This is not true-
" many online Nigerian mewspapers reported that that jubilating Obi supporters carried IPOB flag to at Alausa, in Ikeja, the seat of Lagos State Government. "
I don't expect that ANY news medium carried such an improbable story.
Even if any carried it, it would not be a reputable news medium.
As I responded to you when you made that fantastically improbable claim, that account is a piece of fantasy demonstrating ignorance of the security architecture of Alausa, of the varied mindsets of Igbo people in Lagos and of the multi-ethnic citizen coalition that defeated Tinubu in Lagos and how and why that coalition was formed.
I live in Lagos, within a one hour drive from Alausa, so im familiar with the place.
Im also informed about the mood in Lagos before the elections and also made enquiries when I visited Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife, a Yoruba heartland, and compared my findings with my Lagos enquiries.
Alausa Security Architecture
Alausa, particularly the section housing the state government's offices, is bristling with heavy security- stern looking soldiers, Mobile Police and sundry security agencies, most of them fiercely armed.
The offices are also in some cases sequestered behind multiple checkpoints manned by fully armed soldiers and mobile policemen.
No agitator can penetrate those bastions, talk less an IPOB advocate, a group classed as a terrorist group by the Nigerian government.
Any such fool might still be languishing in prison by now or would not have survived that first day of idiotic agitation at the seat of the state government.
Lagos Igbos and IPOB
Lagos is not a place where IPOB can gain traction.
Lagos is a cosmopolitan city in which various ethnicities gather in search of their fortunes.
IPOB is a separatist group that wants to cut off from Nigeria.
There is no connection with the Biafra penetration of the Midwest and the attempted annexation of the SW during the civil war.
The Biafra vision then was about both sovereignty and capturing Nigerian resources.
The current approach is limited to the quest for sovereignty and even then I doubt there has ever been a general pro-IPOB consensus among Igbos anywhere because the conditions of 1967 are not the same as those of the 2000s.
Why Tinubu Lost in Lagos to a Multi-Ethnic Coalition
Tinubu and the APC lost in Lagos beceause of their association with inhuman government initiatives, reflected particularly in the Lekki toll gate massacre.
There was almost no way they would win in Lagos after that experience in particular.
People of various ethnicities were determined to try a new way of doing politics and they saw that opportunity in Peter Obi.
Those orientations even extended to some lecturers in OAU, who saw Tinubu as representing a negative old order.
So the notion that Igbos carried IPOB flag to Alausa is most certainly fictional and the idea that anyone reported such an improbability is also most likely fictional.
All that stuff you have written about Obi which I don't know whether they are true or not, can also be compiled about Tinubu and the multiple questions around him, about Atiku and other candidates.
As for Soyinka, he lost his public credibility when the Buhari disaster unfurled, a candidate he should have known better than to support.
His fixation with Obi further reduces his credibility as he seems blind to the inadequacies of the Tinubu govt, an APC govt with whom he is identified.
When you are prepared to analyze the specific points I made about Soyinka's politics instead of quoting the same Kadiri, an anti-Igbo ideologue who in the wake of Obi's victory in the last elections, argued in this group, in a bout of fantasy, that IPOB was working on invading Lagos, then we can have a serious discussion - Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju to Cornelius Hamelberg.
To begin with, on what do you, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, base your assertion that I, Kadiri, is an anti-Igbo ideologue? Can you, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, quote me word for word with specific date when I, Kadiri, argued on this forum that IPOB was working on invading Lagos? If you fail to answer these two questions, you will, to me, forever remain a dishonest person just like your political leader, Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi.
I was not in Nigeria when the last Federal elections were held but I followed the elections through social media. When the result of the Presidential election in Lagos was released and it showed that Obi won over Tinubu, many online Nigerian newspapers reported that jubilating Obi supporters carried IPOB flag to at Alausa, in Ikeja, the seat of Lagos State Government. Although I referred to the reported incident in my post on this forum at the time, I did not suggest or imply that IPOB was working on invading Lagos.
Based on Wole Soyinka personal and direct dealings with Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi, the former referred to the latter as inherently dishonest and unfit to be president of Federal Republic of Nigeria. I have gone through Peter Obi's political stewardships when he first ruled Anambra State as a Governor from 2006 to March 2014 and his political whoredoms thereafter. In addition to my views on Obi, posted earlier by Cornelius on this forum, I hereby provide further information about Obi of which I would want Adepoju to correct me if I am wrong.
On Tuesday, August 11, 2011, Peter Gregory Onwuabusi Obi appeared unexpectedly at a worker's rally, in Aloma Junction, Awka, the Capital of Anambra State but he was jeered with a hostile song in Igbo thus: IKWUSIGO, INABAGO, 419/EZIGBO ONYEORI AZULU AZU K'IBU 419, meaning - Have you finished speaking, are you leaving, 419/a well-trained thief is who you are, 419.The following link is my source. https://todaynatoday.wordpress.com/2011/08/13/anambra-workers-declare-war-on-governor-obi
In the online Sahara Reporters of 28 August 2011, John Chikadibie Okafor authored an article captioned, "PETER OBI'S GOVERNMENT MAGIC AND CHEEKY CLAIMS." A part of the article stated, "Health workers in Anambra State, have been on strike for about eight months now, there is no functional water scheme anywhere in the State, and most importantly, armed robbery and kidnapping have brought the commercial town of Nnewi to its knees." So, Obi pretending that armed robbery and kidnapping is a recent phenomenon in Nigeria is a rant of a dishonest politician. On September 20, 2011 Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi threatened to sack 3,000 environmental workers (cleaners) because they demanded to be paid the enacted national minimum wage of N30,000/month, a threat he later carried out. Obi allowed Doctors in Anambra State's hospitals to go on strike from January 2011 to 27 February 2012 when the Doctors themselves called off the strike because they could no longer withstand the suffering of ordinary people of Anambra. In the Nigerian online newspaper, The Leadership, of December 4, 2011, David-Chiddy Eleke reported that the Anambra State Government had arrested and repatriated 29 beggars to their home States in Ebonyi, another Igbo State, and Akwa Ibom State. For the sake of clarity, it was Saint Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi, who was Governor of Anambra State, when Igbo and Kalabari beggars were bundled out of Anambra as advanced Christmas gift to their respective state of origin in 2011. In 2012, Lecturers at Anambra State University were on strike for six months to press their demand for better condition of service and pay.
United Nations General Assembly's resolution 36/28 of 1981 endorsed the definition of youths as persons aged between 15 and 24. All UN statistics are based on this definition. Article 1 of the United Nations convention on the rights of a child also defines children as persons up to the age of 18. The African Youths Charter recognises youths as people between the age of 15 and 35. The period between Youth and Old Age, 60 years, is called middle age. Thus, Youth ends at a maximum age of 35 years. Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi was 45 years when he reclaimed his mandate as Governor of Anambra State in 2006 and he was 53 years old when his tenure ended in 2014. When he contested for the Presidency in 2023, Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi was 61 years plus. During the eight years Obi was Governor of Anambra State he ignored the Anambra Youths but while contesting to be President of Nigeria at the age of 61+, he deceitfully and dishonestly proclaimed himself as the representative and voice of the Nigerian Youths. By the above submission, I am not saying that the political opponents of Peter Gregory Onwubuasi are good, rather, what I am pointing out is that his political characters are worse than those of his opponents he is busy criticising daily.S. Kadiri
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com>
Sent: 25 August 2025 16:32
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Nature, Sculpture, Architecture in the Osun Forest, Part 2: Atmospheric Potency and Sacred Synergy : The Doorway of TransformationOluwatoyin,
Moving forward after so much grieving about the past , I really envy your vantage position, that you are actually in Nigeria and can feel the political temperature there, whereas, for instance, I can only sympathise with you in a more abstract way when you suffer epileptic fits of no electricity and have to read by candlelight
Hopefully, you will soon catch up with modernity!
Cheers ! President Bola Ahmed Tinubu the transformer is on the move!
Freedom starts here : Top 50 Massive Projects Transforming Lagos State
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n13YmkG1qYo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsxtM7To4I4
Sadly, your judgement passed on Wole Soyinka has not changed. You seem to believe that he is not being even-handed because he seems to be or has been less critical of Nigeria's former President Buhari and Nigeria' s current President Tinubu. That, dear Oluwatoyin does not invalidate, diminish or detract from the many truths that he has voiced about Peter Obi, including the incontrovertible fact that as the anointed leader of his flock "the Obidients" Obi could have done more to curb the flock's exuberance /over-enthusiasm when some of them went on the rampage in Lagos, claiming Lagos to be " No Man's Land ". He could have told them to stop the nonsense , and as faithful
" Obidients "or Zombies, they would have probably obeyed him. Did you follow up on Femi Fani-Kayode's commentary on the concept of Lagos as a" No Man's Land"?
First of all, let me set the record straight : I'd like to assure you that I'm not into the idolatry and deification business. It seems that you are always asking for some incriminating "evidence " without which the criminal is presumed to be innocent, right ? According to Spinoza Forever and Witness of The End when it comes to deification, even Jesus is not exempt, speak less of a wanton sinner like your Peter Obi .
As I've already told you, I don't have a dog in the fight about who is going to win the next Presidential Election in Nigeria. Not even if Johnny Onyeukwu or Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju or Ojogbon Falafel himself or Her Distinguished Royal Highness Lady Ofe Owerri herself were to be running for that unenviable position.
For your edification : Nahjul Balagha :Sermon 3 in which Amir al Mu'minin - Imam Ali, alaihi salam says, "But I remained low when they were low and flew high when they flew high" . In the given circumstances that's an example of strategic adaptation…
Please take note : It was not Cornelius Ignoramus that said "Peter Obi is a chameleon" - although in my view it is always a matter of degree, the extent to which political chameleonism , camouflage, adaptive political behaviour, critically adjusted to be in synch with circumstances as could be required to survive and even triumph, gains the upper hand in certain circumstances. It should be therefore understandable that in trying to win the support of Bishop David Ayedepo he should play the religious card , likening his position of Christian presidential candidate to that of flagbearer of the Cross of Jesus and comparing the presidential election to a religious war between him and his main opponent, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a Muslim and by definition, belonging to the army of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa salam. The chameleonic behaviour of course kicks in when on the campaign trail the pragmatic opportunist Peter Obi travels to Nigeria's Muslim North and in his own strategic interest does not repeat that kind of nonsense, that" it's a religious war" but on the contrary , as the smart guy that he is, whilst courting the Muslim vote he knows that at the very least he must give the Muslims the impression that he truly loves them and does not want to annihilate them in a religious or a non-religious war; he may even quote this Quranic passage that declares "Christians are closest to the believers" and therefore policy wise try to act accordingly (humbly)
On Monday, 25 August 2025 at 03:51:04 UTC+2 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:Edited
Cornelius,
I stated I'm yet to see evidence that backs Soyinka's claim that Obi controls the negative behavior of the combative ones among his followers.
If you describe Obi as a chameleon, what is Soyinka?
Please go over the reasons why I told you Soyinka's comments are not worthy of being taken seriously, being the stance of a person's whose perspectives are no better than those of an APC stooge.
When you are prepared to analyze the specific points I made about Soyinka's politics instead of of quoting the same Kadiri, an anti-Igbo ideologue, who, in the wake of Obi 's victory in Lagos in the last elections, argued in this group, in a bout of fantasy, that IPOB was working on invading Lagos, then we can have a serious discussion.
Otherwise we might do well to remain on spiritual and philosophical discussions.
Soyinka is a great writer and a superlative thinker on cultural issues but he is an unreliable politician which is the more accurate way to see him,not simply as a social activist.
He seemed to have supported Biafra during the war, going by his memoir The Man Died and he also legitimized IBB's coup created govt by accepting an appointment in it.
He was a solid fighter against the first Buhari regime but he also enabled Buhari's becoming President even though not only was there no evidence that Buhari was reformed but the evidence indicates that Buhari had become a terrorism supporter.
He is known to condemn Obi but is not known for much critique of Buhari or any critique of the deeply controversial govt of Tinubu.
So, Soyinka is not best seen as an epitome of political values but as a once impressive social activist as well as a mercurial politician.
You are invoking Femi Fani Kayode on Peter Obi.
Do you know anything - with all due respect - about the political history of FFK?
And you are invoking the chameleon concept against Obi in contrast to FFK?
Are you aware that FFK is the consummate Nigerian politician of no fixed ideological identity?
A once vitriolic critique of Tinubu he crossed over to APC and became an APC attack creature, writing hateful things against Igbos after Obi's victory in Lagos, advocating a sweeping economic emasculation of Igbos in Lagos even if it meant the denudation of the Lagos economy?
A brilliant writer but a person of no political stability.
I looked through what Kadiri had to say about Obi.
Has Kadiri similarly addressed the controversies about Tinubu and Buhari?
Why the selectivity?
Thanks
ToyinOn Sun, Aug 24, 2025, 9:51 PM Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:Cornelius,
I stated I'm yet to see evidence that backs Soyinka's claim that Obi controls the negative behavior of the combative ones among his followers.
If you describe Obi as a chameleon, what if Soyinka?
Please go over the reasons why I told you Soyinka's comments are not worthy of being taken seriously, being the stance of a person's whose perspectives are no better than those of an APC stooge.
When you are prepared to analyze the specific points I made about Soyinka's politics instead of of quoting the same Kadiri, an anti-Igbo ideologue, who, in the wake of Obi 's victory in Lagos in the last elections, argued in this group, in a bout of fantasy, that IPOB was working on invading Lagos, then we can have a serious discussion.
Otherwise we might do well to remain on spiritual and philosophical discussions.
Soyinka is a great writer and a superlative thinker on cultural issues but he is an unreliable politician which is the more accurate way to see him,not simply as a social activist.
He seemed to have supported Biafra during the war, going by his memoir The Man Died and he also legitimized IBB's coup created govt by accepting an appointment in it.
He was a solid fighter against the first Buhari regime but he also enabled Buhari's becoming President even though not only was there no evidence that Buhari was reformed but the evidence indicates that Buhari had become a terrorism supporter.
He is known to condemn Obi but is not known for much critique of Buhari or any critique of the deeply controversial govt of Tinubu.
So, Soyinka is not best seen as an epitome of political values but as a once impressive social activist as well as a mercurial politician.
You are invoking Femi Fani Kayode on Peter Obi.
Do you know anything - with all due respect - about the political history of FFK?
And you are invoking the chameleon concept against Obi in contrast to FFK?
Are you aware that FFK is the consummate Nigerian politician of no fixed ideological identity?
A once vitriolic critique of Tinubu he crossed over to APC and became an APC attack creature, writing hateful things against Igbos after Obi's victory in Lagos, advocating a sweeping economic emasculation of Igbos in Lagos even if it meant the denudation of the Lagos economy?
A brilliant writer but a person of no political stability.
I looked through what Kadiri had to say about Obi.
Has Kadiri similarly addressed the controversies about Tinubu and Buhari?
Why the selectivity?
Thanks
Toyin
On Sun, Aug 24, 2025, 7:51 PM Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju :
Your problem seems to be that it's not the veracity or reasonableness of Soyinka's critique that bothers you - it's the identity of the critic, and there too you unwittingly commit the biographical heresy, after all Wole Soyinka is not celebrated or venerated by either hagiographer or detractor, as a confounded liar, on the contrary his credibility is not undermined but cemented by the values espoused in his Reith Lectures, which I recommend you pay some attention , and please stop exaggerating about the petty and the patently ridiculous such as his alleged " running battle with GEJ's wife"
This man ( Eddie Palmieri) just died.
Here's one of his early hits
Eddie Palmieri : Harlem River Drive:
" You all know the story -- how it all began
It took five days - and then came Man
Oh, the land was free; and so were we
No slavery - to lead the poverty"
The lyrics continued : https://genius.com/Harlem-river-drive-idle-hands-lyrics
Yes indeed,
and on the sixth day God
made man, the political animal
and so, no holds barred
we primates descend
from the cosmic sea, from
the compassionate, speculative,
mystical, sublime, to the profane,
partisan, patriotic, sometimes insane,
contemporarily political:
What Wole Soyinka says about Peter Obi
What Femi Fani-Kayode says about Peter Obi
The very last I read on this matter was PETER OBI IS A CHAMELEON by
Baba Kadiri, it's quite a long a piece that thus metaphorically begins:
"As we all know, chameleon is a cunningly deceptive reptile blessed with the ability to modify its skin pigmentation to reflect the predominant colour of its immediate environment. Most snakes, birds or other known Carnivore have no appetite for the chameleon, perhaps due to the fact that the skin is reportedly poisonous. Changing colour, combined with its slow movements and its swift swift and sticky tongue which is the longest in the world and can be launched and retrieved in a fraction of second makes it a predator in its own right. Insects and small birds are its major victims. Factually, the chameleon changes its colour not for self- protection but most importantly for its stomach."
As for me, over here in my quiet corner, I have no dog in the fight.
As the bird sang,
"You may be livin' in another country under another name
But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes, you are…" (Yes, you are a servant)
And that's why you Gotta Serve Somebody
As a profound Nigerian national I suppose you have every right to pick and choose what interests you, to vote for Alhaji Atiku or the not so holy Peter Obi and if need be and your good heart so moves or leads you, to vote for some contemporary Biblical Barabbas or the name of the thief on the cross who was crucified with Jesus about whom Jesus said, "This day wilt thou be with me in paradise"
For your purview, some more food for thought, the first part of
PETER OBI IS A CHAMELEON By S. Kadiri
As we all know, chameleon is a cunningly deceptive reptile blessed with the ability to modify its skin pigmentation to reflect the predominant colour of its immediate environment. Most snakes, birds or other known carnivores have no appetite for the chameleon, perhaps due to the fact that the skin is reportedly poisonous. Changing colour, combined with its slow movements and its swift swift and sticky tongue which is the longest in the world and can be launched and retrieved in a fraction of second makes it a predator in its own right. Insects and small birds are its major victims. Factually, the chameleon changes its colour not for self- protection but most importantly for its stomach.
When General Sani Abacha took over power in 1993 and many Nigerians demanded that justice be done to the results of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election, be the young Peter Obi, then in his early thirties, cunningly presented himself as a lover of Abacha's dictatorship. Consequently, General Abacha selected him to be the Director of Nigerian Ports Authority. Obi's period at NPA was noted for importation of junks into Nigeria and coincidentally Obi got enough money from NPA to invest in Fidelity Bank.
After the death of Abacha, June 8, 1998, the plan for a democratically elected government in Nigeria began. Obi could not join any of the political parties in 1999 because most of them were anti- military dictatorship. However, by 2003, Peter Obi joined the APGA party led by Odumegwu Ojukwu to contest for the governorship of Anambra State. Dr Chris Ngige of the PDP was declared the winner of Anambra State gubernatorial election, 2003. Peter Obi challenged the result in the Court. While the case was pending in the Court, a dispute occurred between Governor Ngige and Chris Uba, the brother of Andy Uba who was Special Adviser to President Obasanjo. Both Andy Uba and Obasanjo were of the opinion that Governor Ngige should at least share the money budgeted for security with Chris Uba who had facilitated the election of the Governor. Ngige refused despite all manners of State's power deployed by Obasanjo to compel Ngige to comply. Thereafter, Chris Uba went public to declare how election result sheets were thumb printed in private lodges in favour of Dr Chris Ngige to become Anambra State Governor. Chris Uba later witnessed in Court against Ngige whose election was nullified six months to the 2007 Federal election and Peter Obi was immediately sworn in as the Governor of Anambra State.
In the 2007 Federal election, Andy Uba contested against the six months old Peter Obi's governorship. When Andy Uba was declared the winner of the election, Peter Obi filed a constitutional case at the Supreme court, asking it to determine if his four years tenure began when he was sworn in as a Governor late in November 2006 or not. The Supreme Court decided that his four years tenure began when he was sworn in and as such the April 2007 gubernatorial election in Anambra was null and void. Thus, Peter Obi was a two-term APGA political party's Governor of Anambra for 8 years before he handed over to Willie Obiano in 2014. During his 8 years tenure Anambra did not become New York, Paris, or London. Mostly, he deposited a huge portion of the Revenue Allocation received from the Federation Account into fidelity bank in which he had substantial interest. While the people of Anambra were afflicted with constant dysentery and cholera due to lack of potable water, Peter Obi invested billions of naira of Anambra money in beer brewing which was 50 naira per share then but worths only 5 naira per share today.
Back in 2012, Peter Obi publicly vowed never to leave APGA but 8 months after handing over to another UPGA Governor, Peter Obi the Chameleon changed his party colour to PDP. At the 2019 Presidential election, Peter Obi was on a joint ticket with Atiku Abubakar as a Vice-president candidate for PDP. After the eight years tenure of Muhammadu Buhari as the President, it was assumed that it was the turn of the South to produce the president as agreed by the political elites. Atiku Abubakar insisted on contesting in the presidential primary of the PDP. On April 29, 2022, Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi and Atiku Abubakar were among 15 members of the PDP screened and cleared to contest in the PDP presidential primary election scheduled to take place on May 28, 2022. That implies that the PDP in compliance with Section 77 (2&3) of the Electoral Acts, 2022, must have sent register of containing names of its members to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) latest 28 April 2022 as specifically required in Section 77 (3) of the Electoral Acts, 2022. The PDP membership register thus forwarded to the INEC on 28 April 2022 must have contained the name of Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi as a member of the PDP. However, four days to the PDP presidential primary election, Tuesday, 24 May 2022, P. G. O.O. resigned his membership of PDP. On Friday, 27 May 2022, Obi joined the Labour Party. On Monday 30, 2022, Labour Party had its presidential primary election and Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi emerged as the presidential flag bearer of the party. If the Labour Party had complied with Section 77 (2&3) of the Electoral Acts 2022, it ought to have sent its membership register to INEC latest May 1, 2022, and the name of Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi could not have been there since he was not a member until Friday, 27 May 2022. The implementation of why political parties are required to submit their membership register to INEC thirty days before their primaries, congresses or conventions is to ensure that is to ensure that a person must have been a member of a party for, at least, 30 days to be qualified to contest for an elected post on behalf of the party. Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi was a member of Labour Party for 72 hours when he became their presidential candidate in contravention of *Section 77 (3) of the Electoral Acts, 2022, specifically enacted to prevent those who failed to obtain nomination of their party to contest for an elective post to cross over to any of the small party to buy nomination. That's how lawful Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi the Chameleon is.
Recently, a Nigerian woman by name, Comfort Emmanson, on Ibom Air Uyo-Lagos flight AN 513 was involved in an altercation with Ibom Air's staff. On arriving in Lagos she was manhandled by the staff of Ibom Air before causing her to be arrested by the police and charging her in court where she was remanded in custody pending trial. A week earlier, a male airline passenger was also involved in a dispute with the crews of the airplane during boarding in Lagos. The Staff of the airline, not Ibom Air, did not report the incident to the law enforcing agent. Reacting on the two incidents, Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi saw selective justice where Comfort Emmanson was arraigned in court but not Wasiu Ayinde. At the same time, Obi the Chameleon was apologizing to the Staff of Ibom Air for what he termed the unruly behaviour of Comfort Emmanson. However, NCAA has debunked selective justice according to the following link: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/08/why-ibom-air-passenger-emmanson-was-charged-to-court-and-not-kwam-1-ncaa/
*Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi was Governor of Anambra State for eight years and during this period two-thirds of inmates in Anambra were people awaiting trials. Most of them had been in solitary confinement for over five years for offences which on conviction would not be higher than six months. Obi's compassion did not make him to release those innocent souls from prison, even though he had power to do so. We have heard about *Pandora Papers and Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi's involvement in Offshore Companies in Tax Havens in the British Virgin Islands and Barbados. Obi remained as Director of Next International (UK) Limited while serving as Governor of Anambra State which was in direct variation of Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act. Obi's non- declaration of his Offshore Companies was in gross violation of the provisions of the Constitution of Nigeria that requires public officers to declare all their properties, assets and liabilities. If not for selective justice, people like X-governor Obi would have been behind the bar. Actually, the justice system in Nigeria is selective but as the Yoruba aphorism says, "Bi oju akata ba yo ewo, enu adie ko ni ao ti gbo," meaning if there's boil in the face of jackass, the fowl is not qualified to talk about it…
On Saturday, 23 August 2025 at 22:50:40 UTC+2 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:Great thanks Cornelius, for that passionate and illusive style of scholarship.
Yes, I admire Soyinka's writings and his pro-democracy political activity but his partisan politics does not excite me.
If truly he made those comments about Obi, where are his assessments of the stewardship of Tinubu as President or of Buhari?
When anyone dismisses a Presidential candidate such as Obi, who has a better pedigree than Buhari, whom Soyinka supported and has not disavowed nor does he have the identity challenges of Tinubu why should I be particularly interested?
Is this not the same Soyinka of "The Trouble with Buhari ", the most trenchant anti-Buhari critique before his Presidency enabled by those in the anti-GEJ camp to which Soyinka was central?
Is that not the Soyinka known for his problematic alliance with then Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi and his running battle with GEJ's wife?
Why should I take such a political commentator seriously?
Im tempted to divert attention from this response and check out what Soyinka actually stated about Obi but is that worth my precious early morning time?
Would Soyinka analyse why Obi was able to defeat Tinubu in Lagos, an epochal feat of the kind that has occurred only twice in Nigerian history, the first being Ziks victory in the SW in the 60s?
Will he compare the strategies used to nullify Ziks victory with that used by Lagos APC to regain ground in the subsequent guber elections through a rabid anti-Igbo campaign which some see as continuing through govt declarations and policies till the present, such as threats of rescinding certificates of land ownership and the renaming of streets?
Will he examine the actuality of claims that Igbos are actively competing with Yorubas for dominance in Lagos, declaring that Lagos is a no man's land free for dominance by anyone?
Is the Soyinka of 2015-2025 the same as the Soyinka of the 60s and the anti-Abacha struggle era?
I've just had a look at what Soyinka is described as stating about Obi and it seems to confirm my initial stance not to take Soyinka seriously on the subject.
He is quoted as stating Obi can't lead beceause he encourages the vitriolic behaviour of his more combative supporters and even controls such behaviour.
I am yet to see evidence corroborating that view. Ill be pleased to have it pointed out to me.
I also recall the same Soyinka openly supported and enabled the ascension of Buhari, a master of incitive political strategy, whose followers massacred innocent youth corpers beceause Buhari lost an election which it was clear he could not win, the same Buhari who declared that "the dog and the baboon would be covered in blood" if his earlier electoral defeat were repeated in the last race that eventually brought him to the Presidency, the same Buhari who used the Boko Haram insurgency as a political tool by declaring Boko Haram the work of the GEJ govt and on another occasion declaring the war against Boko Haram a war against the North?
Is this Soyinka the kind that should be taken seriously?
Is his current politics different from that of an APC stooge?
A superlative writer and spiritual thinker but an unreliable politician.
Having addressed what would ordinarily not command my attention bcs I would consider it not worthy of my time, I can now proceed to address other things in your comments.
I would not want my response to the sublime things you are discussing to be mixed with the unenriching discourse on Soyinka's politics so I'll continue in another message.
On Fri, 22 Aug 2025, 23:07 Cornelius Hamelberg, <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:
Today in history: 22nd August…
the peopled planet
P.P.
Big Grammar plethora of political parties
not APC or PDP or LP
or NNPP or APGA or
YPP, ADC, PRP, SDP
not Bullshit Party, BP
not Pi Pi Pi or Koffi's
Oluwatoyin,
May the spirits be happy with you !
The spirits may be happy with every effort you make to augment and amplify their presence, to put the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove on the world map, and that too could be good for tourism - or could it be that they (the custodians of the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove) prefer secrecy and don't want too much publicity ?
Please permit this little phantasmagoria: From the mystical and magical to the practical give us our daily bread and butter, the practicalities - necessities that man is heir to, fresh air, clean water, and from there, maybe, pure fantasy, the numinous, the not so numinous, some more holy or not so holy gobbledegook, another crazy Footnote to Howl or much better, the holy fool , cosmic idiot ( c.i. ) or cosmic clown ( c.c. ) cosmic chi ( c.c. ) cosmic d …cosmic e, f, g sharp minor
"Old lady judges watch people in pairs
Limited in sex, they dare
To push fake morals, insult and stare
While money doesn't talk, it swears
Obscenity, who really cares
Propaganda, all is phony"
So you're "not too excited about naija politics right now ". Surely, you don't mean to say that because of this lack of excitement you are prepared to just sit back and watch Naija slide into the abyss, the bottomless pit of anarchy & corruption, a distinct possibility that Professor Jibrin Ibrahim has been warning about ?
At least you cannot accuse senior statesman Brother or Brer Soyinka of writing what some critics deemed escapist literature of the type cooked up by fellow Nobel Laureate Hermann Hesse whose rather paci-fis-tic , escapist literature is variously accused of not having confronted the Nazis frontally. But what do I know? His Siddhartha and Demian et al, set me off on a mystical quest, a wild goose chase, (this was while the Vietnam War was still raging and with the mining of the harbour at Haiphong, I was sure that so help me God, the world was coming to a complete and final END, but what do I know? Every day we're getting closer to it, every day the world is slowly but surely coming to an end, it's the second law of thermodynamics. Meanwhile, due to some kind of psychological blockage after several intentful false starts I have as yet been unable to zap right through his Magister Ludi .That's Hermann Hesse for me and there ain't any going back to him,from me…
Once someone has passed through the crucible, completed the seven journeys through the seven heavens, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, we would be talking about the whole man, Insan al-Kamil//the perfect man, not about half of the man - and because there's supposedly no inner division within that kind of consciousness, since there's the political man whose moral/ human calculations are not dimmed or separated into another sphere nor does he stop acting in synch with - in Soyinka's case the spiritual man ; His Exalted Literary Majesty, His Ecclesiastical & Existential Eminence Cardinal Wole Soyinka, Voodoo High Priest of an Exalted Super-Natural Yoruba Cult (like tribal Judaism) or a universal religion, and thus we are not to suspect that someone descends from enlightenment to unenlightenment, that someone wakes up and then goes back to sleep - indeed
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