example, after the 9/11 attacks in the US, when Osama Bin Laden and his al-Qeada struck, the Americans did not wait for them, they went to their domain. America mobilised all the resources, went after him in Afghanistan; they did not grant amnesty.

*Interview conducted before last week’s emergency rule declaration in three states.

Source: Vanguard

With kidnap cases being a common trend, do you entertain fears that you could be a victim?

There is a certain way I live and I believe people only attract what they feel and what they love. So, if I have fears, what I would attract would be fears and misgivings. I am completely fearless about these things because it is a law of attraction. I have no fear of gunmen or kidnappers because I have not wronged anybody for them to want to harm me. I drive out at 2am and go back to my house at 4am. I just believe that every morning when I get on my knees and pray, God knows my intention. He knows that I am going for my daily bread and I am not in anybody’s way. Though, I have made my mistakes, I have repented from them and go about my business. There are basic laws of existence which people should not violate. If you have the fear of the unknown all the time, you will attract negative things to yourself. I don’t live like that. I am a typical Lagos boy and I have been around all kinds of crimes and none ever got to me.

Now that you have joined the league of celebrities running reality shows, what aspect of your personality will you portray?

I don’t know if I should call it shocking, but I like moving around my house naked. I feel I am always dressed in public, so when I am inside my house, I should enjoy the freedom that comes from not being tied down with clothes. So, you will see me moving around with parts of my body blurred by the camera.

There is an impression you are an arrogant and unfriendly person?

One of the reasons I am running the show is to allow people see and understand a lot of things about the real me. I deal with people on a daily basis and they do not understand that certain pressures can make somebody appear rude or arrogant. Shyness can make someone appear rude and unfriendly. But the show will feature the pressure I go through daily and the way I cope with that pressure.

What kind of pressure are you talking about?

There are so many. It is not easy to have your life constantly scrutinised. This is Lagos, there is so much pressure coupled with lack of basic human amenities. These factors can contribute to the pressure a man has to cope with.

Why did you go into fashion?

Yes. I realised that since I don’t shoot as many movies as I did in the past, I can do other things. I have made that point clear-it is not about quantity anymore, it is about quality and I am very careful about what I do now. The last movie I featured in, ‘last flight to Abuja’ was what ushered in this project I am doing now. In this business, you are as good as your last job.

In fashion, one can either be an admirer or an investor. My lifestyle as a fashion admirer and consumer has cost me a lot of money. I made an inventory of how much I have spent on fashion and cars as well as the houses I have lived in. I reasoned that it was time to turn my passion into an enterprise. Since I like fashion, I decided to go into boutique management, now I can buy clothes for myself and others. I can make money from it instead of just spending.

Do labels influence your choice of clothes?

I am not brand crazy, but it happens that the best clothes are made by the big brands, take it or leave it. The designer labels cost a lot of money but there is a healthy competition; which is why I find the fashion market very interesting. I have discovered that everybody is heading towards the same direction. I have been to factories that make goods for Gucci. There are people working on a smaller scale and these are the ones I hire to make my clothes and they give me what I want. However, I always buy what I know I would look good in.

You are a sunglasses freak too?

I have about 125 pairs. My personal assistants and people who come to my house keep stealing them. Also, I have been a collector of all kinds of stuff-shoes and sneakers. I think I own about 200 pairs; it is not something to brag about, this is a form of art for me, just like the way people collect stamps. I like shoes and I collect them. I keep the ones my mother owned in the 60s and the ones my aunts owned in the 70s. I get shoes that are much branded and are limited edition. For me it is not just about fashion statement anymore, it is art.

Do you indulge in any kind of food?

I am a sweet tooth and a junk food junkie. I have gained weight at some point and no matter how hard I trained, I was gaining weight! I knew what the problem was so I had to cut down. I barely eat breakfast but I eat one solid meal a day. This could be lunch or dinner. Once I indulge, I make sure I eat everything I want to eat.

How do you relax?

I watch movies. I have to watch movies to sleep and I don’t just watch them for pleasure, I watch them critically to learn about new things.

What is a typical day like for you?

I sleep around 3am every day, no matter the time zone or the country. I wake up fairly early, depending on the amount of activities I am involved in but I think I have some sort of in-built clock, I wake up at the same time every day which is 6 am. When I wake up, I pray because God is the central part of my life and I give it all to Him. My father always said the best exercise of the day is prayers. As soon as I am done with prayers, I do an exercise which is a fusion of yoga and martial arts. It is a process where the body, soul and mind have to be in sync. I do it to purge my mind and body, relieve the pressures of the day and make decisions about the kind of people I would let into my life for that day. I have not been to the hospital in over 12 years of doing the exercise.

Source: Punch

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka has described Africa’s most well known novelist, Chinua Achebe, as a storyteller who earned global celebration, adding, however, that those describing Achebe as “the father of African literature” were ignorant.

In a wide-ranging interview with SaharaReporters, Soyinka paid tribute to the late novelist who died on March 21, 2013 at 82. Soyinka, who won the 1986 Nobel Prize for literature, also spoke on his personal relationship with Achebe and other Nigerian writers; his regrets about Achebe’s last book, There Was A Country: A Personal History of Biafra; and his attempt to talk the late Biafran leader, Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, out of fighting a war. Soyinka also answered questions about Heinemann’s African Writers Series and scolded “clannish” and “opportunistic hagiographers” fixated on the fact that Achebe never won the Nobel Prize.

Below is the full text of the interview.

Question: Do you recall where or how you first learned about the death of Professor Chinua Achebe? And what was your first reaction?

Soyinka: Where I heard the news? I was on the road between Abeokuta and Lagos. Who called first – BBC or a Nigerian journalist? Can’t recall now, since other calls followed fast and furious, while I was still trying to digest the news. My first reaction? Well, you know the boa constrictor – when it has just swallowed an abnormal morsel, it goes comatose, takes time off to digest. Today’s global media appears indifferent to such a natural entitlement. You are expected to supply that instant response. So, if – as was the case – my first response was to be stunned, that swiftly changed to anger.

Now, why was I stunned? I suspect, mostly because I was to have been present at his last Chinua Achebe symposium just a few months earlier – together with Governor Fashola of Lagos. Something intervened and I was marooned in New York. When your last contact with someone, quite recent, is an event that centrally involves that person, you don’t expect him to embark on a permanent absence. Also, Chinua and I had been collaborating lately on one or two home crises. So, it was all supposed to be ‘business as usual’. Most irrational expectations at one’s age but, that’s human presumptuousness for you. So, stunned I was, primarily, then media enraged!

Question: Achebe was both a writer as well as editor for Heinemann’s African Writers Series. How would you evaluate his role in the popularization of African literature?

Soyinka: I must tell you that, at the beginning, I was very skeptical of the Heinemann’s African Series. As a literary practitioner, my instinct tends towards a suspicion of “ghetto” classifications – which I did feel this was bound to be. When you run a regional venture, it becomes a junior relation to what exists. Sri Lankan literature should evolve and be recognized as literature of Sri Lanka, release after release, not entered as a series. You place the books on the market and let them take off from there. Otherwise there is the danger that you start hedging on standards. You feel compelled to bring out quantity, which might compromise on quality.

I refused to permit my works to appear in the series – to begin with. My debut took place while I was Gowon’s guest in Kaduna prisons and permission to publish The Interpreters was granted in my absence. Exposure itself is not a bad thing, mind you. Accessibility. Making works available – that’s not altogether negative. Today, several scholars write their PhD theses on Onitsha Market literature. Both Chinua and Cyprian Ekwensi – not forgetting Henshaw and others – published with those enterprising houses. It was outside interests that classified them Onitsha Market Literature, not the publishers. They simply published.

All in all, the odds come down in favour of the series – which, by the way, did go through the primary phase of sloppy inclusiveness, then became more discriminating. Aig Higo – who presided some time after Chinua – himself admitted it.

Question: For any major writer, there’s the inevitable question of influence. In your view, what’s the nature of Achebe’s enduring influence and impact in African literature? And what do you foresee as his place in the canon of world literature?

Soyinka: Chinua’s place in the canon of world literature? Wherever the art of the story-teller is celebrated, definitely assured.

Question: In interviews as well as in writing, Achebe brushed off the title of “father of African literature.” Yet, on his death, numerous media accounts, in Nigeria as well as elsewhere, described him as the father – even grandfather – of African literature. What do you think of that tag?

Soyinka: As you yourself have observed, Chinua himself repudiated such a tag – he did study literature after all, bagged a degree in the subject. So, it is a tag of either literary ignorance or “momentary exuberance” – ala [Nadine] Gordimer – to which we are all sometimes prone. Those who seriously believe or promote this must be asked: have you the sheerest acquaintance with the literatures of other African nations, in both indigenous and adopted colonial languages? What must the francophone, lusophone, Zulu, Xhosa, Ewe etc. etc. literary scholars and consumers think of those who persist in such a historic absurdity? It’s as ridiculous as calling WS father of contemporary African drama! Or Mazisi Kunene father of African epic poetry. Or Kofi Awoonor father of African poetry. Education is lacking in most of those who pontificate.

As a short cut to such corrective, I recommend Tunde Okanlawon’s scholarly tribute to Chinua in The Sun (Nigeria) of May 4th. After that, I hope those of us in the serious business of literature will be spared further embarrassment.

Let me just add that a number of foreign “African experts” have seized on this silliness with glee. It legitimizes their ignorance, their parlous knowledge, enables them to circumscribe, then adopt a patronizing approach to African literatures and creativity. Backed by centuries of their own recorded literary history, they assume the condescending posture of midwiving an infant entity. It is all rather depressing.

Question: Following Achebe’s death, you and J.P. Clarke released a joint statement. In it, you both wrote: “Of the ‘pioneer quartet’ of contemporary Nigerian literature, two voices have been silenced – one, of the poet Christopher Okigbo, and now, the novelist Chinua Achebe.” In your younger days as writers, would you say there was a sense among your circle of contemporaries – say, Okigbo, Achebe, Clarke, Flora Nwapa – of being engaged in a healthy rivalry for literary dominance? By the way, on the Internet, your joint statement was criticized for neglecting to mention any female writers – say, Flora Nwapa – as part of that pioneering group. Was that an oversight?

Soyinka: This question – the omission of Flora Nwapa, Mabel Segun (nee Imoukhuede) – and do include D.O. Fagunwa, Amos Tutuola, Cyprian Ekwensi, so it is not just a gender affair – is related to the foregoing, and is basically legitimate. JP and I were however paying a tribute to a colleague within a rather closed circle of interaction, of which these others were not members. Finally, and most relevantly, we are language users – this means we routinely apply its techniques. We knew what we were communicating when we placed “pioneer quartet” in – yes! – inverted commas. Some of the media may have removed them; others understood their significance and left them where they belonged.

Question: Did you and Achebe have the opportunity to discuss his last book, There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra, and its critical reception? What’s your own assessment of There Was a Country? Some critics charged that the book was unduly divisive and diminished Achebe’s image as a nationally beloved writer and intellectual. Should a writer suborn his witness to considerations of fame?

Soyinka: No, Chinua and I never discussed There was a Country. Matter of fact, that aborted visit I mentioned earlier would have been my opportunity to take him on with some friendly fire at that open forum, continuing at his home over a bottle or two, aided and abetted by Christie’s [editor’s note: Achebe’s wife, Professor Christie Achebe] cooking. A stupendous life companion by the way – Christie – deserves a statue erected to her for fortitude and care – on behalf of us all. More of that will emerge, I am sure, as the tributes pour in.

Unfortunately, that chance of a last encounter was missed, so I don’t really wish to comment on the work at this point. It is however a book I wish he had never written – that is, not in the way it was. There are statements in that work that I wish he had never made.

The saddest part for me was that this work was bound to give joy to sterile literary aspirants like Adewale Maja-Pearce, whose self-published book – self-respecting publishers having rejected his trash – sought to create a “tragedy” out of the relationships among the earlier named “pioneer quartet” and, with meanness aforethought, rubbish them all – WS especially. Chinua got off the lightest. A compendium of outright impudent lies, fish market gossip, unanchored attributions, trendy drivel and name dropping, this is a ghetto tract that tries to pass itself up as a product of research, and has actually succeeded in fooling at least one respectable scholar. For this reason alone, there will be more said, in another place, on that hatchet mission of an inept hustler.

Question: One of the specific issues raised constantly in recent Nigerian public “debate” has to do with whether the Igbo were indeed victims of genocide. What are your thoughts on the question?

Soyinka: The reading of most Igbo over what happened before the Civil War was indeed accurate – yes, there was only one word for it – genocide. Once the war began however, atrocities were committed by both sides, and the records are clear on that. The Igbo got the worst of it, however. That fact is indisputable. The Asaba massacre is well documented, name by victim name, and General Gowon visited personally to apologize to the leaders. The Igbo must remember, however, that they were not militarily prepared for that war. I told Ojukwu this, point blank, when I visited Biafra. Sam Aluko also revealed that he did. A number of leaders outside Biafra warned the leadership of this plain fact. Bluff is no substitute for bullets.

Question: Your joint statement with Clarke balances the “sense of depletion” you felt over Achebe’s death with “consolation in the young generation of writers to whom the baton has been passed, those who have already creatively ensured that there is no break in the continuum of the literary vocation.” How much of the young Nigerian and African writers do you find the time to read?

Soyinka: Yes, I do read much of Nigerian/African literature – as much as my time permits. My motor vehicle in Nigeria is a mobile library of Nigerian publications – you know those horrendous traffic holdups – that’s where I go through some of the latest. The temptation to toss some out of the car window after the first few pages or chapter is sometimes overwhelming. That sour note conceded – and as I have repeatedly crowed – that nation of ours can boast of that one virtue – it’s bursting with literary talent! And the women seem to be at the forefront.

Question: In the joint statement issued by J. P. Clarke and you following Achebe’s death, you stated: “For us, the loss of Chinua Achebe is, above all else, intensely personal. We have lost a brother, a colleague, a trailblazer and a doughty fighter.” There’s the impression in some quarters that Achebe, Clarke and you were virtual personal enemies. In the specific case of Achebe and you, there’s the misperception that your 1986 Nobel Prize in literature poisoned your personal relationship with a supposedly resentful Achebe. How would you describe your relationship with Achebe from the early days when you were both young writers in a world that was becoming aware of the fecund, protean phenomenon called African literature?

Soyinka: Now – all right – I feel a need to return to that question of yours – I have a feeling that I won’t be at ease with myself for having dodged it earlier – which was deliberate. If I don’t answer it, we shall all continue to be drenched in misdirected spittle. I’m referring to your question on the relationship between myself and other members of the “pioneer quartet” – JP Clark and Chinua specifically. At this stage in our lives, the surviving have a duty to smash the mouths of liars to begin with, then move to explain to those who have genuinely misread, who have failed to place incidents in their true perspective, or who simply forget that life is sometimes strange – rich but strange, and inundated with flux.

My first comment is that outsiders to literary life should be more humble and modest. They should begin by accepting that they were strangers to the ferment of the earlier sixties and seventies. It would be stupid to claim that it was all constantly harmonious, but outsiders should at least learn some humility and learn to deal with facts. Where, in any corner of the globe, do you find perfect models of creative harmony, completely devoid of friction? We all have our individual artistic temperaments as well as partisanships in creative directions. And we have strong opinions on the merits of the products of our occupation. But – “rivalry for domination,” to quote you – healthy or unhealthy? Now that is something that has been cooked up, ironically, by camp followers, the most recent of which is that ignoble character I’ve just mentioned, who was so desperate to prove the existence of such a thing that he even tried to rope JP’s wife into it, citing her as source for something I never uttered in my entire existence. I cannot think of a more unprincipled, despicable conduct. These empty, notoriety-hungry hangers-on and upstarts need to find relevance, so they concoct. No, I believe we were all too busy and self-centred – that is, focused on our individual creative grooves – to think ‘dominance’!

Writers are human. I shudder to think how I must sometimes appear to others. JP remains as irrepressible, contumacious and irascible as he was during that creative ferment of the early sixties. Christopher was ebullient. Chinua mostly hid himself away in Lagos, intervening robustly in MBARI affairs with deceptive disinclination. Perception of Chinua, JP and I as ‘personal enemies’? The word “enemy” is strong and wrong. The Civil War split up a close-knit literary coterie, of which “the quartet” formed a self-conscious core. That war engendered a number of misapprehensions. Choices were made, some regrettable, and even thus admitted by those who made them. Look, I never considered General Gowon who put me in detention my enemy, even though at the time, I was undeniably bitter at the experience, the circumstances, at the man who authorized it, and contributing individuals – including Chief Tony Enahoro who read out a fabricated confession to a gathering of national and international media.

But the war did end. New wars (some undeclared) commenced. Chief Enahoro and I would later collaborate in a political initiative – though I never warmed up to him personally, I must confess. Gowon and I, by contrast, became good friends. He attended my birthday celebrations, presided at my most recent Nigerian award – the Obafemi Awolowo Leadership Prize. JP was present, with his wife, Ebun. What does that tell you? Before that, I had hosted them in my Abeokuta den on a near full-day visit. Would Achebe, if he had been able, and was in Nigeria, have joined us? Perhaps. But he certainly wouldn’t have been present at the Awolowo Award event. That is a different kettle of fish, a matter between him and Awolowo – which, however, Chinua did let degenerate into tribal charges.

Well then, this prospect that “my 1986 Nobel Prize in literature poisoned my personal relationship with a supposedly resentful Achebe” – I think I shouldn’t dodge that either. Even if that was true – which I do not accept – it surely has dissipated over time. For heaven’s sake, over twenty-five people have taken the prize since then! The problem remains with those vicarious laureates who feel personally deprived, and thus refuse to let go. Chinua’s death was an opportunity to prise open that scab all over again. But they’ve now gone too far with certain posturings and should be firmly called to order, and silenced – in the name of decency.

I refer to that incorrigible sect – no other word for it – some leaders of which threatened Buchi Emecheta early in her career – that she had no business engaging in the novel, since this was Chinua’s special preserve! Incredible? Buchi virtually flew to me for protection – read her own account of that traumatizing experience. It is a Nigerian disease. Nigerians need to be purged of a certain kind of arrogance of expectations, of demand, of self-attribution, of a spurious sense and assertion of entitlement. It goes beyond art and literature. It covers all aspects of interaction with others. Wherever you witness a case of ‘It’s MINE, and no other’s’, ‘it’s OURS, not theirs’, at various levels of vicarious ownership, such aggressive voices, ninety percent of the time, are bound to be Nigerians. This is a syndrome I have had cause to confront defensively with hundreds of Africans and non-Africans. It is what plagues Nigeria at the moment – it’s MY/OUR turn to rule, and if I/WE cannot, we shall lay waste the terrain. Truth is, predictably, part of the collateral damage on that terrain.

Yes, these are the ones who, to co-opt your phrasing, “diminished (and still diminish) Chinua’s image”. In the main, they are, ironically, his assiduous – but basically opportunistic – hagiographers – especially of a clannish, cabalistic temperament. Chinua – we have to be frank here – also did not help matters. He did make one rather unfortunate statement that brought down the hornet’s nest on his head, something like: “The fact that Wole Soyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize does not make him the Asiwaju (Leader) of African literature”. I forget now what provoked that statement. Certainly it could not be traced to any such pretensions on my part. I only recollect that it was in the heat of some controversy – on a national issue, I think.

But let us place this in context. Spats between writers, artists, musicians, scientists, even architects and scientific innovators etc. are notorious. They are usually short-lived – though some have been known to last a life-time. This particular episode was at least twenty years ago. Unfortunately some of Chinua’s cohorts decided that they had a mission to prosecute a matter regarding which they lacked any vestige of understanding or competence or indeed any real interest. It is however a life crutch for them and they cannot let go.

What they are doing now – and I urge them to end it shame-facedly – is to confine Chinua’s achievement space into a bunker over which hangs an unlit lamp labeled “Nobel”. Is this what the literary enterprise is about? Was it the Nobel that spurred a young writer, stung by Eurocentric portrayal of African reality, to put pen to paper and produce Things Fall Apart? This conduct is gross disservice to Chinua Achebe and disrespectful of the life-engrossing occupation known as literature. How did creative valuation descend to such banality? Do these people know what they’re doing – they are inscribing Chinua’s epitaph in the negative mode of thwarted expectations. I find that disgusting.

China, with her vast population, history, culture – arts and literature – celebrated her first Nobel Prize in Literature only last year. Yet I have been teaching Chinese literature on and off – within Comparative literary studies – for over forty years. Am I being instructed now that those writers needed recognition by the Nobel for me to open such literary windows to my students? Do these strident, cacophonous Nigerians know how much literature – and of durable quality – radiates the world?

Let me add this teacher complaint: far too many Nigerians – students of literature most perniciously – are being programmed to have no other comparative literary structure lodged in their mental scope than WS vs. CA. Such crass limitation is being pitted against the knowledgeable who, often wearily, but obedient to sheer intellectual doggedness, feel that they owe a duty to stop the march of confident ignorance. For me personally, it is galling to have everything reduced to the Nigerian enclave where, to make matters even more acute, there are supposedly only those two. It makes me squirm. I teach the damned subject – literature – after all. I do know something about it.

So let me now speak as a teacher. It is high time these illiterates were openly instructed that Achebe and Soyinka inhabit different literary planets, each in its own orbit. If you really seek to encounter – and dialogue with – Chinua Achebe in his rightful orbit, then move out of the Nigerian entrapment and explore those circuits coursed by the likes of Hemingway. Or Maryse Conde. Or Salman Rushdie. Think Edouard Glissant. Think Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Think Earl Lovelace. Think Jose Saramago. Think Bessie Head. Think Syl Cheney-Coker, Yambo Ouologuem, Nadine Gordimer. Think Patrick Chamoiseau. Think Toni Morrison. Think Hamidou Kane. Think Shahrnush Parsipur. Think Tahar Ben Jelloun. Think Naguib Mahfouz – and so on and on along those orbits in the galaxy of fiction writers. In the meantime, let us quit this indecent exercise of fatuous plaints, including raising hopes, even now, with talk of “posthumous” conferment, when you know damned well that the Nobel committee does not indulge in such tradition. It has gone beyond ‘sickening’. It is obscene and irreverent. It desecrates memory. The nation can do without these hyper-active jingoists. Can you believe the kind of letters I receive? Here is one beauty – let me quote:

“I told these people, leave it to Wole Soyinka – he will do what is right. We hear Ben Okri, Nuruddin Farah, even Chimamanda Adichie are being nominated. This is mind-boggling. Who are they? Chinua can still be awarded the prize, even posthumously. We know you will intervene to put those upstarts in their place. I’ve assured people you will do what is right.”

Alfred Nobel regretted that his invention, dynamite, was converted to degrading use, hence his creation of the Nobel Prize, as the humanist counter to the destructive power of his genius. If he thought that dynamite was eviscerating in its effects, he should try some of the gut-wrenching concoctions of Nigerian pontificators. Please, let these people know that I am not even a member of Alfred’s Academy that decides such matters. As a ‘club member,’ however, I can nominate, and it is no business of literary ignoramuses whom, if any, I do nominate. My literary tastes are eclectic, sustainable, and unapologetic. Fortunately, thousands of such nominations – from simply partisan to impeccably informed – pour in annually from all corners of the globe to that cold corner of the world called Sweden. Humiliating as this must be for many who carry that disfiguring hunch, the national ego, on their backs, Nigeria is not the centre of the Swedish electors’ world, nor of the African continent, nor of the black world, nor of the rest of the world for that matter. In fact, right now, Nigeria is not the centre of anything but global chagrin.

Chinua is entitled to better than being escorted to his grave with that monotonous, hypocritical aria of deprivation’s lament, orchestrated by those who, as we say in my part of the world, “dye their mourning weeds a deeper indigo than those of the bereaved”. He deserves his peace. Me too! And right now, not posthumously.

It is not all bleakness and aggravation however – I have probably given that impression, but the stridency of cluelessness, sometimes willful, has reached the heights of impiety. Vicarious appropriation is undignified, and it runs counter to the national pride it ostensibly promotes. Other voices are being drowned, or placed in a false position, who value and express the sensibilities between, respect the subtle threads that sustain, writers, even in their different orbits. My parting tribute to Chinua will therefore take the form of the long poem I wrote to him when he turned seventy, after my participation in the celebrations at Bard College. I plan for it to be published on the day of his funeral – my way of taunting death, by pursuing that cultural, creative, even political communion that unites all writers with a decided vision of the possible – and even beyond the grave.

Source: Sahara Reporters

HOW many movies have you featured in? I’ve lost count. I have lost count. I can’t begin to mention the number of films I have been part of. There are quite a lot of them. I’m popularly known as Anikisaya by most of my fans in the movie industry. I’m also a movie producer.

How many movies have you produced?

I’ve produced two movies, Karenibarin and Anikisayain. The third movie, entitled Ika Abuku will be released soon. My debut movie was produced in 2009, while the second was in 2011.

There was a story that you failed to pay back the person that loaned you money to produce your first movie, is it true?

That’s not true. It is true that I was sponsored by a guy to produce the film, but I’ve paid the loan.

When did you discover your acting talent?

I’ve always had a passion for acting. And my dream eventually came to reality when Lepa Shandy featured me in her film. I was, and I am still a ticketing and reservation officer.

How many years did you work with Lepa Shandy before you became independent?

I worked with Lepa Shandy for years. She featured me in her films and also encouraged my acting career.

Tell us about your new movie?

The movie, Ika Abuku, is a story of a woman dating her friend’s son. It’s a story of love, passion, romance and arrogance. Watch out for the film. It was shot at Odongunyan, Ikorodu, Lagos State. The movie is marketed by Toymax.

Who are the major faces in the movie?

We had actors like Fathia Balogun, Lola Idije, Kamilu Kampo, Faliwerepe, Biodun Okeowo, Kunle Adegbite, Sikirat Sindodo, Aina Gold, Baba Balogun, Ope Olusanya and my humble self.

When will it hit the market?

The movie will be released in two months time. We all have to keep our fingers crossed.

What are the challenges you encountered when started your acting career?

I didn’t really face any challenge because I didn’t lobby for jobs from male producers.

Who are your female friends in the industry?

They are Biodun Okeowo, Sikirat Sindodo, Biola Adebayo, Ope Olusanya and Bisola Badmus to mention a few.

Did your parents support your acting career?

As girl born and bred at Ojodu Berger area of Lagos, my parents didn’t support it initially because they believe actresses don’t have stable marriages. But for the fact that I have a passion for it, I had to convince them that I am really talented. Now, they are happy with me because I have not disappointed them.

Are you married?

I’m married now. I had my engagement in a secret ceremony recently.

Who is the lucky man who won your heart?

I don’t want to say anything about him on the pages of newspapers.

Why are you not wearing an engagement ring?

We are done with family introduction and very soon, we will invite people for our wedding this year.

How then have you been coping with advances from men?

I always tell them that I’m engaged.

How true is the rumour that you are pregnant?

I’m not too small to get pregnant. Moreover, I’m engaged to my hubby.

Is your hubby staying with you now?

He is always on one business trip or the other abroad. Most of the time, we speak on phone.

Why do Nigerian actresses prefer to marry men that are not based in Nigeria?

I’ve known him before he started travelling abroad.

When did you meet him?

I met him about 15 years ago.

How do you cope when your husband is away on a business trip abroad for months?

We are always talking on phone..

What’s your definition of s-e-x?

Sex is an emotional feeling between two lovers.

Where do you see your career in years to come?

I see myself on top of my career.

Source: The Nation

When women are unable to conceive and bear children, the huge psychological toll makes them fall prey to fraudulent people and patrons of ‘baby factories’.

Desope Cecilia, 61, and Joy Ibe, 43, were among victims of a midwife, Oby George, who promised them ‘miracle’ twins and triplets respectively.

While the midwife was being paraded before journalists at the Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja, on Friday, the victims told their stories, with faces covered for security reasons.

Cecilia said she had not been able to give her 78-year-old husband a child since they got married.

She stated, “A lady who knew I had tried to conceive without success for a long time, told me about the midwife (George). The lady gave me the phone number of the woman and I learnt her clinic is in Port Harcourt.

“When I got there in March 2012, she explained to me that she would be able to treat me with herbs and I would get pregnant. I was told to pay N1.5m, which I paid to her.

“She gave me some herbs to take back to Lagos with me and take for nine months. I took the herbs religiously. My tummy began to swell, and my feet too. Those were the only signs I had that made me think I was pregnant.”

Cecilia explained that George forbade her from going for any form of ante-natal session or scan.

So, within the nine-month period that her tummy protruded like that of a pregnant woman, she visited no hospital.

“The midwife told me not to go for any scan or ante-natal care. She told me that if I did, they would not see anything because what I was carrying was a ‘miracle’ pregnancy,” she said.

Asked if she ever saw any sign associated like lactation during the period, Cecillia said she never knew it was a fake pregnancy.

“I thought it was normal. Since my belly was growing bigger and my feet swell up, I thought I was indeed pregnant,” she said.

In her ninth month, Cecilia embarked on her delivery journey to the house used by George as clinic for her ‘miracle deliveries’ in Omiagbo, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

When she arrived the house, the midwife prepared her for delivery with another round of concoctions.

“She also gave me a strange seed. I don’t know what it is called. When I chewed the seeds, I had to go to the toilet for bowel movement. She also gave me a drug that made me very tired.

“I was laid on a bed after that. The midwife asked me to start pushing. I began to push really hard. I was half-conscious. Suddenly, I heard the cry of a baby, then another.”

Cecilia said she left George’s clinic, thinking she had indeed been blessed with ‘miracle twins’.

Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, Ngozi Braide, told journalists that on April 16, 2013, Cecilia took the twins for immunisation at the Amuwo Odofin Health Centre, Lagos.

“But the medical officials at the centre were suspicious that Cecilia was not the biological mother of the twins. They then alerted the Area A Police Command. During investigation, she told the police that they were ‘miracle babies’.

“Our men got the address of the midwife and went to Port Harcourt, where she was arrested. Investigation still continues to ensure we apprehend other members of her cartel. The twins are currently with the SOS Children’s Village, Isolo,” Braide said.

Our correspondent learnt that the second victim (Ibe) was found in George’s house when the police got there.

In Ibe’s case, she wanted triplets. For that, she had to pay N2.7m to George for the babies.

Like Cecilia, Ibe was referred to George by a friend. She contacted the midwife few months after Cecilia did.

“After I went to Port Harcourt to meet the midwife, I paid the N2.7m and I was given some herbs which I drank as concoction regularly.

“My belly began to grow and my feet became swollen too. The midwife told me not to go to the hospital for scan or any ante-natal. I went to Port Harcourt to ask when I would be due for delivery.

“She told me I was not due yet. Since it was too late to go back to Lagos, I slept over at her house. It was when I was there that police came to arrest her.”

No one could have doubted that both Ibe and Cecilia were pregnant as both women appeared with swollen tummies and feet.

George said her business was “helping women who want to get pregnant.”

She told journalists, “I am 50 years old. I have been doing this business for over a year. In the case of the other woman (Cecilia), I was not the one who provided the babies.

“Helen Okoro, who introduced her to me, was the one who brought the twins and we made it look like she was the one who delivered them. It is true I collected N1.5m from her and N2.7m from the other woman.

“The herb I give them was to induce the swollen tummies and feet. Helen Okoro has run away now.”

But George dodged questions as she was being interviewed by journalists.

When asked about the name of the herbs and seeds she gave to her customers, she replied, “I don’t know.”

Asked how many of such women she had ever ‘delivered’, she answered, “I cannot remember.”

Curiously, Cecilia said she was bleeding like a freshly delivered mother during her ‘delivery’.

George provided a frightening insight into how this was made possible.

“When we asked her to push, we used a blade to cut part of her private part, so that she would bleed,” she said.

George denied knowledge of where the babies given to Cecilia came from. She said Okoro was responsible for that part of the deal.

This case is coming on the heels of the recent discovery of some baby factories in Abia and Enugu recently.

The police have yet to confirm if the babies involved in this case were bought from one of such factories.

Source: Punch

Leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria has accused the present government of plans to Islamize the state. Is there any such thing?

GOVERNOR RAUF ADESOJI AREGBESOLA AT RCCG CHURCH

In December 2012, government distributed 750,000 school uniforms to students in all public schools in the state, we never distributed hijab to anybody, and so if when we were distributing the uniforms, we distributed hijab, somebody can now say the government is forcing hijab on them.

All schools in the state became public schools since 1975, during the regime of Jemibewon, when the government took them over, whether it is Muslim, Christian or community-oriented; they are all public schools, hence they become government schools, and the issues have been cleared. There are guidelines formulated by the Ministry of Education and passed to all the schools. In it, they have specified the conduct of students on what they should do and what they should not do and till date, we have never haltered any part of these guidelines.

Muslims and Christians met November last year under a body NIREC; were they able to resolve the issue?
I know part of their resolution was that nobody should force anybody to use anything or not to use it. They recognised which schools belong to the Christians and those that belong to the Muslims and the need for each of them to respect individual’s faith. I know that as they are in court now, they will tender the resolution which all of them signed as part of evidences in court.

The CAN leadership in Osun is riddled with crisis and it is alleged that some of the leaders have been pocketed by government. Is government meddling in CAN affairs?

Government has no business with religion. The only way we can interfere is when we see that something has to be done for the sake of peace. We were never part of the people that elected Aladeseye and we can never pocket anybody.

Recently, the PDP accused the administration of non-performance and that it has begun to map out strategy to ease out the Governor in next election. Are you worried as a government?

There is a Yoruba saying that translates as ‘one’s enemy can never kill a fat grasshopper’, but for 90 months, the PDP were here and they could not show the people of Osun what they did. In 28 months of Aregbesola’s administration, we have virtually turned the whole state to a construction site. We know that the PDP cannot say that we are not working. A blind man knows that Osun is working.

A PDP governorship aspirant recently challenged your government to point to a completed mega-school project, isn’t that serious?
When we came on board in November 2010, we started with a total overhaul of the education system. We started it with the reduction of fees paid by students in our tertiary institutions, we also introduced some incentives for teachers, and we also embarked on the construction of mega schools.

Even if you did not see all, I am sure you saw the one at Alekuwodo, Osogbo which is the middle school, we’ve completed that, and the movement of pupils to the place was put on hold because of the recapitulation of schools which we had sometime ago. By September, hopefully, we know students will move there.

This year alone we want to construct 170 of the mega schools. When you get to Isale Osun, you will see that we are constructing one. Another one is at Oke Baale, it is all over the state, name it, Ejigbo, Ila-Orangun, Ife, Ikirun, Ilesa, everywhere, we are building 170 of such this year, 100 junior schools, 50 middle schools, and 20 high schools. And we know that by the time we finish, they will see the marked difference. If the PDP or whoever, is saying that there are no real development in Osun, the problem with them is that they don’t live here; they spend all their time in Abuja.

Source: This Day Live

Mr Falana, who was a guest on Channels Television’s programme, Sunrise Daily, said a situation where a clash between terrorists and security operatives led to the death of over 187 people; where unknown cultist ambush and slaughter over 40 police officers; and where a Supreme Court Judge is presently looking for his wife, child and driver can be nothing short of war.

“There is a war everywhere; that is why as Nigerians, we cannot afford to leave the Federal Government to fight this war; they cannot,” he said.
Mr Falana said though the country is facing a huge war it is ill-prepared to fight.

“These boys have more sophisticated weapon than our armed forces,” he said.

The lawyer said the Federal Government is playing politics with the fight against terrorism by not providing the police with adequate equipment to fight insurgents and criminals.

He said, “A lot of money was budget for security and defence this year, what has happened to the fund if by the middle of May you haven’t passed the budget? It is tantamount to shedding crocodile tears if we simply express regret anytime policemen or soldiers are killed when we didn’t armed them, when we didn’t sufficiently equip them.

“How many of our soldiers and policemen have learnt anything about counter-terrorism? It is a new terrain. How many of them are trained to fight or participate in guerrilla warfare because that is what is going on.

“Are we saying we are so poor that we cannot acquire helicopters to conduct aerial surveillance on a daily basis in these areas?

“Do you know that the policemen and most of the soldiers sent to combat these boys have no bullet proof? It is that bad. You just simply give them Ak47.”

Source: ChannelsTV