Ayo Adebanjo: The Exit Of Rare Leader

Friday’s announcement of the death of Pa Ayo Adebanjo came as a rude shock to most Nigerians. For a nonagenarian, death can come at any time but Pa Adeban­jo was rarely reported as being ill and was very active until his death.

He was very active and spoke so clearly, intelligently and nev­er showed signs of any of those debilitating ailments associated with older people.

Pa Adebanjo cannot be said to have died young at 96, but if there is one Nigerian badly needed to­day, more than ever before, to guide us to building that united nation that has remained elusive for so long, he surely is that per­son.

A man with unshaken con­viction and beliefs that was not swayed by sentiments and those petty traits that our current lazy leaders have continued to use to their advantage to divide and rule over us.

The late Afenifere leader’s death on Friday, has left a huge vacuum that will be difficult to fill in the South West in particular and Nigeria as a whole.

In 2019 when the Muhammadu Buhari-inspired killer herdsmen were ravaging the nation and murdering defenceless citizens, it took the Adebanjo-led Afenifere to not only condemn these killers but to also call out the flounder­ing APC-led administration of Buhari.

The height of the audacity of these murderers was the killing of Mrs. Funke Olakunrin, Pa Reuben Fasoranti’s daughter, by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

While some leaders for politi­cal correctness took to the fence, others were scared of offending the lord of the manor in Aso Rock, the Adebanjo Afenifere, re­sponded and warned the govern­ment against the killings across the South West.

Pa Ayo Adebanjo, was vocal about the issue of killer herds­men in Yoruba land, in spite of activities of some turncoats who acted to divide the group to please the evil regime of Buhari.

Even though, I am completely opposed to the so-called zoning of the presidency, because it has continued to entrench mediocrity and lazy leaders, the understand­ing among the political class was that the South East should take its turn, after Olusegun Obasanjo’s rule,

Adebanjo was one of those who insisted that the Igbo should have it. Even when his stance came at a great personal cost to him, he never shifted ground until he breathed his last.

Already, some career politi­cians have already started play­ing the regional and ethnic card against 2027. If only our vote would count, we can choose who­ever would be our leader irrespec­tive where the candidate is from.

If in 2027, Nigerians choose to give President Bola Tinubu a second term, so be it but if an­other Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa, is the choice of the electorate, so be it, so we can be free from this ethnic and regional bait that has left us in economic and political doldrums.

May God rest the soul of this dogged fighter and grant his fam­ily the fortitude to bear this huge loss.

…Chiamaka, UNIZIK And The Societal Moral

Decadence

Easily, the second biggest issue on social media lately, apart from the childish love tangle of Musi­cian, Innocent Idibia (Tuface) and his seeming lust for women, is the unfortunate incident of a fe­male student of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Goddy-Mbak­we Chiamaka Precious, whose unruly behaviour towards her lecturer, Chukwudi Okoye, has now earned her a well-deserved expulsion from the school.

The videos, which have since gone viral, show Ms. Mbakwe con­fronting Mr. Okoye, questioning his action of touching her while asking her to leave the way while she was recording a video on the corridor in the school. The sce­nario escalated, drawing the at­tention of students and officials and turned chaotic.

The video also showed the stu­dent fighting ‘hard’ and tearing the right side of the lecturer’s brown clothes.

She was also seen holding onto the lecturer, who did not fight back even as she dragged him by his shirt. Videos online also revealed deep bite marks on his arms.

What I find most interesting about this incident is how some have tried to justify the disre­spectful girl’s conduct by saying the lecturer had it coming by merely tapping her and asking her to give way for him in the corridor.

So, for these warped reasoning everything she did afterwards was justified.

When I first heard of this sto­ry what came to mind was, for the girl to have gone that far to disrespect a lecturer with such audacity, in a school she hopes to graduate from, she either is a daughter to a politician, highly placed person, a uniformed per­sonnel, etc.

So I was not surprised to learn that her mother is also a lecturer in the school. That further con­firmed my suspicions. This is a clear case of an overindulged brat. This is one of the reasons how ed­ucation has remained the way it is.

I pity her because this is a clear case of parental failure that has now brought all of them to this sorry state. Tell me how many well-brought up students would have gone that far?

That discipline and good mor­al conduct we fail to instil in our children will always bring us to public ridicule and opprobrium some day in future.

That said, I would plead that the school Senate reconsiders her out­right expulsion, if possible, if she shows enough remorse, because the intention here should be to correct and get her to learn her lessons