NewStats: 3,259,542 , 8,170,469 topics. Date: Sunday, 25 May 2025 at 02:18 PM 4c3g5k

Rufai and SDP are ruse sown by Tinubu. .

If the parents are not found- I hope the governor’s family adopts her.

ARTS & CULTURE
Once Their Voices Moved Nations. Now, Silence.
How the Fall of the P Square Brothers Became a Cautionary Tale—and a Collective Failure

By Adichie Soyinka
Daily Times
June 16, 2075

NIGERIA — There was a time, not long ago, when the P Square Brothers were more than performers. They were a movement. A twin from Anambra, their voices shaped a generation of Afro-Pop artistry with a sound that defied classification, somewhere between pop, hip-hop and R&B. Music critics compared them to the Black Keys, Daft Punk, the Everly Brothers. They sang of betrayal, money, success, and sex. People didn’t just listen—they trembled.

Now, only two brothers remains.
And they no longer sings.

The story of the Okoyes is not merely a tale of fame gone sour. It is, as many close to the trio have quietly confessed, a tragedy of inaction. A brother falsely accused. A band fractured by ego and suspicion. And a circle of mentors, managers, and cultural leaders who, when the rupture began, did not step in or worse, chose not to.

“We all saw it happening before it became public,” said a former producer who asked to remain anonymous. “The tension. The fatigue. The jealousy. But the money was good. The shows were sold out. The show must go on.”

The “show” was the P-Square brand: Jude, the eldest, with his tight control of logistics and finance; Peter, the middle brother with the energy and charismatic resonance; and Paul, the youngest, whose soulful voice left audiences in awe. Their harmonies were precise, but their brotherhood was fragile.

In 2017, feud over management, creative direction and financial discrepancy led to a private confrontation. According to documents and later interviews, Peter offhandedly suggested that Jude might have hidden funds they earned. Paul, already under strain, rejected the accusation with devastating speed.

Within years, the group was splintered. Jude disappeared from public life entirely into the records of financial criminals. Rumors placed him in Anambra, then Lagos. His managerial skills, once described as “incredible,” has not been engaged in many decades.

Though neither Paul nor Peter publicly squabbled, their careers faltered. By 2020, the Okoyes were no longer on the roster of Nigeria’s major concert halls. Their final recording—Jaiye, released post-breakup has since become an artifact than a song.

For many in the Nigerian and international music world, the silence surrounding the Okoyes’ collapse is damning.

“Where were the mentors? The impresarios? The influential traditional monarchs and elders? The government officials who paraded them at festivals?” asks Dr. Osewa Seun Jnr , professor of music ethics at the University of Ibadan. “These were young men, contended many challenges, carrying the weight of Nigerian music aiming to be globally recognized. Their artistry was divine, yes, but the public faux was also a cry for structure, for protection. And no one answered.”

In recent years, the arts community has reckoned with questions of duty not only to the art, but to the artist. The Okoyes have become a somber case study in masterclasses on group dynamics and psychological care in elite performance circles.

“We elevate artists, then abandon them when their humanity surfaces,” says Obi Mikel, a Lagos-based vocal coach who once rehearsed with the brothers in Jos. “If someone, anyone had paused the machine, demanded counseling, mediation, time… they might still be singing today.”

Peter and Paul now lives in near-obscurity in a Lagos suburb. Attempts to reach them were met with silence. In a rare 2072 interview, Peter itted: “We were not destroyed by each other. We were destroyed by what we refused to say to each other. And by the applause we mistook for love.”

Jude’s whereabouts remain unknown.

1.This child, your child, is not a mistake nor a curse, but a soul entrusted to you.

You speak of leaving your wife because you fear another child might suffer. But I ask you: is it love that speaks in you now, or fear disguised as reason?

Marriage is not merely a bond of bodies aimed at producing more bodies. If your concern is unselfish, there is the path to even abstain from further biological children if you choose and love this child that you already have with all your might.

Don’t add to the burden of the child that should feel responsible for your breakup. Your child needs consistent care and would gain significantly from emotional availability of you both.

2.This child, your child, is not a mistake nor a curse, but a soul entrusted to you.

Why do you speak of leaving your wife? If it were your wife that presented thus- would it be your recognition that she deceived you unknowingly? Do you think your child’s condition is a result of your failure? Are these what speaks to you to manifest an escape? Perhaps you are not only heartbroken- perhaps there is also a fracture to the ego- and unable to undo the past, in the present, you find what can be changed- so the divorce is a way to recover control.

All of us would be tempted to flee- but listen, brother.
You were told you were AA. You believed it, and married in peace. You did not lie. You did not intend harm. Take it easy, and May God make it easy.

-

They came from distant shores,
To build walls fencing the very rich,
A citadel of promise perched beyond reach,
Gilded gates that guard tomorrow’s heirs.

Behold the man that should take us all,
Settles among the chosen,
The mantle of power draped across his shoulders
To tread the hallowed halls of alien grandeur,
Where pillars born of looted coin
Cast shadows over empty promises.

He sat among chosen children,
Their faces ringing like bells of privilege,
The children in these halls are the leaders of tomorrow,
While beyond those walls, fields lay fallow,
And the common voice was muted,
By winds and sun that have no wall to shield the students of the lots.

O government of grand appearances,
Your lofty gestures are but gilded echoes
That fail to stir the hearts of your own,
You attend monuments to impress abroad
Yet leave our children at the threshold.

How many lifetimes must a servant toil
To earn the coin you flaunt on shoes?
How many lifetimes must a servant toil
To pay for a day in this school?

Return, then, from your marble perches,
And walk the dusty byways of your realm.
Hear the songs unsung for want of hope,
And learn that leadership is measured
Not by grandeur borrowed,
But by the futures you forge at home,
By such schools you build for the lots.

Many years ago, the pigs announced that every animal must the Great Test before they could enter the Academy in the Big Barn. “This Test,” they didn’t proclaim was to guard the gates against the unworthy millions beyond the pasture fence, that the greedy pigs couldn’t cater for. A pig in Kogi has used resources that could build an academy , for the nursery of his piglets.

And so the Test was laid upon them.

Some young horses and sheep answered most riddle correctly and even bested the questions of the wise old goat, yet when they trotted proudly to the gates, they were brusquely turned away. “Your names have been struck from the roll,” sneered the guard-dogs, “though you ed some questions, you didn’t reach the mid-point, you do not belong here.” Meanwhile, timid rabbits and humble geese in the north’s whose scores fell below the required number often found themselves itted, rewarded by less demanding overseers who cared little for the true meaning of the Test. The rabbits and geese’s were humble and timid in scholarship but they were elephants and bears in knowledge.

In time, many who had failed the Test wandered into the fields beyond of polytechnics only to flourish in the hedgerow of life’s lessons: the owls mastered wisdom, the ducks achieved honors in distant marshes, and the young goats graduated with shining laurels.
They had 120 in the test, yet they had distinctions as they convocated.
The pigs ensure lots fail, so the lots can subscribe to expensive academies where scores were merely numbers.


Yet year after year, new flocks of hopefuls gathered at the fence, convinced that failure marked laziness or folly, never suspecting that the Test’s cunning lay not in its moral rigor but in its needless complexity.

And so the Test endured: a ritual of exclusion dressed in the cloak of merit. The pigs on their raised platform, satisfied that their gates remained well-guarded, cared little for the fortunes of the creatures they had judged. For in the end, those who failed were not indolent or lacking in spirit , it was merely that the Test had been crafted to confound even the wisest among them.

Hey: I have to eat my hay.

I hope they also get the rest of the staff to write a basic competency exam. Those that fail should be gone. Then there should a competency exam, but this time, technical. Those that fail should be made to undergo a training , which will be examined. If they fail, they should go. Then there is a competitive recruitment which is open to the public to replace them. In our most important institutions, we should have our best minds.

First they came for UCH, and I did not speak out—because I was not their patient or worker.
Then they came for the army, and I did not speak out—because I was not a soldier.
Then they came for the Deputy governor (Hamzat), and I did not speak out—because I was not a thoughtful citizen.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

The surgeons stitched by candlelight,
Death tapped gently at oxygen-starved doors.
A thousand ghosts queued in hospital wards,
While Mammon’s priests danced on copper wires.

When IBEDC disconnected electricity from UCH amid a dispute over excessive billing. Patients died. The cost of healthcare surged. Healthcare workers, demoralized by the chaos, resigned. Yet public outrage was not directed at the power company. It was directed at the hospital. The public did not realize that the hospital could on those costs to them. The students did not realize this. If not today, then someday their relative or they themselves would be unable to afford care.

The soldiers, mothers of soldiers,
Groped through rationed night,
Their medals mere ornaments for empty bellies,
Their loyalty repaid in darkness.

When the EKDC cut power to Nigerian military quarters over another billing dispute, the soldiers (men who had served their country) were left in darkness. The army had already rationed electricity; families of service were denied power during daylight hours. Still, many sided with the utility company, forgetting that it is ultimately their tax money that will be used to pay off the power provider.

The people, their tongues, blades against the wrong foe,
How quick they drew blood from the pleading hand!
-/

The deputy government, stripped by his own kin,
Fell, not by the tyrant’s whip,
but
By the cheers of the marketplace.

Then deputy governor, Hamzat raised concerns about inflated electricity bills at his residence in Lagos. Rather than him, the public attacked him. They failed to understand that his protest, as a public official whose bills are paid by the state, was also a protest on behalf of taxpayers. Elsewhere, deputy governors remain silent, indifferent as long as taxpayer money absorbs any cost. No ability is demanded when public funds are treated as a blank check.

What songs do fools sing,
When the piper charges them twice over?
What wars do they wage,
When their swords point at their own throats?

//

In the vault of science,
The healers of plagues starve for fire,
Yet the mob scorns their cries,
Crowing for the profit of their jailers.

The same EKDC is in conflict with a medical research institute. Again, you check this forum , and the focus is not on the legitimacy of the institute’s protest. Some people ask “what is their output? as if the merit of the institute work should disqualify it from basic services. Some suggest the institute should install a solar grid. But a move to self-generation if done by all simply shifts the burden back onto the public that cannot afford self generation. The electricity company must sustain their profits, and if large institutions exit the grid, the costs will be redistributed to ordinary citizens who have no choice but to remain.

Solar altars will rise, yes
But even suns, if bought with silence,
Cast no light on a sleeping mind.

//

O Giant Nation of the Self-Betrayed,
Your chains are not forged by your masters,
But hammered, link by link,
By your own hands.

There are communities in which the private individuals electricity is billed so much they exceed some people’s life earnings.

Again, surrender, but don’t attack those trying to ask questions.

Ire o.

You don’t have to care about Chief Fawehinmi, or be aware of his legacy to commend efforts aimed at mitigating risk. As I read, I recalled the tragic video of Miss Cynthia Oguzie. It was a video that was sad to watch. A tank fell on her while she slept in her room in Lagos. She died.

These people have raised a very important matter. The Fawehinmis do not want the fate of Cynthia Oguzie. There is a risk posed by the hotel. The hotel has not focused on the safety of their neighbours, nor complied with urban planning regulations. Those in the Chief Fawehinmi‘s compound could one day die if the tank falls on them. I must think that effort has been made in the past to get the hotel to be considerate, but the hotel probably rebuffed the gesture. And so this coalition and statement.

The safety and lives of Baba Fawehinmi’s people must be sacrosanct. The tanker three times is starkly evident of the danger to their lives. The coalition says there might be collusion between the developers and authorities. We can be honest enough to acknowledge it’s a compromised system. And we owe the coalition to acknowledge that our law machinery is not a Ferrari. The family should not be bullied.

But I am also forced to think, that the coalition should not be the bully. Their statement is suspicious that they may be the bully. As I read, I also thought might Chief Fawehinmi skeletal remains not turn in his grave due to the blatant disregard of his values in this statement?

How do you demand for an immediate demolition? How do you invoke Chief Fawehinmi‘s legacy in such emotionally charged ? What about Fawehinmi’s principle that the rule of law and fairness should guide all matters? What about due process?

If there is a violation of urban planning laws, Chief Fawehinmi would demand a judicial determination before calling for a drastic action like demolition. If the developers have flouted the regulation about the three-metre setback, Chief Fawehinmi would not say the penalty necessarily has to be a demolition of the building, He would consider, could there be structural adjustments or removal of the tank?
Chief Fawehinmi would not necessarily be combative with the hotel, he would face the reckless government whose irresponsibility initiated and sustains the problem.

Chief Fawehinmi did fight for justice and fairness, and if you know the man, you will know that he will be averse to using his memory as a rallying cry in what should be a clear legal matter. These coalition didn’t have to weaponize his legacy for a purpose that goes beyond the pursuit of justice. It reeks that the statement is framed as a personal grudge, but without one evidence. It is difficult to deny that the statement is intended to inflame our emotions and to tell us all to boycott the hotel. That in using it, we participate in disrespecting Baba Fawehinmi’s memory.

But
Tell the people too whether the building was approved lawfully, tell the people too that there are remedies that are proportionate under the law. It should not be dismissed the consequences of your demands esp its potential to to serve a dangerous precedent if the Lagos state government acquise and proceeds to demolish.

The people’s moral outrage should worth more. Baba Fawehinmi‘s memory should worth more. You can earn the people’s outrage towards injustice without framing a private dispute as a public crusade. You can earn the people’s outrage without mirroring the very forms of oppression Baba Fawehinmi spent his life fighting.

If you're anywhere in the world and you are curious about what a nation looks like when its institutions have abandoned the people, come to Nigeria.

You buy data (spectranet, mtn) some of the nation’s top telecom providers. You buy 40GB of data. You track your usage carefully, only to watch the data mysteriously vanish. No streaming, no s, no explanations. Try to complain? You'll be directed to a non-functioning chatbot or a hotline that will keep you on hold until you give up. No recourse. No refund. No ability.

Try sending money with your bank’s mobile app (Zenith Bank). You'll need a soft token because :surprise: your hard token, the one you paid for, doesn’t work. You request the token. It doesn’t arrive. You wait. The app logs you out. Then and only then, the token arrives, expired and useless. The bank still charges you for the SMS charge. You reach out to their line. It either doesn’t connect, or you’re told to "visit your nearest branch," where you’ll be met with long queues, cold indifference from frustrated customer service officers who are tired probably because they are understaffed and not well paid. They have been people plus employees for a century. So, more dead ends.

Need a prepaid electricity meter? Brace yourself for years-long saga. Our electricity distribution companies (Discos) are masters of bureaucratic gymnastics. They’ll stall your application. They'll "lose" your documents. They’ll tell you to check back next week, every week, while piling on estimated bills that have no basis in your actual consumption. They are not incompetent. All is a calculated obstruction. They know estimated billing gives them a blank check to charge you whatever they like, and when you challenge it, they point to “system records” no one can . Finally, on your death bed, after many decades of persistence or knowing someone inside, you get a prepaid meter. You think you’re free. You think you have done something for your descendants. You think that your children will finally pay only for what you use. But just as you breathe relief and your final breathe, another trap snaps shut for those that will inherit your property: :the hidden debt.:

What many Nigerians don’t know is that these meters come pre-loaded with arrears. Maybe it’s from the previous occupant. Maybe it’s from phantom charges the Discos won’t explain. But here’s what happens: you recharge and buy units, and your meter gives you power worth 25%. The rest? It quietly goes to pay off a debt you never agreed to, never knew existed, and were never allowed to dispute. You didn’t even know about such debt, poor Nigerians. You are paying for the electricity your grandfather used.

So you try public documentation because Olubunmi Tunji Ojo has fooled you. You try renewing your port online. So you go to the self-service portals and the websites are clean with step-by-step instructions. The website doesn’t stall. Confirmation emails arrive. But at some bloody point you have to show up in person.

At the immigration office, you’ll realize you have committed the greatest crime by initiating your registration by yourself. You would find their staff crawling around, and you are the sugar to devour. But you have used the portal, so you are useless to them. The senior officers will attend to yahoo boys and other oppressive Nigerians. You don’t want to play along? So they will make you wait all day, while in your presence, you see others that didn’t make the mistake of using the online self-help portal do their capture and go. At the end of the day, you will be told “the network is down” or “come back tomorrow.” Tomorrow, you get back there, and they are in a meeting for hours , and no one can locate your file. So, you begin to search for an officer that can save you from your mess. Shame on this minister for not initiating a process to curb these corruption. You go around the country, and it is stark. This isn’t poor infrastructure. It’s intentional dysfunction that is stark. Nigeria is a calculated system where public servants delay and confuse, because they profit from the chaos. If you could do it yourself, they lose leverage. Shame on the minister, for he knows. Shame on the EFCC too!!!
Going to their offices, don’t come with dignity, they loathe it. It is arrogance to think you are above those that must pay their way. And God that resist the proud, shey your dignity isn’t stripped in a single blow; it’s eroded by a thousand small humiliations. I this experience and must be depressed as the corper girl stated. Nigerians iyaf suffer.

The regulatory bodies? Don’t bother. You reach out to FCC but they exist in name only, they offer form without function. hollow institutions, they cannot attend to Nigerians, except those with megaphones.

Obama has tried to remove Trump’s dignity.

America is sending a simple message.

“If you come to our country to study, don’t put the lives of our citizens at risk or jeopardize their safety in the tiniest fraction.” Also, your rights does not extend to protesting the governments. That is for the citizen.

If our country is any good, we would want same too. The country wasn’t this terrible when your fathers danced in the streets clamoring and excited that Shagari is deporting millions of West African Migrants from Nigeria.

You don’t clamor for what is right, you clamor for interest and One day those here that are the most angry about the US will have no doctor to recover them, and your family would pray that US, Canada, UK and Australia deport Nigerian medics. It won’t happen.

It’s inevitable unless you begin to clamor that your leaders treat healthcare workers and workers in other critical sectors well. Whatsoever outrage, give to the mals of the country.

The tragedy is all of the best minds are lost. It is the aspiration of the best of us to leave.

I Will Say “Oh Commendable!“

They are giving back to a society that they have taken a lot from. Their business model thrives on habitual gambling and feeding on the psychological vulnerabilities of the masses. They drain people’s saving, erode their self-control, they foster addiction. They want this people to gain skills and employment, so that they can be empowered to have more money to gamble.

When they begin to discourage betting , invest in addiction recovery, not market social investments that quietly expand their visibility and public goodwill at destroying family and lives through habitual gambling.

I will say “oh, commendable.”

Not about Osimhen though.

Yesterday, I opened this platform in a conference, and a psychiatrist who sat beside me had a brief conversation with me about the platform. Nairaland was his avenue to get a position for his senior residency over a decade ago…and he spoke about a litter of forums that were on the page designed to encourage critical reflection, dialogue, and shared critique around news events too. But he spoke in such a manner that this was no longer so.

I mentioned that there were other forums that cultivate that habit, but most s are unwilling to engage. They just want the forum on the front page. Then we got into, giving back to the platform by sharing opportunities and other resourceful ideas… but he said the platform has become a garbage of “Performative Engagement.” and other things about overly tribal sentiments … that I struggled to disagree with in the face of evidence.


The conversation got me thinking about deeper psychological undercurrents that shapes (our) behavior.

I agreed with him that increasingly the platform has become a theater which he described as ‘a place where s chase visibility through shock value and speed, rather than insight.’

Outrageous news stories, often unverified and sensationalized, are ed not to inform or analyze, but to bait attention. And with these deteriorated content quality, most viewers don’t even have the patient to engage reasoned comments which get drowned out by reactive posts and one-liners. He argues the forum has cease to serve its intellectual or civic function, and that he left, because he feared he is not immune from such needs, which if not met, can cause him to be disillusioned, and to compensate, he has to respond quickly without thoughts, impairing his cognitive function.

So he spoke about the race and scramble to be the first to comment. Not to contribute depth, but simply to be ‘seen’.

This performative urgency “first to comment,” “front/first page,” “top reply” … he emphasized was some sort of echo or a kind of low-stakes celebrity, and a microdose of relevance in the s of the platform.

“But relevance to whom?” I asked. “Do you know most s remain anonymous, cloaked behind pseudonyms? And that’s there are no tangible rewards, no compensation, no credits, no career gains?” I persisted.

He said such behavior spoke to something deeper than boredom or habit and that it speaks to the increasingly fragile ways in which people seek validation online. The desire to be seen, to be early, to be reacted to…even without name or face. He points out that it offers a fleeting sense of identity which is hollowed out of real connection. He said, privately, s might measure their worth by comparing how they stack up against others, but that dangerously, the s become clouded in stacking up, that their metric isn’t insight or empathy but rather, what becomes prioritized is timing, provocation, and numbers, which in reality creeps into their normal functioning, as people are mostly what they are, indoors.



I didn’t know when I kept nodding as he said that Nairaland has become an extreme echo chamber of digital desperation. He added that it is not simply the platform problem although Reddit didn’t reward such behavior, allowing comments that appears to be based on ranking; but he say, all of our cultural anxiety from using social media is spurred by a fear that we nurse of not being heard in a world where everyone is speaking.

I left, saying, well, I will be less reactive , and not necessarily address the forum topic, rather, there will be an intention going forward, and a realization that attention is not connection. Noise is not relevance. And racing to be first is rarely the path to wisdom. That way, I contribute to the platform devolving away from a space where performance trumps substance, and virality trumps value.

I think I am dumber this days.

What I read (past tense) was that, a senator who didn’t want you to be financially influenced by Seyi Tinubu (a bad actor) offered you financial relief so that you are less susceptible to bad influence.

But then I saw “blackmailing you” and I am like this forum would impair your brain.

So I watched the video, Eedris point was that he was being “set-up” as the offer was meant to entrap him.

Why would this even be on FP?
As it is on FP, maybe we should as well give it a review.

“Nwanyi oma
Ogin k'inemezi
Ebe k'inejezi
Onye k'inekpesalu
Nwanyi oma
Na wetin you de do
Thought we were doing fine
Don't you wanna remain mine
Carry your motor drive am to my house
No answer anybody no collide
Oya jejely jeje drive am come my house
Make we reconcile
Nothing dey outside
No matter how e be
Na you be the apple of my eye (of my eye)
Baby baby I swear
No matter how e go
Na you be the apple of my eye (of my eye)
Baby baby I swear
Nekwa k'isi ewe
Asampete nwanyi oma
Webelu webelu weh
Nekwa k'isi akwo
Asampete nwanyi oma
Kwobelu kwobelu kwoooooo
Nwanyi oma
Na wetin you dey do
Don't you know we are doing fine
Don't you wanna remain mine
Carry your motor drive am to my house
No answer anybody no collide
Oya jejely jeje drive am come my house
Make we reconcile
Nothing dey outside
No matter how e be
Na you be the apple of my eye (of my eye)
Baby, baby I swear
No matter how e go
Na you be the apple of my eye (of my eye)
Baby, baby I swear
No matter how e be (no matter how e be)
Na you be the apple of my eye (of my eye)
Baby, baby I swear
No matter how e go
Na you be the apple of my eye (of my eye)
Baby, baby I swear.”


So, what do you think Chike has delivered here?

Is it a pleading love ballad whose mediocrity is alleviated by his soothing voice straddling between heartbreak and hope? Or scatter scatter set of phrases masquerading as lyrics?

There’s surely a narrative for reconciliation, but if you use this song to think of reconciliation , and not Akon, “Sorry, Blame it on me” you are merely involved in an artificial desperation fueled only by your sexual urges.


*only the pidgin aspect.*

The opening line “Na wetin you de do, Thought we were doing fine” we have all thought so too when we nurse the wounded bewilderment you experience watching our lover slip through our fingers.
You don’t see Chike put in any metaphor or flourish here, just blunt emotion.

And then you keep hearing the tired declaration or cliche which often time felt like an intentional exercise in repetition and vagueness.

But not so in proper or the intended perspective.

So if you put what you hear in the childlike sincerity that is Chike’s voice as he sings “Na you be the apple of my eye (of my eye)” and as you hear this aspect you don’t think of the song intelligently, rather, you think of it as a ballad from a naive lover who is almost jilted, and yet, rather than chase the lover, there is recurring invitation that the lover “Carry your motor drive am to my house” which maybe adds a touch of urgency and rebellion, and hint at a relationship that thrives in spontaneity.

Hehe, I didn’t say spontaneity and underproduction is all there is to the song.

Lines like “don’t answer anybody, don’t collide” indicate they flirt with recklessness.

Is the song over-simplified? Maybe. Does it lack a sense of progression and tension? Yes. But if it is heard in its naivety and its press for emotional immediacy, you may appreciate Chike’s effort. But progression and tension would have helped it.

Is the song remarkable? No, it won’t entirely sink. If you have the naive brain of the lover in the song, and you are pressed for orgasm in the morning, you might the song during your next breakup.

If this looks scattered, I take full responsibility. Difficult to recover your “ordered brain” when you are striving to understand this Chike’s song.

Davido alias African giant version 3. His songs trend with ease. But not ‘Strawberry on Ice.’ I have never heard of the song.

The song must have sank into obscurity. If you check, Daniel Regha might have called it "forgettable," … so fans were indifferent, and within weeks the song vanished from playlists. The song was a flop.

Then came a group of four Nigerian artistes.

All relatively unknown. But now you want to check them out, and also check out the song in question.

So these artistes burst into the news cycle claiming ‘Strawberry on Ice’ was stolen from them, that it was an original song ‘work’ they had recorded which they shared with Davido.
Some of us might be interested in comparing, and then we will stream that song too.

So they filed a lawsuit against Davido, and as usual the internet lit up. Headlines, Social media, Bloggers, Wizkid fans, Burna boy fans… everybody have their take.

But most importantly people started listening to the song. They want to hear the "stolen" track. Streams will skyrocket. The song will trend. Might even enter the charts, and not because it was loved, or because it was a great song but because it was controversial. Curiosity drive clicks. And Clicks drive revenue.

So weeks later, the court will deliver its verdict: Davido will not pay them royalties and it will look like justice. It will look like closure. If he pays them, then his reputation is impaired. So in this orchestra, that is unnecessary.


So maybe they orchestrate this drama? And the lawsuit was their stage. And everyone outrage or interest was their marketing. Maybe what they lost in legal fees, they gained tenfold in streaming revenue, while the four artiste gained media exposure.

So they play the public.

Although the headline has been maximized for interest, it does a disservice to their other positions about insecurity in the region.

That they discussed these other issues does not excuse the irresponsibility of the group which is rightly embedded in the headline.

To them, ethnic entitlements, exclusionary politics, having a tribal conclave or a village square is better than collective progress.

The focus should be on “who can best serve my interest?” Whose experience, intellect, and vision can move the state forward? And that person can be from other communities, they may not speak my ethnic language or even be d with it. It is toxic politics to try to close the doors on who can do the most good. And that person can be Hausa, they can be Igbo, they can be Nigerians born and raised in the diaspora.

No one ever tells you that commercial drivers and the top echelons of your society are exempted.

Or that you will arrested while drinking water in a gridlock.

Think about the headlines and the agendas and narrative behind them.

Trump Teaches Tough Love, Then Offers Grace.

Tariffs Suspended after Concessions Secured

Or
Policy Whiplash: Trump Reverses Tariffs Amid Pressure

Tariffs In, Tariffs Out: Businesses Demand Consistency

Tariffs Reversed: A Policy with No Com?

Government Flip-Flops on Tariffs - Clueless or Calculated?

Tariffs Gone, But Damage Done - Who Really Benefited?

Trade Uncertainty Grows under Ruderless Leadership

Or
Bridges, Not Barriers: Tariffs Reversed to Promote Cooperation

Or

The Rest of the World Triumphs as Trump lifts Tariffs.

Or

China didn’t listen to Okonjo Iweala.

Tariff Reversal Follows Okonjo Iweala Shuttle Diplomacy

And if you don’t like Okonjo

Taking Credit or Taking Advantage? Okonjo inserts Self Into Tariff Talks

Or

While Others Negotiated, Tinubu tells Nigerians “Our Strategy Paid Off”

Let China do what’s best for China. Let America do what’s best for America.

May Nigeria focus its energy on its own.

Trades the scales for gold and lies,
And truth, unseen, just slowly dies.
Wike

The roads are built on shifting sand,
With stolen bricks from tired hands.
Umahi

Hospitals bleed, their beds run bare,
While the president dine on utmost care.
Tinubu

The schoolchild shares a broken chair,
No chalk, no book, no teacher there.
Far away, in lands of gold,
The governor's child in comfort bold
On state’s full purse, he learns with pride,
As local dreams are cast aside.
Yahaya

A farmer pleads beneath the sun,
His seeds devoured before they’re sown
The farmer falls where crops once grew,
For cattle to graze, his life was priced.
A nation shrugs as bodies lie,
No candle lit, no question why.
The names they fade like morning mist,
In silence kept, in grief dismissed.
Farm-men

The media sings a scripted tune,
Distracting us with petty swoons.
For those who own the printing press
Are masters too of greed’s excess.
4th estate

The flag still waves, but thin and torn,
Its colors dulled, its fabric worn.
Our brighter ones, they seek to flee,
Chasing hope across the sea.
Brains that could built our land,
All slip away like grains of sand.
JAPA

Corruption eats, and as it thrives,
It hollows out our very lives.
The rest all crave a crooked share,
And lift their hands in solemn prayer,
Not for truth or justice done,
But for their turn to loot us all.
Religious business centers

Shettima and our irresponsible news media couch it in the language of mutual partnership “deepening ties” and say that it is "anchored in innovation, powered by people" of coz, they vouch it for a populace who are just bothered about their next meal, and for a populace that can't see or don’t care that all of these is asymmetric in Sweden's interest.

Well, let us praise this istration for once, it’s clearly stated that investment will flow into Nigeria.
Haba! Let us fear God, and give this istration some credit.

So a technological hub is being built in Nigeria, but who would own its output, and where would the profits flow back to?

Well, think of the human resource development, the Nigerians that would up their tech skills.

It’s no mistake that Sweden's investments are primarily situated in the domains of education, ICT, and renewable energy, and yet our universities will have no benefit. We have a population that is a resource to Sweden. Make no mistake, Nigerians are a resource.
It’s no goodwill they must have, it is Sweden's global tech influence that is on a ride.

What would happen in those hubs is that digital infrastructure and skill development will continue to create a pipeline of tech-savvy Nigerian workers... but these talents will be absorbed into the Sweden's labour market under the guise of "business outsourcing" and "structured migration." Is this not some talent extraction disguised as development assistance?

Read about the Sweden US bilateral 6G partnership. You’d appreciate the role of being able to advocate.

In all of these announcements and rhetoric, what is Nigeria exporting? You think that we will export the next social media platform or Samsung or will be exporting tech to Sweden’s technology companies? Whatever you make of it.

Tangible, measurable, beyond abstract notions of partnership, is Nigeria gaining from this cooperation? while sweden establishes a physical trade office and strategically expands its economic footprint, we are content to receive investments without clearly outlining our export goals. how about we have Nigeria goods, services, or cultural products penetrate swedish markets in return.

Mr VP’s all ive diplomacy is some symbolism over substance. And must sheepishly express gratitude for Sweden’s 'visionary discussions" and "hospitality" … sad that it is a substitute for hard negotiations and strategic assertiveness that provide clear returns, tell us the non-negotiable national interests, and that beyond a testing ground for foreign tech firms, the country has substantial local ownership and leadership in these firms.

Again, you must ask: What are the metrics for success? what clauses ensure technology transfer, intellectual property sharing, and mutual market access? But , how can we ask, when we have to think of breakfast.

Sweden is advancing its economic interests, and Nigeria must do the same.

If X pays s, why can’t nairaland?

Folks come here and create contents. They spend their time. There should be some form of reward. At one point, it was the interactions and activities your comment generated, but now you can check all of FP, you would find threads that are just a page. With the same people commenting.

Hi,
Sorry about this.
Where and when did you do the surgery?

Also, have you communicated this to the ophthalmologist during your follow-up appointments?

What eye drops are you currently using?

What’s your age group? (E.g. 35-40yrs)

Lisabi! we revere him as a symbol of resistance and hope.

But these people who claim to honour him have failed to uphold his legacies.
Or how have they?
Is it by their Ostentatious display of wealth, and flaunting their affluence before a masses bereaved of joy that must be further oppressed and dehumanized?


Obasanjo and all of them should be wearing sackcloth for their role in bringing us to this current state. They have foisted upon Nigerians - a generation of leaders who are nothing short of wicked and disconnected from the struggles of Nigerians. And yes, they are embodiments of the very systems of power and inequality that Lisabi stood against.

Those that can look very well into past will divine that those who stood against Lisabi, are preferable to the current crop of leaders.

Great response!

It’s not our place to provide emotional satisfaction for the detractors of Trump.

Our leaders should do that too, which serves our nation and its future.

K

This headline is misleading and irresponsibly done.

Her message is clear, and clearly to the rest of the world.

Do not escalate this. If you react harshly, the world economy would be in jeopardy.

She is actually urging the rest of the world to halt the escalating tariff war and behave responsibly by not retaliating, as retaliation could depress global trade. Trump has argued that the tariff mirrors the prohibitive tariffs other nations have handed American companies. Those nations have the power to reduce it, as they inaugurated it. Okonjo knows all of these.

So she has not stated that “Trump's tariff war” is destroying the global economy.


Why is Okonjo deliberate in her word choice? It is because she knows nations have to be cautious and that her position as WTO DG is contingent upon Western nations ( esp the US) approval . Since Trump’s return, she has successfully maintained the fragile diplomatic balance- despite Trump’s disposition. , Trump didn’t fancy her emergence. Don’t be naive to think Europe and the UK would deprioritize their relationships with the US to her leadership, if Trump calls her out.

So if you are proud of her as a Nigerian, then you would agree that it is irresponsible to mischaracterize her position. Trump is combative. The US has significant influence on global trade. No need to add to her burden or cross by creating distraction that jeopardizes her illustrious career and undermine her efforts. You shouldn’t want so.

That said.

which is it? Will Trump’s tariff destroy the US economy or the economy of the other countries?

Someone suggested that businesses should find alternative trading partners. Perhaps Africa. African nations that are struggling with affording basic necessities, including HIV/AIDS medication. Perhaps China, but China would dictate their own . Alternatively, Europe could open its economy to China, and risk the potential for China's cheap products to flood their market and shut down their manufacturing.

Someone suggested that they should abandon the US dollar. And the global economy should cling to? Canadian dollars or Naira or yuan or Euro. Thinking the US currency is there by decree is no evidence of right minded thinking. You add the nominal GDP of , UK, , Italy and Canada… and see what % or fraction of the US’ GDP it amounts to.

For those thinking that the US should be abandoned. Read good books and seek contrast opinions. Not just consuming one-sided poorly baked news.

The news won’t tell you that the UK is very happy with the tariffs coz in the US they now enjoy a price advantage over similar European products, thanks to the lower 10% tariff, compared to Europe’s 20%. To them, it’s a win: of coz, they will not be over excited, but Europe knows they are behind and Trump is putting them in a place, where they are in dire vulnerability. The EU is already clamoring for unity in the union because they know internal disunity is inevitable, and the EU may just disintegrate - as nations go directly to make deals with Trump.

When they can’t trade with the US, UK grows stronger, and while they trade with each other, tariffs imposed by and against countries in the EU becomes inevitable because each nation has to protect its own economy.

it is just foolish to not look out for the interest of your country, or look out for how you can take advantage of what is handed to you. we must hate the leadership, isolate them... when other reasonable nations are on the queue, already cozying up, waiting to fill in that gap.

China has got cheap and high volume products to export - so Europe for now knows that the higher tariff for China benefits them. If the US leadership wants to diminish Europe’s influence, which I think is the intention of Trump, unless Europe properly acknowledges America’s leadership and adhere to America’s guidance… rather than seeking to dictate… Trump could reduce the tariff for China, and Europe would realize brutally, they are unable to compete. The companies know so already. They are not necessarily driven by nationalist sentiment. They are driven by economic interests. If their government implement policies that harm their businesses, they won’t stay idly, governed by a leader who’s willing to destroy their economy just to virtue signal that he’s courageous against Trump.

They will find their way to America, call it expansion… they would establish their businesses in the US to avoid tariffs and ensure continued growth.
It’s not in the EU’s or Canada’s interest that this happens. The leadership in this country are pressing hard, encouraging these companies to diversify their supply chain or reduce dependence on the US. Again, this is a strategy that the EU and Canada have pressed… however, the shift, building new infrastructures to connect to new markets won’t occur without significant costs, which the countries can’t spare unless the businesses are further taxed. Unable to compete, businesses reduce their workforce. Would these businesses be willing to absorb the additional costs, new taxes, and remain viable as they transition? Can the companies remain afloat for the decade such shift might require? Is it not just better to go to America? This is just a bit in the surface of it all.

Nations study and look out for their own interest. Let us pray that Tinubu is staying alert and looking out for Nigeria’s interest too in the global affairs and nationally.

She was right to condemn child labour.
She was right to protect the child.
She was right to hold her able.
She was right to raise awareness.

You and others are not right to bully her. Calling her cruel and uncomionate.
And Adetoun was not right to cave in, as she did.

A child should not be waking up at 3AM to sweep an estate when they should be resting and preparing for school. The mother continues to give birth, and she must care for all of them in this crazy economy. Enough to rebuke her for being selfish and not having parental responsibility. She can’t possibly provide for the four children: education, healthcare or stable upbringing, -and the children are put in the cycle of poverty.

But it doesn’t matter to us all. And it never matters to us all, unless it’s an opportunity for us to proclaim ourselves some form of messiah. Or it will matter to some of you, only because you will fancy your parents or parents struggles in that woman. So, this will not merely seem to you to be detached from reality, but an attack on your ideals or parents. And you will say, how can one not sympathize with the poor mother? You were successful, but millions more have failed just coz of this shared hardship you perpetuate and justify. You became stronger and wiser, but millions more were permanently harmed and lost their future. Your experience of the struggle does not drive an iota of awareness to share an advocacy for the children. Rather, than pointing out the gaps in the woman’s behavior and having an outrage for the systemic issues that have caused hardship, your sense is wired to think ‘hardship is a rite of age, because from it, I gained my resilience.’ It’s this mindset that creates an ideology that does not resist systemic issues. And one must not question or challenge an oppressive system that is perpetuated by ignorance just because she is a poor woman. A child helping a struggling parent in small ways is one thing, but you all think waking up at 3 AM for labour is right. You don’t care what sleep deprivation could do to her physical health, her concentration. a girl that is already malnourished must be further exposed to harsh conditions, and when she is exhausted, to poor academic performance, to limits in future opportunities.

So he tells us that the child is working out of economic necessity. And that the mother needs comion.

So others will argue that the focus of the video, should have been on the economic hardship that people have to endure.
Instead, Adetoun was just a villain, an oppressor, as she could have engaged the cleaner/mother privately and not publicly shame her, or be condescending in her approach. she had not cared about the dignity of the mother, and she only humiliated her, rather than empower her.

Adetoun capitulated coz the validation from social media matters. That was why she did the video in the first place. Not because she gave a damn about the child’s life. Than the aftermath. The crying and kneeling and wailing. All in the very manipulative lots.

Folks pushed her to reveal her performative righteousness.

And because validation matters to her- she rewarded this woman after the backlash. It alleviated her immediate struggles.

The country also shows its false outrage, as though her situation is not the lots of millions of people in the country. We pretend that suffering is not the norm for the lots. Or that the mother was justified.

Adetoun received more outrage than we give to those who orchestrated policies that have entrenched sufferings.

Now, there are other struggling women who have not made their children work, but remain unseen and uned. And nobody cares about them. They were unsure about the tactics of giving birth to many kids, then using those kids or maiming them to generate some form of income on the streets.

Now, Onakoya, who is another person wired for validation sees an opportunity, to enrich his own social capital. And yes, I must thank him. Someone else can cater for the 3 siblings or for the children and their mothers that now sweep and wash the gutters that his mother washed, the children from the north that are your domestic servants, or the children I won’t see tomorrow, for they already died in hazardous child labour.

There are several children, women in this country, with much worse fate. But they are not on social media or the source of any social capital: Mr Onakoya and all of us can’t care as there’s no social recognition. Performative altruism which doesn’t fix the individual choices/ structural conditions that have birth the situation or made suffering into some spectacle is what we are enthralled. A miracle, a divine intervention.

What have I ever done to contribute to the alleviation of situations of people??
Nothing superficial and performative.

And you would find folks out there creating awareness and bringing about genuine changes for thousands of lives. Even saving them from death. Not just jumping in spaces, and using these vulnerable lots to enrich themselves.