*By Tunde Olusunle*

I was initially going to predicate this piece on notable developmental milestones I’ve followed in recent weeks and months, in some states in Nigeria’s South.

Indeed, in two separate treatises, I’ve interrogated the endeavours of Chukwuma Soludo, Alex Otti and Umaru Bago of Anambra, Abia and Niger states. I’ve been enamoured by reports of advancements in sectors such as agriculture, infrastructure, investment and security among others, coming from the nation’s global South. You often get this feeling of positive peer rivalry between some states especially those below the Niger and Benue rivers, as they strive to improve the lots of their constituents, while also etching their imprimatur on the sands of time. It became imperative, however, to restructure my thoughts in the wake of certain very contemporaneous happenings, especially in the North, and juxtapose them with news from the South.

In August 2024, I wrote a piece titled *The North of Nigeria after the Protests.* It was my reaction to the thoughtlessness and idiocy manifested in parts of the North during the 10-day “hunger protests.” Internet videos and visuals are replete with the mindlessness which characterised youth outings those few days of insanity. Multibillion naira public properties and private investments were wilfully attacked, looted and vandalised. Road infrastructure including concrete pallets laid over public drainages were chiselled with axes just to steal the steel meshes binding and solidifying the platters. About a dozen fatalities were recorded between Borno and Niger states, as security personnel attempted the containment of the ensuing mayhem. Elsewhere, the Nigerian Police received plaudits for its demonstrated professionalism in the management of the fracas, mitigating injuries and minimising casualties, even as swarms of brigands held sway those days of utter madness. You watched these jarring scenes on national and global television and couldn’t but ask yourself: What ends were such barbarity, such primitivity meant to serve?

The hunger protests were also observed in parts of the South. But there was greater circumspection and decorum than was witnessed in many theatres of bedlam in the North. Indeed, governments in many states in the South were proactive. Authorities cautioned before the dates scheduled for the protests, that lawlessness in the form of unruly and riotous protests and processions will not be condoned within their boundaries. The October 2020 *#EndSARS* protests which snowballed into shootings of the processions by the Nigerian Army, remain fresh in popular consciousness. *Amnesty International* reported at least a dozen deaths from that incident, despite rebuttals by the Lagos State Government and the military authorities.

The government of Kano State in its 2025 budget, has made provision for the conduct of mass weddings. The sum of N2.5 Billion has been earmarked for the quarterly mass wedding programme across the 44 local government areas of the state.

The administration of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, invested N854 million on the mass wedding of 1,800 couples in 2023. Kebbi State Governor, Nasir Idris, recently committed N54 million on the wedding of 300 couples in his state. Budget and Economic Planning Minister, Atiku Bagudu who attended the programme, availed each couple N50,000 as “startup.” Mai Mala Buni, the governor of Yobe State, has also accommodated mass weddings as a major project in the 2025 budget of his state. Immediate past President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan who is also from Yobe State is also reputed to have sponsored mass weddings in his catchment area, ostensibly as part of his “constituency projects.”

Ahead of the Ramadan fast which began Saturday May 1, 2025, a number of state governments in the North, shut down educational institutions, especially primary and secondary schools. The closure is for a period of five weeks which is the duration of the fasting season. Beginning with Bauchi State in the North East, states in the North West including Kano, Katsina, Kebbi and Zamfara, have promptly followed suit. The various governments have proffered that the closures are to ensure focused and unimpeded observance of the Ramadan by the entire gamut of the peoples and populations of their various entities. These school closures have not taken into account the conveniences of non-Muslim students who are also students in these various states.

Before the wholesale mismanagement of Nigeria’s sociocultural diversities by particular leaderships, especially the eight-year regime of former President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerians had always been very adventurous. They quested socioeconomic opportunities beyond the perimeters of their traditional origins.

This has been said to have accounted for the flattening of Bola Tinubu in his home state of Lagos during the 2023 presidential election which brought him into office. Indeed, a specific settler-ethnicity in Lagos, was fingered for that near electoral humbling of the President. The academic calendars of many of the northern stares under discourse, have reportedly been tweaked to ensure the reopening of schools after the Ramadan-induced forced break.

While parts of the North are prioritising the observance of a religious obligation over and beyond every other consideration, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, (NBS), reminds us that the core North has the highest numbers of out-of-school children. Urchins, more famously known as *almajiris* in tens of thousands are permanently resident on the streets of several northern towns and cities, clutching begging bowls.

The North is equally notorious for the high prevalence of child marriages, where clearly and visibly underage girls are married off to men old enough to be the age of their grandfathers. This accentuates the very high occurrence of Vesico-Vaginal Fistula, (VVF), among young northern females. Even if comprehensive health education were to be available for young girls, pervading illiteracy remains inimical to orientation and reorientation to stem the trend.

Nigeria’s core North remains averse to the trade and consumption of beverages of certain brands. Yet they desire the perpetuation of the fiscal allocation status quo, which privileges them higher dividends from national Value Added Tax, (VAT), than southern states which actually generate the chunkier taxes. Members of the *Hisbah* corps which enforces the *Shariah* are videoed regularly destroying huge consignment of alcoholic drinks, crippling the businesses of traders in such beverages.

This is just as Saudi Arabia the global exemplar of Islamic religion, has relaxed its laws on alcohol. Non-Muslim diplomats can now procure and savour alcohol stuff. This is a major shift from the total ban on alcohol, which has been in place since 1952. The original law against alcohol provided for the prosecution and incarceration of offenders, while foreigners were summarily deported.

Down South, many governors and governments are pursuing visionary projects to impact on the well-being of their people. Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos and Seyi Makinde are investing massively in agricultural development to ensure sustainable food sufficiency and security. Surpluses will be warehoused in silos and storages, while overflows will be sold.

Among other initiatives, Lagos State is partnering with the *Origin Tech Group,* to develop a five-year agricultural strategic plan. For starters, the partnership has initiated a *Food Logistics Hub* in Epe, Lagos State. Part of the plan is to gradually develop 4.2 million square metres of an agricultural village. A 60-kilometre network of roads are to be built in the settlement out of which about 30% is ready. It is a measure of the seriousness behind this plan, that a five-storey administrative block; a sprawling parking area capable of taking 1,500 trucks per day; a weighbridge, cold and dry storage areas, are already in place.

Makinde has revisited the hitherto moribund *Fashola Farms Estate* which used to be the epicentre of agricultural development in the primordial Western region. The luminous project which runs into several kilometres, sits between Oyo and Iseyin, Makinde has rechristened it the *Fashola Agricbusiness Industrial Hub.* Investors are expressing interest in cultivating a myriad of crops, notably cassava, maize, soybeans, cowpeas, tomatoes, banana and even dairy production. Well over N11 Billion has been committed to revamping the primordial farm with the provision of road infrastructure, factories and warehouses, among other structures. At least a dozen companies have already been established in the agribusiness zone, including *Friesland Campina West African Milk Company Ltd,* (WAMCO), and *Brown Hill Farms Ltd,* which is cultivating vegetables by deploying the *Green House* model.

Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, has identified over 12,000 hectares of arable land in his state, out of which the cultivation of 200 hectares last year, returned exponential yields. Abiodun at the harvest of rice from the demonstration farm located at the *Magboro* rice farm in *Obafemi Owode* local government area, boasted that Ogun State could conveniently feed the whole country. The pilot project yielded 1400 metric tonnes of rice, equivalent to 20,000 bags of milled rice, capable of gifting farmers with returns of N1Billion naira every quarter of the year. A cargo airport has been developed by the Abiodun government and approval secured from President Tinubu for the physical area of the airport to serve as a *Special Agro-Cargo Processing Zone* and a *Free Trade Zone.* The project has the potential to create about 50,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Who will grow or provide on a sustainable basis, the food which will feed the newly weds in Kano, Katsina, Kebbi and elsewhere? Who will cater for the *almajiris,* *dan iskas* *and yan dabas* being bred like rabbits out there, who have unwittingly become human furniture on northern streets? Mass weddings, early marriages, school closures for the observance of religious rites, freewill breeding of children without a plan for their futures, are not the pathways to socioeconomic progress.

True, members of the elite like the senior parliamentarian representing *Doguwa/Tudun Wada* federal constituency in Kano, Ado Doguwa, may have four wives and 28 children. He is a fifth-term member of the legislature who has been Chief Whip and Majority Leader, respectively. Not everyone from his part of Nigeria, however, is as fiscally fortunate as he is.

As things stand today, the core North cannot aspire to catchup with, let alone overshoot the multisectoral mileages already attained by the South. It needs pursue immediate, intentional and conscientious rethinking, reorientation and recalibration, to get off the starting blocks.

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

By Sonny Aragba-Akpore

Most people who are information technology (IT) savvy have some understanding of Artificial Intelligence (AI) but beyond textbook knowledge,not many of them truly understand its domestic and autonomous capabilities.

AI is capable of doing virtually everything possible for humanity including possibly how to make babies,so we are told.

When sometime ago,AI was used to conduct a full church service on a Sunday in Europe,it was a marvel.But AI has gone beyond that.

The International Telecommunications Union ( ITU) is thinking outside the box as it prepares ground for autonomous AI by formulation of policies and ground rules.

And these ensure a new wave of autonomous AI—capable of reasoning, acting independently, and scaling at unprecedented speed,rapidly reshaping the technological landscape.
The rise of “agentic AI” and powerful, low-cost AI models is making artificial intelligence cheaper, more widely available, and potentially more energy efficient—but also harder to regulate.

With some prominent CEOs predicting human-level AI within two to three years, concerns are mounting over safety risks, weakened guardrails, and the challenge of responsible governance.
These pressing issues will be the focus of the AI for Good Global Summit 2025, the United Nations’ leading platform advancing AI in service of sustainable development, in Geneva, Switzerland from July 8–11,2025.

The expanded, four-day gathering will also showcase progress on advanced robotics, autonomous mobility, quantum computing, AI in space, and brain-computer interfaces.

Hosted by the ITU,the UN agency for digital technologies, the goal of AI for Good is to identify trustworthy applications of AI, build AI skills and standards, and strengthen global dialogue on AI governance for sustainable development.

“As AI development accelerates, so does the urgency to keep innovation aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals,” said ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin. “AI for Good is where the world comes together to ensure these technologies are safe, responsible, and leave no one behind.”

At the AI for Good Global Summit 2025, leading experts from governments, industry, academia, civil society, and the UN will explore how AI is reshaping our world, tackling urgent challenges such as safety, employment, sustainability, privacy, security, governance, and its broader societal and economic impacts.

Among the AI visionaries set to present are Geoffrey Hinton, AI pioneer and Nobel Prize winner; Yoshua Bengio, Founder and Scientific Director of Mila – Quebec AI Institute and Turing Award winner; Sasha Luccioni, AI & Climate Lead of open-source AI developer Hugging Face; and other prominent voices.

Responding to the Global Digital Compact, adopted in 2024 by the UN General Assembly, the AI for Good Global Summit 2025 will provide a global platform for dialogue to advance AI governance, standards, and capacity building. As AI adoption accelerates, the Summit aims to inform policies and drive solutions that ensure AI is developed and deployed responsibly, fairly, and for the benefit of all.​

Yet, a global AI governance gap persists—an ITU survey found that 55 per cent of Member States lack a national AI strategy, and 85 per cent have no AI-specific regulations.

To address this, the Summit will host ITU’s second AI Governance Day on July 10,focusing on safety, trust, international standards, and bridging the regulatory gap, while also tackling the urgent need to build AI skills and capacity, especially in developing countries.

On July 11 ,2025 the Summit will host an International AI Standards Exchange, bringing together leading global standards bodies to strengthen AI’s technical backbone, ensuring interoperability, safety, and inclusive standards development.

“ITU is driving the development of a trusted and interoperable AI ecosystem,” said Seizo Onoe, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau.

“Our AI standards are supporting innovation in areas from network orchestration and energy efficiency to multimedia coding and content authenticity. Our International AI Standards Exchange will help keep up global momentum on the technical underpinnings of responsible AI.”

The newly established AI for Good Awards, presented in partnership with Tech To The Rescue​, will recognize groundbreaking AI solutions that contribute to global progress on sustainable development with categories including AI for People, AI for Planet, and AI for Prosperity. Applications for awards will open soon.

The AI for Good Global Summit is organized by ITU together with 47 partner UN agencies. The yearly event, co-convened by the Government of Switzerland, is free of charge and open to everyone.

This year, AI for Good makes its debut at Palexpo, Geneva’s largest event venue and exposition centre.

Apart from the ITU which has put in place some ground rules in the deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning(ML),with International Standard Organisation (ISO),there are ongoing advocacies for entrenchment of ethics to minimise abuse of the use of AI across global communities.

AI ethics are the moral principles that companies and individuals use to guide responsible and fair development and use of AI.

Although there’s currently no wide-scale governing body to write and enforce these rules, many technology companies have adopted their own version of AI ethics or an AI code of conduct.

AI ethics are the set of guiding principles that stakeholders (from engineers to government officials) use to ensure artificial intelligence technology is developed and used responsibly. This means taking a safe, secure, humane, and environmentally friendly approach to AI.

A strong AI code of ethics can include avoiding bias, ensuring privacy of users and their data, and mitigating environmental risks. Codes of ethics in companies and government-led regulatory frameworks are two main ways that AI ethics can be implemented. By covering global and national ethical AI issues, and laying the policy groundwork for ethical AI in companies, both approaches help regulate AI technology.

The future will see large parts of our lives influenced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. Machines can execute repetitive tasks with complete precision, and with recent advances in AI, machines are gaining the ability to learn, improve and make calculated decisions in ways that will enable them to perform tasks previously thought to rely on human experience, creativity, and ingenuity.

AI innovation will be central to the achievement of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by capitalizing on the unprecedented quantities of data now being generated on sentiment behavior, human health, commerce, communications, migration and more.

ITU will provide a neutral platform for government, industry and academia to build a common understanding of the capabilities of emerging AI technologies and consequent needs for technical standardization and policy guidance.
Countries must put in conscious efforts to mitigate the dangers of deployment if they want to achieve positive results.

Speaking during a digital press briefing on the review of the: “Global Inclusivity and AI-Africa Conference” as well as its responsible use, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, Joy Basu, stated that while it was great to grab the opportunities provided by the use of AI, the world must also learn to reduce its negative impact.

“Many of us know the risks that are both applicable in Africa but also in the United States.

There’s a lot of humility we have about understanding that none of us can control these risks alone and that it will really be a global conversation.
“You also have a number of risks particularly around elections. This is a year where so many countries are voting, including our own, and we all have to be aware of those risks.

“Regardless of the ways in which the risks manifest, one key mitigating solution that was discussed is ensuring that our populations are AI-equipped and are AI-ready and that they have not only the skills to take advantage of an AI workforce, but they have the critical thinking skills to be able to assess truth from fiction and disinformation and understand what those risks are and the way that they interact with AI,” Basu said.

She added that there was also a robust conversation throughout the conference about these various concerns as well as about the lack of certain kinds of data and languages and making sure these AI models are built in ways that are inclusive.

When the ITU hosted the yearly Global Seminar for Regulators(GSR),in Kampala,Uganda,in early in July 2024,Secretary General, Bogdan-Martin told the regulators that “With change being the only certainty facing regulators and policymakers, we must work together to pursue regulatory approaches to leverage transformative technologies such as AI, promote the space economy, encourage innovation, and support climate action and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
The regulators who met in Kampala,Uganda endorsed a set of guidelines to maximize the benefits of transformative information and communication technologies (ICTs) at the Global Symposium for Regulators (GSR-24) which closed July 4 .

GSR 24 highlighted Africa’s National Broadband Mapping Systems project, supported by the European Commission, to help establish broadband mapping systems to foster investment and digital transformation in Africa.

With a budget of EUR 15 million over four years, the project will initially benefit 11 countries: Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The “GSR-24 Best Practice Guidelines​” agreed by ICT regulators include a series of considerations for balancing innovation with regulation to create a positive impact on societies and economies from emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

By Tunde Olusunle

*Mamman Vatsa Writers Village,* tucked amidst igneous rocks and ranges, vales and valleys in Abuja’s *Mpape District* is rapidly contesting the medal of Nigeria’s most vibrant headquarters of literary activity. The physical location of the ever-growing permanent headquarters of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (ANA), was, for several decades after it was allocated to ANA in 1986, a forlorn wasteland. The soldier-poet, Mamman Jiya Vatsa, who was a member of the association and Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, (FCTA) in his time, was concerned about the serial mendicant nomadism of the association. ANA forever quested, cap in hand, for host states across the country, for its activities. Vatsa, an army General and poet himself, concurred with the request of ANA’s primordial leadership, for a settled operational address and allocated the present site, to the association. The bounteous parcel of land survived attempted takeovers by successive regimes and capricious trespassing. These chopped off nearly half its original span of over 60 hectares.

Under the leadership of Denja Abdullahi a few years ago, ANA secured partnership with *KMVL,* a construction firm headed by Kolawole Shaw, also a retired military officer, for the actualization of the dream of structured physical development of the hectarage. The breathtaking, still-in-progress complex, already features well paved, substantially tarred network of roads complete with drainages. There is a large auditorium, parking areas, secretariat, library, luxury suites, apartments, bars and African-themed gazebos. There are residential blocks by way of fully detached, semi-detached and terraced houses. There is even a modern shopping centre, as part of the enterprise of making the village self-sufficient. The names of famous Nigerian writers echo from the doors and signages of structures and facilities, beginning with the revered African master storyteller, Chinua Achebe, after whom the conference centre is christened.

*Chairman of the Abuja chapter of ANA, Arc Chukwudi Eze, (left) and former FCT Minister, Engr Muhammad Abba-Gana, CON, welcoming former President Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, to the weekend ANA event in Abuja.*

The secretariat of the association pays tribute to Emeritus Professor Femi Osofisan, one of Africa’s most profound and most prolific dramatists. Suites in the residential area, voice the names of past leaders of ANA, notably Odia Ofeimun, Kole Omotoso, Abubakar Gimba, Olu Obafemi, Wale Okediran, Jerry Agada, Remi Raji and Denja Abdullahi. The two-storey standalone “writers residency” is tribute to the memory of former ANA President and Ogoni rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa. A prominent playwright, novelist and essayist, Saro-Wiwa was, sadly, executed alongside eight others under the military government of Sani Abacha in 1995. They were allegedly complicit in the murder of four of their kinsmen, months earlier, a development which stirred restlessness in the oil producing area. The *Mamman Vatsa Writers Village* is rapidly assuming the status of the new *Mecca* for African literature, an evolving pearl of the continent.

Between the monthly activities of the Abuja segment of ANA and the quarterly events organised by the national body, the writers’ facility is regularly kept alive. Literary juggernauts like Osofisan, Obafemi, Ofeimun, Ernest Emenyonu, Okediran, Raji, Abdullahi, Niyi Osundare, Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, Shamshudeen Amali, Idris Amali, Al-Bishak, Udenta Udenta and Sunnie Ododo, have been guests and pilgrims at the resort. Same for Tony Afejuku, Razinat Mohammed, Mabel Evwierhoma, Dul Johnson, Joe Ushie, Maria Ajima, Rasheed Na’Allah, Amanze Akpuda, Greg Mbajiorgu, Isiaka Aliagan, and indeed the recently transited literary luminary, Nuhu Yaqub. The diaspora component of Nigeria’s formidable literary harvest, as well as foreign writers, are also regular callers at the village. Voices and laughters; “hi fives” and backslaps, typically activate and enliven the slumbering boulders and sleeping bedrocks in the commune, whenever literary adherents, pilgrimage.

Saturday February 22, 2025, the Mamman Vatsa Writers Village hosted an unusual guest. The airwaves had become frenzied weeks and days before when it became public knowledge that the first President in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, Olusegun Obasanjo, would be the distinguished guest at the month’s edition of the regular reading and writer’s dialogue. The planning was competently steered by the Abuja zone of ANA, led by Chukwudi Eze, the veteran architect who designed the *Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library,* Abeokuta, Africa’s first such purpose-built resource. Obasanjo was to speak to the topic: *The Writer’s Role in Nation Building and Africa’s First Presidential Library.* Obasanjo’s life and career as a soldier; military Head of State; world statesman; death row prisoner; democratically elected President, traversing aeons and times, has spawned a luminous repertoire of books and publications. These include *My Command,* (1980); *Nzeogwu,* (1987); *Africa Embattled* (1988) and *Not My Will,* (1990). There are also *This Animal Called Man,* (1998), and *My Watch,* (2014), which is a hefty three-volume work. To be doubly sure, Obasanjo’s oeuvre spans over two dozen books straddling several subjects and preoccupations.

A three-man panel made up of Professors Emeka Aniagolu of Veritas University, Abuja; Razinat Mohammed, University of Abuja and Onyinye Nwagbara of the Nigerian Defence Academy, (NDA), were billed to engage with Obasanjo. The imminence of Obasanjo’s return flight, however, altered the plan. Obasanjo opted to speak to the first part of the topic, the role of the writer in nation building, deferring the discourse on the presidential library until another encounter. He decried the poor reading culture in Nigeria which is on the rise, and warned it could be antithetical to the preserved of the nation’s literary heritage. According to him, Nigeria has produced some of the world’s finest and most respected writers, a situation which he observed compels the evolution of new writers to sustain the trajectory. Obasanjo noted that despite the advantages provided by technological advancement, many youths do not apply themselves to the grindstone of rigorous reading and intellection. He noted that if this *laissez-faire* attitude is not corrected, it could backlash vis-a-vis the emergence of uninformed and incompetent leaders. The former President noted that the internet provides limitless opportunities which must be leveraged by the younger generation. His words: “Many of them no longer do serious reading. Reading makes an effective and productive human being. A reader is a leader, a leader must not necessarily be a writer but must be a reader to be up to speed with trends and happenings.”

Speaking further, Obasanjo noted that “Nigeria is blessed with good writers who have used their craft in nation building and one of such distinguished authors is Chinua Achebe. He showcased Nigeria’s culture to the world and elevated our culture in his writings.” The former President charged the youths to take bold steps in shaping their own futures rather than wait for opportunities to drop on their laps. He noted that the recurring mismanagement of the nation’s human and material resources were at the roots of the nation’s travails. He canvassed the application of political will in the nation’s policy formulation and execution, noting that limited bureaucratese in military dispensations was instrumental to better effectiveness under martial rulership. He commended ANA for its impressive work in developing the writers village and in championing initiatives to inspire up and coming writers.

ANA Abuja Chairman, Chukwudi Eze noted that the power of writing is evident in the motivational phrase: “Give me liberty or give me death,” which birthed the American revolution and built the nation into a global colossus. He thanked Obasanjo for according him the special privilege of designing the Abeokuta-based presidential library. He applauded Obasanjo’s initiation of the *Africa Leadership Forum,* (ALF) back in the days, which sought to broaden the worldview of the continent’s potential leaders. Eze expressed the hope that Nigerian leaders across levels will emulate Obasanjo’s uncommon Pan-Nigerianism and the placement of competence and merit, over and above clannish parochialism. ANA National President, Usman Oladipo Akanbi who flew in from Ilorin for the programme, thanked Obasanjo for the honour done to the association by his keeping a date with the writers body like he promised. The gesture, he noted will spur the association to greater heights. Akanbi noted that the former President indeed brightened the weekend of youths and teenage students who attended the event, who never believed they would ever see him in flesh and blood.

Former Minister of the FCTA, Muhammad Abba-Gana, CON, who attended the event, commended Obasanjo for liberalising property ownership in Abuja by approving the mass housing scheme, proposed during his period in office as Minister. He observed that before Obasanjo’s coming, workers were predominantly resident in faraway communities and had to commute through the stress of heavy vehicular traffic to the city centre everyday, and back home. Abba Gana acknowledged Obasanjo’s courageous liquidation of Nigeria’s foreign financial commitments and his bequeathal of a very robust foreign reserve to the successor administration. Senator Shehu Sani who shared the same section of a jailhouse with Obasanjo when they were both incarcerated by former military leader, Sani Abacha, was equally in attendance. A published author himself, he applauded Nigerian authors for deploying their creativity to drive societal change towards the attainment of an egalitarian nation.

Jerry Alagbaoso, a former Member of the House of Representatives and prolific playwright; former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Shamshudeen Amali, and Obasanjo’s private secretary during his stint as military Head of State, Ambassador Albert Omotayo, were also at the programme. The Chinese Embassy was represented at the gathering by a three-man delegation led by Yang Jianxing, the Cultural Counsellor and Director of the Chinese Cultural Centre in Nigeria. Al Bishak, Vicky Sylvester Molemodile, Professors at the Federal University Lafia and the University of Abuja, respectively, and Colonel Shaw, lead developer of the ANA behemoth and member of the association by adoption, were also present. Etim Oqua, a retired police Commissioner and Otunba Abiodun Fagboun, graced the occasion. On Obasanjo’s entourage were his longstanding ally, Otunba Oyewole Fasawe and Obasanjo’s children, Obabiyi, and Funke. Obasanjo received an ANA-branded commemorative souvenir presented by Usman Akanbi, in recognition of his untiring contributions to national development, through the decades.

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