By Smolette Shittu-Alamu

Dr, Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina is a PhD holder in Agricultural Economics. He has very intimidating credentials as a globally respected technocrat and scholar. Since the year 2015 he has been the President of the Africa Development Bank (AFDB) the monetary institution based in Abidjan, Cote D’ivoire.

He was re-elected for the same post in 2020 and would complete his second and final term as president AFDB this September. This very respected former Nigerian Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development did serve as a professional technocrat in government and in politics under the Goodluck Ebele Johnathan’s presidency from 2011 to 2015. It was from that post that he went on to serve as president of the Africa Development Bank (AfDB).

Before reaching the global renown and heights he has attained in life as well as the commanding level he has reached today in the global world, the then young little boy had known life as the son of a poor farmer. Therefore he has known the pains of not to have in life. Although he is from Ogun State, he was born and raised in Ibadan like a typical peasant farmer’s child .

Young Akinwumi attended not a high sounding school names such as Kings College nor Igbobi College; not CMS Grammar School nor St Gregory’s, but the modest Baptist High School in Ejigbo the present day Osun State. At the then University of Ife where he later on studied Agricultural Economics, he was too brilliant and too diligent a lad not to have grabbed the First Class Honours result. Oh yes he did get that.

Thus Adesina became the first ever student in the history of Unife now Obafemi Awolowo University to be awarded first class in Agricultural Economics in 1981. From Purdue University in the United States of America, Akinwumi Ayodeji Adesina bagged the MSc degree in 1985, and the PhD in 1988. His thesis won the Outstanding PhD Thesis Award in 1988.

That same year Akinwumi Adesina won the Rockefeller Foundation’s Social Sciences Fellowship. This award was what launched him into international career as an Africa and Development Expert.
Before becoming a federal minister in Nigeria he had always shown himself to be a firm believer in private sector-led growth for nations especially in the developing world.

He was Vice President in-charge of Policy and Partnership at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA). In that capacity he had several bold and innovative policies and finance initiatives that leveraged over 4 billion dollars in Bank finance commitments to the African sector .

He equally served as Associate Director and Regional Director for the Southern Africa Office of the Rockefeller Foundation.
lndeed, we are merely speaking about a Nigerian intellectual who has written about seventy scholarly publications and who as a Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development for only four years (2011-2015) radically changed the perception of the Agric value chain in Nigeria from subsistence to a viable business that attracted 5.6 billion dollars into private sector investment.

The Electronic Wallet system he introduced as Minister, reached some 15 million farmers throughout this country. The system dramatically transformed the levels of farmers in Nigeria. The project succeeded in ending 40 years of corruption in the fertilizer business in Nigeria. By the twist of two fingers, local farmers readily got provided with subsidized farm inputs via their mobile phones.

This is a bold reform but which has had to be carelessly abandoned somehow when he left office. As President of AfDB since 2015 ,he launched the transformation of human lives on the African continent, via his Hi fives programme namely Light up Africa,Ttransform Africa, Power the Continent, Feed Africa and Integrate the Continent’s people so as to save the continent from itsself as an economically backward landmass but which ironically is the richest in the world.

Now to the purpose of this write-up.
Very recently, this highly professional Agric Economist who is the sitting president of the Africa Development Bank (AfDB) spoke out the truth to the Nigerian situation when he drew a comparison between the Nigerian people of 1960 at independence and their counterparts he finds on the streets 65 years later.

The conclusion Adesina drew was that Nigerians are worse off today then they were in 1960. Somehow this Adesina view has not gone down well with presidential spokesmen in the Villa

In a swift response to what the facts present and Dr. Akinwumi Adesina has only echoed , the presidential megaphone led by Bayo Onanuga who is Special Adviser to the President on lnformation and Strategic Communication condemns the Adesina position and blames him for basing his conclusion on what he calls “figures that do not align with available data.” Onanuga went on to say that ” no objective observer can claim that Nigeria has not made progress since 1960″.

But seriously speaking is Onanuga right? No he is not. In fact he can’t be right. This is because having plenty of money in one’s pocket does not translate into wealth. Or does it?. If the common man fed his family with five or even ten naira in a month in the 1960 years but does so with five hundred thousand naira in a month today, 65 years later would we say such a man has progressed?

Bayo Onanuga went on to say that “even as the nation awaits the NBS’s recaliberation of our GDP, we can comfortably say without contradiction that it is at least 50 times if not 100 times more than it was at independence”. lf our GDP is 100 times more than what it was in 1960 how has that helped us we may ask? We ask.

The presidential aide also accused the AfDB boss of “speaking like a politician in the mould to Peter Obi but did not do due diligence before making his unverifiable statement”. Habba, Bayo Onanuga.Will an Agricultural Economist like the AfDB boss make an unverifiable statement? Will he? Should he? Will he not do due diligence before he talks about his own country’s. Does he not readily see the result of government initiatives and policies in the people?

Let us be more frank and factual.As President of AfDB can Dr.Adesina truly be said to be some one who does not have economic indices of all African nations at his finger tips?

We may not be experts in Economic matters even as Onanuga wants us to believe. We can give it to him that GDP per capita is not the only criterion we can use to determine whether people live better now than they did in the past. All the same our little understanding of basic Economics tells us it is a poor tool for assessing the living standard of our people. Is GDP per capita not always silent on whether we as Nigerians enjoy better access to health care, education and transportation such as rail, and air now than we did in 1960 65 years back.

Yes Nigeria today has more primary schools, secondary schools, tertiary institutions than she had in 1960. We have more road networks , medical facilities, phone lines accessibility etc. But with a population leap from 45 million in 1960 to the nearly 230 million in 2025, has our population not shot up to about 5 times in 65 years? Is this not a problem? Have our facilities this exponential increase in population growth causes not rendered useless and inaccessible all the imaginary gains?

Yes every Tom Dick or Harry has access to phones but have the available facilities translated into effective service provision? The answer is a big No. 65 years on, electricity supply to our homes remains on by which band you belong to. A B C or D. Is this something we must be proud of? Does this happen in the developed climes?

Today 65 years after independence, our school system can not contain all our children of school-going age. It is a known fact that 2,000 students in our higher institutions do receive learning in halls meant to sit just about 500 people at a go! The students when they come out can’t access jobs for years and so have to japa in the end.

There is insecurity in the land. Everywhere there is strife, there is disappointment hunger,thirst, frustration and killings. No where is safe today.Yet in 1960 to the 1980 years one could travel the length and breadth of our country without blinking an eye.We had factories that produced or assembled cars,produced batteries brake pads and tyres. Food was very available.

We lived a life of being our brother’s keeper. The poor could eat and did not have to beg nor play tricks to live. Are we not worse at 65 years ago? We all are, except those in the corridors of political power and Yahoo Yahoo practitioners.

The presidency’s rather dismissive reaction to Dr Akinwumi Adesina’s very clear statement of fact is rather worrisome. We conclude by stating that Dr Adesina is right; but the presidency’s reaction is very wrong. Ethics as moral principles show how people should conduct themselves in social affairs.

Ethics ensure the imposition of obligations on us as public functionaries to refrain from doing or saying whatever things are wrong. Our Presidential Aides must learn to study and develop ethical standards. They must try to live up to reasonable and solidly based conducts.

They must refrain from being often time economical with the truth.They will do this by accepting to stand by the truth always
and be able able to stand on the side of the people they have been invited to serve.

Smolette Adetoyese Shittu-Alamu
Osogbo.Former Director of news osun state broadcasting corporation

By Tunde Olusunle

He turned 70 on Monday May 5, 2025. A thanksgiving service and celebration of the landmark, however, have been scheduled for early June 2025, in Benin City, capital of Edo State, his birthplace. The city is a peculiar cosmopolis steeped in very rich history, confounding myth, even curious mysticism. For those of us who come several decades down the calendar of time with him, his latter day appellations and honorifics are novel to us. The job mobility of my parents precipitated the relocation of our family from Kaduna, capital of the primordial “North Central State,” to Benin City, capitol of the old “Midwestern State,” back in 1972. My father headed the Kaduna branch of “Livestock Feeds Ltd,” which was then a subsidiary of the primordial “Pfizer Nigeria Ltd.” My mother was a nurse and midwife in the employ of the “North Central State Health Management Board.” Our first address was at “Second East Circular Road,” Benin City.

As our family grew, we sought bigger residential facility in the “New Benin District” at the time. Mid-1975, we moved over to “Eresoyen Street,” adjoining “Oziegbe Street” into a property owned by the Uzamere family. The world was a much better place, the Uzameres received us not as lessees of their property, but as extensions of the clan. For *Iye,* Madam Izegbuwa Lucy Uzamere, matriarch of their dynasty, my siblings and I, were as well her children. *Iye’s* eldest child, Osaheni Uzamere, seasoned administrator and subsequently attorney was the head of the family. He took to me specifically because he was an alumnus of the revered Immaculate Conception College, (ICC), Benin City, where I also had my secondary school education. The Uzamere family was predominantly populated by boys. Albert, the youngest of *Iye’s* children was my direct contemporary. We proceeded apace in our various secondary schools. Immediately above Albert was George, who was next to Ehigie.

Long settled out there in the United States of America, (USA), was Ehigie’s immediate elder brother, John, (now of blessed memory). Humphrey and Wellington, half brothers to Ehigie were regularly around. Ehigie was something like the unofficial “head boy” within that space. We all deferred to him which culminated in our christening him *Bro Ehigie.* Despite our sociocultural diversities, Ehigie Uzamere showed leadership amongst us the boys in the house. He was interested in our academic performances and regularly sought updates about our tests and examinations. He would usually call for our answer sheets and report cards. He spotted my proficiency in English language and Literature-in-English and would admonish us on knowledge-sharing. Bro Ehigie soon joined John Uzamere in the US and swore to convince my parents to allow me join him once he was settled. To be sure, he secured admission for me at the State University of New York, (SUNY), not too long after, on the strength of my academic transcripts. I later posted a Division One performance with distinctions in the West African School Certificate Examination, (WASCE) O’Level which I wrote at age 15. My parents feared I was too young to live out of their sight, all by myself at that age, if I was allowed to go abroad.

Ehigie Uzamere visited home fairly often. From his luggage whenever he came, we gleaned the albums of new and current foreign musical releases. My first physical and auditory encounters with the works of many foreign artists those good old days were from Bro Ehigie’s collections. These include releases by *Ray Parker Jnr;* *Diana Ross; Al Hudson and One Way;* *Sugarhill Gang;* *Bill Summers and Summers Heat;* *Brothers Johnson,* “Stomp;” *Prince,* “I Wanna Be Your Lover,” *Michael Jackson’s* “Off the Wall” and so on. Usually when he holidayed in Benin City, he was hosted to a few gigs by his friends. We the younger troupe would dress our best and tag along with him. My parents were ultra-strict with the rules, especially those years when one was still a precocious early teen. Bro Ehigie’s name, however, could avail you some latitude.

In 1980, my family relocated to Ilorin in Kwara State. After several years in the “diaspora” within the Nigerian context, my parents thought we should gravitate homewards. Telephony was not anywhere as sophisticated as it is today, but somehow, I kept in touch with Benin City. Across the road from the Uzamere’s, were the Ehigators, a family very close to ours. Osabuohien Ehigiator, (may his soul rest in peace) was my very good friend and schoolmate. Through him and members of his family, I was able to stay in touch with our mutual friends in Benin City. After qualifying as an architect in the US, Ehigie Uzamere went against the grain. Whereas many Nigerians who had the opportunity of foreign sojourn opted to stay back in the countries where they schooled, Uzamere returned home. He believed he could contribute to the development of his home country, despite the privilege of dual citizenship.

He underwent the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC) with the Bendel Development and Property Authority, (BPDA), which retained his services upon the completion of the exercise. Not too long after, he opted for self-employment and established a chain of private firms with interests in architecture and building; procurement; medical and pharmaceutical hardware; water processing and broadcasting. He ventured into politics and was elected Senator representing Edo South in 2007, and reelected for a second term in 2011. He made history as the first parliamentarian to be elected on the platforms of two different political parties, the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria, (ACN), in Edo State. During his stint in the federal parliament, he helped reposition his senatorial district at the core of national politics. No more the sidelining, the intentional marginalisation of Edo South in the national scheme.

Working with amenable political leaders from his catchment, he galvanised support for the appointment of one of his constituents as Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin. It was the very first time in the life of the institution. He equally anchored the recognition of one of his own as Chief Executive of the Nigerian Institute for Oil Palm Research, (NIFOR), which is domiciled in his senatorial district. In all of these, Uzamere remains renowned for his politics of civility. Not for him the lawlessness, thuggery and violence which typify our politics in parts. You needed to experience his connectedness with the grassroots, the way he was adulated one of those days he picked me up from the airport in Benin City. He is known by a large percentage of the commuter operators in the place and seamlessly code-switched to *Bini* language as he engaged with them. Don’t be surprised when Ehigie Uzamere and I converse in particular ways in pidgin English. We have peculiar expressions understood only by initiates.

Uzamere’s greatest source of joy, happiness and fulfilment is his beautiful family. He has been married to his very homely wife, Iriagbonse Irowa, for 43 years. The union has been blessed by God with many children and grandchildren. He has a pet name for each of his children even as he eternally dotes on his grandchildren. He never misses any opportunity to have his family congregate under one roof, in his homes, in Benin City, Abuja or Atlanta, especially during festivities. He would spontaneously set up photo shoots for his grandchildren. Contentment and gratitude are typically writ large on his visage. You get the feeling that he would most happily build an expansive palace, bordered by the same perimeters so he could wake up each morning and tour each family unit to see just how everyone is faring.

Uzamere’s loyalty to friendship is phenomenal. In rain or sunshine, he sticks with you. Despite suspicions of the serial subversions of popular will by the nation’s foremost electoral midwife in the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections, he has stuck with his preferred candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, through thick and thin. When he is not on Atiku’s entourage, Uzamere would be on the delegation to receive Atiku at the airport, irrespective of the time of the day. He is not given to prevarication, he’s never on the fence on issues. He takes a position and stays with it. He will remind you that at his age and stature as an elder statesman, it is far too late for him to play the chameleon.

I savoured a meal of home-made rice for dinner with him on one of my visits. It came, wrapped in green leaves, restating Uzamere’s uncommon earthiness, despite his established cosmopolitanism. As I ran out of stew for my meal, he simply picked up my serving of the rice and moved the content into the stew. He remarked in pidgin English: *When soup no plenty again, just transfer the food inside the soup bowl,* he lectured me with an accompanying smile. Uzamere is in the constant business of self-development. He once told me, not too long ago, that he had registered for a masters degree in business administration. I asked why he went back to school. He reminded that former President Olusegun Obasanjo who I worked with, returned to the classroom after being the nation’s leader for two terms, in his 70s.

This is celebrating with a longstanding brother, Ehigie Edobor Uzamere, as he joins the privileged ranks of septuagenarians and wishing him many more years in good health.

*Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), is an Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Abuja*

By Tunde Olusunle

Royalty enjoyed tremendous reverence when my generation was growing up. As a schoolboy in Benin City those days, the *Oba* savoured profound reverence and conjured trepidation amongst his subjects. He was and still is introduced with the prefix *Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo.* Much as this simply means “His Royal Majesty, the Oba of Benin,” it is without doubt, a jarring mouthful. He is regarded as sole emissary of the supreme deity and possibly a god in his own right, most probably consecrated by cosmic consent. *Oba Akenzua II* was on the throne in my teenage days in Benin City. He loomed large in the public consciousness who barely caught a glimpse of him anywhere. The wholesale mythification of his office was such that his name was conjured to serve as warning and deterrent to potential rabble rousers. The now popular phrase, *You go see Oba* was added to day-to-day, now globalised conversational lexicon in my time. It served as deterrent to mischief and errant conduct. The lawless were thus admonished on circumspection, lest they had to go through the labyrinthine motions of seeking justice or redress before a barely ever seen *Oba.*

I equally keenly followed the trajectory of the immediate past *Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Olubuse II.* Immensely affluent, urbane and classy, he brought elan, style and panache to bear on his office. He was famous for his striking regalia, typically complemented by corresponding accessories and adornments. He breathed style and elegance. The very popular *Forbes magazine* indeed once rated *Ooni Olubuse* as the “third richest royal in Africa” in his time. I was privileged to meet him a few times during his lifetime. I was still a student and member of one of our departmental students associations in school when I had the first encounter with him. Despite his impeccable proficiency in the English language, *Oba Sijuwade* elected to speak Yoruba during most of his engagements. This linguistic preference reinforced the belief that he was truly the mouthpiece of the gods and ancestors. There was always, ever a competent interpreter by his side, usually his long-serving Press Secretary, Funmilola Olorunnisola, himself a ranking Chief of Ile-Ife. The *Ooni* conveyed his thoughts and messages through him to his guests and audiences.

Contemporary royals have dominated the news in recent days and weeks. The manifest unseemly conduct of some of them, is totally at variance with their standings and statuses as traditional rulers. Indeed, their actions in many instances have unwittingly whittled down the historical dignity of the exalted stools they occupy, in the catacombs of otherwise revered palaces. Such custodians of tradition have unknowingly transposed their venerated seats, to the full glare of the public, the marketplace. From Ipetumodu to, Ibadan, to Oyo and to Katsina, in Osun, Oyo and Katsina states respectively, presumed royals have shown up in ways and manners which demean and diminish their offices. Such wholesome devaluation is of necessity impacting the very essence of the institution of natural rulership, passed down from ages and aeons.

The *Apetu of Ipetumodu,* Oba Joseph Oloyede, was arrested by United States security early 2024 for his role in obtaining COVID-19 relief funds estimated at $4.2million, fraudulently. While his subjects anticipated the return of their king from what was supposed to be a routine visit to the US, Oloyede had been answering charges before Justice Christopher Boyko, of the US District Court of Ohio. He reportedly colluded with a certain Edward Oluwasanmi, a Nigerian-American clergyman, with whom he defrauded the US system of resources designated as buffer for US small businesses and nonprofit organisations experiencing pandemic-related revenue losses. Court documents reportedly referenced falsified applications for “Paycheck Protection Programme Loans and Economic Injury Disaster Loans, under the US Coronavirus Air, Relief and Economic Recovery Act” submitted by Oloyede and Oluwasanmi.

Both men deployed fake tax and wage documents to secure funds intended to help struggling businesses keep afloat during the COVID-19 plague. Oloyede received about half of the $4.2million, scammed by him and his compatriot, Oluwasanmi. He reportedly invested his portion of the heist in real estate in the US. Oloyede by the way, was installed the Oba of his community in 2019. His profile as a travelled and affluent person counted amongst other considerations for the 62-year old monarch. His present engagement with the US justice system may yet torchlight other probable underhand financial dealings in the course of his long sojourn in the country in which earned him a residency. This is as his subjects remain in shock and bewilderment over such unsavoury revelations concerning a leader they once exalted.

The *Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, the Ojaja II,* recently had a spat with the *Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Abimbola Owoade.* at an event in Ibadan. Wife of the President, Oluremi Tinubu was guest of the Oyo State Government and both monarchs were invited to the programme. As the *Ooni* made his way to his seat, every traditional ruler on his route honoured him by rising to welcome him. The *Alaafin,* however, refused to rise up, even as he shook hands with the *Ooni* from his seating position. There is a long history about the rivalry for preeminence between the *Alaafin* and the *Ooni.* It was partially resolved when the administration of President Ibrahim Babangida created two states, Oyo and Osun, out of the erstwhile Oyo State. Both rulers were venerated as the *Numero Uno* monarchs in the various states. As the Ibadan incident revealed, however, animosity abounds between the *Ooni* who is 50, and the *Alaafin* who is 49, beyond the historical acrimony. A more recent reason has been adduced for the beef between both royals.

Decades ago, a US-based Nigerian of Yoruba descent, Efuntola Oseijeman Adelabu Adefummi, conceived of a “Yoruba village” to serve as a melting pot for Yorubas in the US. It was supposed to be a “home away from home” where the Yoruba essence will be celebrated. This vision berthed the *Oyotunji African Village* located in Beaufort County, South Carolina, in 1970. Efuntola Adefunmi the visioner was installed *Oba* of the “village.” *Ooni Ojaja* has in the past, been requested by the leadership of *Oyotunji* to mediate during disputes and conflicts plaguing the village and he had always willingly sent emissaries. It has been suggested that *Alaafin Owoade* has been wrongfully briefed that his rulership of Oyo, encompasses *Oyotunji* which in reality is an address for all Yorubas from Nigeria, Benin Republic, Togo, Brazil and so on. This has been adduced as probable reason for the grouse between both men.

A recent incident where one Chief Lukman Ojora Arounfale, the *Baba Oba of Oyotunji African Village* was allegedly assaulted in the *Alaafin’s* palace on the orders of the king, lends credence to the bile between him and the *Ooni.* The scenario which played out on Thursday April 17, 2025, was linked to the bitterness between the *Alaafin* and the *Ooni.* It fits the narrative that the *Alaafin* in reality conceives of *Oyotunji* as a diaspora extension of his kingdom. Chief Lukman Atounfale, we are told, died from injuries he sustained in the brutal attack on him and his wife, in the *Alaafin’s* abode in Oyo. Such are the dimensions of controversies which have trailed the teething weeks and months of the reign of *Alaafin Owoade* who was only installed in January 2025, by Governor Makinde.

Overzealous palace guards, *dogarai,* working for the Emir of Katsina, Abdulmumini Kabir Usman last weekend, broke the glass entrance into the Katsina home of Dikko Radda, Governor of the state. Radda had given out one of his daughters in marriage earlier that day and was hosting dignitaries including President Bola Tinubu to a reception at his address. State protocol and security regulations prescribe that once the President or guest-in-chief is already seated at a function, late comers are shut out. It was bad enough that Emir Kabir Usman came long after the nation’s chief executive was already settled. It was worse that his *fatawa* dared to bring down a section of the home of the chief host of the President. It was an utterly disrespectful act which underlined the operational manual in effect in the palace of the Emir. Let’s hope the Emir has sent pertinent formal apologies to Tinubu and Radda, principally.

At every opportunity, traditional rulers are known to have canvassed specific roles for themselves in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This seems plausible given their proximity to the mass of Nigerians especially in the distant hinterlands and deep recesses of our vast national space. Against the backdrop of reported misuse of authority which we recently gleaned in the palace of the *Alaafin,* can our royals be trusted to manage gazetted authority? Two weeks after the assault and subsequent demise of Lukman Ojora Arounfale which was ascribed to *Alaafin Owoade,* we are yet to read a rejoinder. Wouldn’t aides of natural rulers like Dr Kabir Usman of the Katsina emirate, incorporate bulldozers in the vehicular convoy of their Principal as they journey through the emirate? The roofs of the homes of many of the Emir’s subjects who are in the quietude of their sanctuaries, may just be decapitated for not being on the streets paying obeisance to the king?

Our royals must reinvent themselves and re-perspectivise their offices. They are not “Highnesses” and “Majesties” simply for personal ennoblement. Their positions and honorifics bear immense relevance to the history and sociocultural identities of our diverse peoples. The onus is on them to restore relevance and reverence to our traditional institutions in a global sense. It is their responsibility to protect and preserve our cultures from adulteration, abuse and extinction. We should not pass down diminished and dismembered histories, narratives and beliefs, to successor generations.

*Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja*