News
Hail Nigeria! Where National Anthem Is Priority Over People
Ordinarily, Honourable Julius Ihonvbere, OON, Majority Leader, Nigeria’s House of Representatives, the man at the centre of the imbroglio over a “new national anthem”, should bear no lengthy introduction. But bear the ordinariness that the esteemed professor of politics has lowered himself to, for whatever reason.
A disagreement emerged Thursday on the floor of the House over the anthem that suited Nigeria better. Some wanted the current one, which rounds off its first stanza with this lie, “to serve with heart and mind, one nation bound in freedom, peace and unity”.
The old anthem that starts with, “Nigeria we hail thee, our dear native land, though tribe and may differ, in brotherhood we stand,” another lie, was the choice of others, who thought that the national song the British bequeathed was better. They were opposed by those who said a return to the 1960 anthem meant a preference for colonialism over our own 1978 home-made anthem.
Prof Ihonvbere, described on his website as, “A thinker of fresh ideas and a consistent community builder. An astute leader with a deep-seated passion to serve his people (Owan Federal Constituency, Edo State,” was the one who led the fast-forwarded bill for a new anthem.
The above description understates Ihonvbere, a political science scholar who taught in universities at home and abroad. He was an activist in the pro-democracy struggles under the military, fired his students out of intellectual laziness, and led ASUU, the university teachers’ group on protests over their conditions that have worsened since then.
He was a Special Adviser on Projects Monitoring when Olusegun Obasanjo was president. The ordinariness that has overtaken him as he makes the best of his political high office would worry those who knew him as a Democrat committed to politics that would elevate the well-being of his people.
Many voices were not allowed to contribute to the anthem debate as the furious drive to get the job done continued.
Their point was the bill was not on the day’s list of business. Some wondered why an anthem was so important.
Ihonvbere sponsored the bill that went through its first, second, and third readings on the same day. The bill was passed on the same day – a public hearing was not necessary.
“I believe that the old anthem, encompasses, contains, exudes the kind of energy, resourcefulness and a sense of vision that I believe is good for Nigeria,” Ihonvbere said.
He deserves applause from the quarters his Thursday’s enterprise served.
The Senate could apply more speed to pass it on Tuesday, on time for it to be used for Wednesday’s first anniversary of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.
Why is a new anthem so important in a country where millions are dying from hunger? Why would legislators be so passionate about a bill that would not create jobs, solve security challenges, enhance the chances that businesses would survive or improve infrastructure?
President Tinubu gets what he wants. He does not have to explain anything to anyone. The hurry to get the old anthem back now appears to be a condition for the safety of Nigerians, as if our security agencies would not fight enemies any longer until they get an anthem that inspires them.
Tinubu’s acolytes would also count this distraction as another example of how strategic and long-term planner their boss is. Tinubu hinted at his dislike of the old anthem 13 years ago.
“Abandoning the post-independence anthem, which arguably evoked a strong spirit of patriotism and brotherliness, to compose a very drab replacement, is far less inspirational,” Tinubu said during a 2011 speech at the Nigerian Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPSS, Kuru, Jos.
Do you still ask why the killings in Plateau, Benue, Kebbi, and other parts of Nigeria get less attention than a national anthem? Why do we care more about meaningless words, made more meaningless by our leaders and their officials?
How many of our leaders stand in “brotherhood”? They can be counted in one hand with several fingers left. Are they not beneficiaries of “tribe and tongue” that differ? So, it is the current anthem that is responsible for the “labours of our heroes past” that are “in vain”? Should we agree that the revert to “Nigeria, we hail thee” will help us achieve “one nation bound in freedom, peace and unity”?
Nobody has considered the billions of Naira the project will consume. Rather, in fairness to the proponents of this major project, the importance of which is reflected in its speed through the National Assembly, the beneficiaries of this particular waste are waiting for their share of Nigeria’s shrinking resources.
The money that is about to be wasted could have been borrowed for priority projects. A new national anthem is a priority where uncertainty is the new order, where people feel so excluded from opportunities that their understanding of a nation deflates daily.
An old, new national anthem is one more charade that defines us as a country that delights in promoting nothingness to pronounced nothingness.
Whether we sing, “Arise, O compatriots”, or “Nigeria, we hail thee”, the verdict sounds like, “Nigeria, we hate thee”.
ELSEWHERE. David Nweze Umahi, Nigeria’s Minister of Works, who delights in wearing his engineering inexperience like an oversized toga, should have long announced his resignation. If anything, be sure that Umahi has qualified for higher office. All requests for Environmental Social Impact Assessment, ESIA, and Resettlement Action Plan, RAP, for the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway were met with all types of ad hominem. After destroying businesses and creating more unemployment, Umahi tells Nigerians, with a straight face, that the project would revert to the old plan that would have saved those businesses.
How did the super engineering skills of Umahi fail to note the sub-sea cables in his revised plan of this road that leads to nowhere (apologies to Osita Chidoka)? Will reverting to the old plan save money or escalate the cost of the project?
THE police should rein in its officers. Their return to brutalities on the roads, though not fully reported, is on the increase. The trending video of a police officer choking a taxi driver, in motion, is simply unbelievable. He had no concerns about his life or that of the driver and a passenger. Is it a new practice for a single policeman to arrest a suspect? Police in another “sting operation” arrested Madu Onuorah, a journalist, in his Abuja home, with his wife and children wondering what their family head did. What happened to inviting journalists – and other accused – to police stations where complaints were made against them? Are we regressing?
MAY 29 should be a day of national sobriety. Hopes have been lost, and ambitions stalled. All we have left are annoying questions about how we got here. More annoying is the noise about billions borrowed to be spent for causes we would never understand. Happy handover day, Nigerians.
SUICIDE is not a solution. As we say so, we should be worried about the number of Nigerians taking their lives, including students. Families and friends should look out more for themselves. Suicide is not a business of governments, as if we know what their business is.
*Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor issues
By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
Mixed reactions as fans torn different directions following the announcement of the nominees for the 67th Recording Academy Awards, popularly known as the Grammys.
Some Nigerian artistes featured on the list, including Davido, Wizkid, Burna Boy, Yemi Alade, Asake, Tems, Rema, and Lojay.
The nominations for the Best African Music Performance include Yemi Alade’s ‘Tomorrow,’ Asake and Wizkid’s ‘MMS,’ and Burna Boy’s ‘Higher.’ Chris Brown featuring Davido and Lojay’s ‘Sensational’ and Tems’ ‘Love Me Jeje’ also made the category.
Rema’s ‘Heis’ and Tems’ ‘Born in the Wild’ were nominated under the Best Global Music Album. Tems tops the list as____the Nigerian artiste with the highest number of nominations for the 67th Grammy Award, with an additional nomination for ‘Burning’ under the Best RB Song category.
Taking to social media, fans whose support for the various artists have been divided, debated how each of their favourites deserve the award.
Abiritomi said, “They’re all very good artistes so may the best person win.”
By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
. Lekki software engineer, Chadian, others nabbed over tons of illicit drugs seized in Lagos, FCT, Taraba, Kwara, Plateau, Kano, Kaduna, Edo, Ondo
After months of intelligence gathering and painstaking surveillance, operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have smashed two major cross-border drug trafficking syndicates with cocaine and opioids worth billions of naira recovered from them while six leaders of the cartels were arrested in different parts of the country.
The syndicates, which comprise Nigerians based in Mubi, Adamawa state; Onitsha, Anambra state, and Lagos state as well as Cameroonians came under NDLEA radar after they were suspected of being major suppliers of drugs to terror groups operating in Nigeria and Cameroon.
Leaders of the syndicates so far arrested include: Ibrahim Bawuro, Najib Ibrahim, Ibrahim Umar, Nelson Udechukwu Anayo, Ezeh Amaechi Martin and Adejumo Elijah Ishola.
Intelligence gathered revealed that some psychoactive substances including tramadol were often sourced by Ibrahim Bawuro and Ibrahim Najib from a notorious drug dealer in Onitsha: Nelson Udechukwu Anayo and thereafter packed and concealed in vehicles in the premises of Ezeh Amaechi Martin, an associate of Udechukwu.
The duo of Ibrahim Bawuro and Ibrahim Najib will thereafter transport the drugs from Onitsha to Yola and subsequently to other parts of the North and Cameroon in specially constructed false compartments of vehicles, which travel from the East to the North at night. On 7th October 2024, Bawuro and Najib were trailed from Onitsha where they had gone to buy another consignment and eventually arrested in Taraba the following day 8th October while a total of 276,500 pills of tramadol were recovered from a Toyota Avensis saloon car marked DKA 57 TT, which they abandoned on the Jalingo-Yola expressway when they noticed NDLEA operatives were on their trail.
Follow up operations were subsequently carried out in Delta and Anambra states where Ezeh Amaechi Martin and Udechukwu Nelson Anayo were arrested by operatives of the NDLEA Directorate of Intelligence, which coordinated the whole effort with their counterparts in Taraba, Adamawa, Delta and Anambra.
Another leader of a different syndicate, Adejumo Elijah Ishola, 37, was arrested by operatives of a special operation unit of the Agency on Tuesday 5th November at Seme border in Lagos on his way from Ghana with 3.3 kilograms of cocaine and 600grams of synthetic cannabis. This followed months of intelligence and surveillance on his cross-border criminal activities.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives in Apapa seaport Lagos on Wednesday 6th November intercepted Thirty-One Million, Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand (31,750,000) pills of 240mg Voltron, a controlled opioid, packaged and concealed in a container imported from India, as diclofenac sodium 100mg tablets.
The discovery was made during a joint examination of the container with men of Customs Service and other security agencies.
At the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, import shed Ikeja Lagos, NDLEA officers on Tuesday 5th November intercepted a 700grams consignment of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis.
A software engineer, Olu Marshal who showed up to collect the package was promptly arrested and a follow up search of his home in Lekki led to the recovery of some drug paraphernalia, including a cannabis crusher.
Attempt by another suspect, Orji Ogbonna Nnaorji to send 32.50kg bottles of codeine syrup and 5.70kg cannabis to London, UK, concealed in tiger nuts cargo through the export shed of the Lagos airport was frustrated by NDLEA operatives on Friday 8th November.
A follow up operation led to the arrest of Orji at his warehouse in Ajao estate, Lagos.
In Kwara state, not less than 162,800 pills of opioids were seized by NDLEA operatives from four suspects during interdiction operations in parts of the state.
While 112,200 tablets of tramadol were recovered from Wahab Alao Saliu, 18,900 tablets of same opioid were recovered from Dalha Musa both at Eiyenkorin area of Ilorin; 29,000 pills of tramadol, 200 ampoules of diazepam and 99 bottles of codeine syrup seized from Ahmed Isiaka, just as 2,500 tabs of tramadol were seized from Ahmed Garba, both at Bode Saadu in Moro local government area of the state on Friday 8th November.
In Abuja, NDLEA operatives in the Federal Capital Territory on Thursday 7th November intercepted a truck along Abaji- Kwali road with 755.50kg cannabis concealed under empty cartons of noodles.
The truck driver, Lukman Rasheed, 41, claimed that bags of the psychoactive substance were loaded into the trailer in Ogbese, Ondo state after departing Lagos with only empty cartons of noodles.
A suspect, Yusuf Abubakar, 43, was arrested by operatives on Monday 4th November at Ibi, Taraba state while conveying to Kano 361 compressed blocks of cannabis weighing 156.95kg in a commercial bus marked WKR 772 XA. Not less than 245 blocks of same substance with a total weight of 121kg were recovered by NDLEA officers on patrol along Wukari – Ibi road on Thursday 7th November.
Two suspects: Hamza Yakubu, 30, and Abdulra’uf Danjuma, 23, were on Wednesday 6th November arrested at Gidan Manjagab area of Jos, Plateau state with 113 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 141kg, while a Chadian, Hassan Muhammad Ali, 31, was nabbed on Tuesday 5th November at Gadar Tamburawa, Zaria-Kano road, Kano, with 3,000 pills of tramadol 225mg.
While a suspect Ibrahim Adamu was arrested at Jere area of Kaduna state with 35 sacks of cannabis sativa weighing 338.8 kilograms, NDLEA operatives in Edo state on Friday 8th November recovered 1,078kg cannabis at Okhuokhuo – Isi forest and 228kg of same substance at Sabo- Auchi.
In Ondo state, four suspects: Friday Daniel, Patrick Felix, Samuel Agada and Igwe Chukwuka were arrested at Emure Ile with 672kg cannabis sativa, while 513kg of same substance was seized at Gbodo camp, Ikun Akoko and a total of 4, 908kg cannabis recovered from a suspect Musibau Kosama at Alabi Yellow, Ijoka area of Akure on Wednesday 6th November.
Across the country, NDLEA Commands continued their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitization lectures and advocacy visits to worship centres, schools, workplaces, palaces of traditional rulers and communities all through the past week.
Instances include: WADA sensitization lecture to students and staff of Park Royal College, Apapa Lagos; Government Secondary School, Atu, Cross River; Ladigbolu Grammar School 2, Oyo, Oyo state; Iman Secondary School, Arkilla, Sokoto; Rosary Girls College, Nise, Anambra; Havilah Gold Secondary School, Odomola, Epe, Lagos state; while the Edo State command of NDLEA paid a WADA advocacy visit to HRM Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo, Uku Akpolokpolo Oba Ewuare II, among others.
While commending the officers and men of DI, SIU, Apapa, MMIA, FCT, Taraba, Kwara, Plateau, Kano, Kaduna, Edo, and Ondo Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) also applauded their compatriots in all the commands across the country for intensifying the WADA sensitization lectures and advocacy messages to every part of their areas of responsibility.
By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
Dollar to Naira Exchange Rate Today on the Black Market (Aboki Dollar Rate)
As of Saturday, November 9, 2024, the exchange rate for the U.S. dollar to the Nigerian naira in the Lagos parallel market (often referred to as the black market) shows that the buying rate for a dollar is N1740, while the selling rate stands at N1745, according to sources at Bureau De Change (BDC).
It’s important to note that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) does not officially recognize the parallel market for foreign exchange transactions. In line with this, the CBN has advised individuals and businesses looking to exchange foreign currencies to approach authorized banks and financial institutions for their Forex needs.
Dollar to Naira Black Market Exchange Rates Today:
Buying Rate: N1740
Selling Rate: N1745
Official Dollar to Naira Exchange Rates (CBN Rates) Today:
Buying Rate: N1664
Selling Rate: N1665
Please keep in mind that the exchange rates listed here are subject to fluctuation and may differ from those in actual transactions, as rates can vary depending on the location and the specific forex market you engage with. Always ensure that you check the current rates with authorized sources before making any exchange
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NDLEA smashes cross-border drug syndicates, nabs 6 kingpins, recovers cocaine, opioids(Photos)
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