BREAKING: Tinubu Appoints New JAMB Registrar
https://thisdawn.com/breaking-tinubu-appoints-new-jamb-registrar/
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Thursday, May 21, 2026
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
USA Africa Dialogue Series - On reading or misreading “Tinubu Squeezing Blood from Stones !”
Re- This sordid, sinful allegation : “Tinubu Squeezing Blood from Stones “
Just for the record, a little slice of history, where I’m coming from. As the good Saro People used to say back in the mid-sixties of the last century, and I still don't know from where these elders, pissed off orators flexing their rhetorical muscle were usually quoting these cliches, platitudes, piling them on, they were most probably translating directly from the oral tradition, some of the proverbial standard Yoruba wisdom, because whenever something outlandish occurred, such as back in the day, Albert Akpata Margai’s Mende-i-zation policy, you'd hear some learned Saro Creoles erupt, “Provocation is next to madness !” after which you’d hear some of the same old learned Saro Creole people cursing Akpata Margai - and as a preface to the forthcoming malediction, they’d say (with their mouths) “da mot wae dae eat pepper ehn salt” ( the mouth that eats people and salt) - and then proceed to curse Akpata Margai, roundly, “In the Name of The Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” - in true missionary style , as some kind of righteous, Divinely Sanctioned holy fire to the ire, prayerfully adding to the venom their most ardent wish of that moment : “God go pay Margai! “ (meaning “May God Almighty punish him”) - and this would occur when any Permanent Secretary Ayodele Johnson had been unceremoniously booted out of office and replaced by one of Margai’s ethically closer Mende buddies - just like that. Ayodele Johnson would have done no wrong but it was now Mende-i-zation time, by hook and by crook, at all costs the Mende-in-zation of the Sierra Leone Civil Service was then in the works.
Being neither a “tribalist” nor an ethnic jingoist by birth, by necessity or by inclination, more than fifty-six years after I was last in that country - and only for ten days ( April 20 - April 30, 1970) like the late Leonard Cohen (Canadian) , "I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean”, and that’s why I’m free-ly & hope-fully still wondering if the Mende-i-zation tendency is still part of the current SLPP’s government indigenization agenda, these days
Not right now, but a little later, in your more quiet, sane & tranquil moments, away from the noise from Upon the straits...The Sea of Faith unto the Straits of Hormuz
you might well deem mine a mega-reaction, and if you wanna pronounce it correctly you had better spell and understand it as Re-X-tion, most populous Black Nation
Somebody is pissed. Pissed off. Some lumpenproletariat is. If he is not, then he's supposed to be. He or she, he and she and they are supposed to be a part of the lumpenproletariat at heart - and angry, like Wofa Akwasi - belated happy birthday to thee, once upon a time - as he says, exonerating “Sir TOYIN “ for being “in the trenches” - where we all ought to be ( in the trenches) or shaking the barricades down to their foundations., angry, pisssed, as in the opening lines of Amiri Baraka’s Somebody blew up America :
“They say its some terrorist, some barbaric A Rab, in Afghanistan It wasn’t our American terrorists It wasn’t the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasn’t Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler, Helms retiring
It wasn’t The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity, as they pleases
They say (who say?) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa?”
For some time now, I have been thinking that sooner or later, somebody is bound to react.
The more usual expression is “ squeezing water from a stone”
as in
"Hey mister, can't you see
that I'm as dry as a bone
I think I'll spend some time alone
Yes, unless you've found a way
of squeezing water from a stone."
It’s as clear as daylight ( as natural as black and white ) not some weak light or some hapless student reduced to reading by candlelight shining in the Naija darkness) it’s even more clear than the latter, that by all intents and purposes, This Dawn Media outlet is an opposition paper mainly focused on criticising and bringing down the Tinubu Government.
Well, it’s a free country / territory, whether it’s Nigeria, or USA Africa Dialogue Series being hosted in somebody's undisputed nobody's land known as LAGOS, or in Nobodaddy’s Jerusalem or in cyberspace
What is all the more surprising is that they are being given ample space - almost a news monopoly in this forum - without - for balance - any counterbalancing regular media rebuttals issuing from the government’s side to at least occasionally set the record straight. Islamically speaking, a man is judged by his intentions. Jesus is reported to have asked rhetorically, "Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?”
The sad reality is that whenever the spurious claims being made in poison pen articles and reports are not challenged, their contents are thereby allowed, so to speak, to pass uncontested as some “Gospel truths”. If we should go back to the kinds of headlines emanating from This Dawn the past couple of months since they first started posting here, you’d think that Dear President Tinubu JAGABAN, the economy wizard wants to be re-elected because he “has perfected the art of turning suffering into policy.”
This is not a tribalism Yoruba-i-zation or Igbo-i-z-ation (“I-GO-Before-Others” ) thing - the masses - of all ethnicities are all basically united by or in poverty.
Therefore, for balance, I’m looking forward to John Onyeukwu’s conscientious take on the necessity, wisdom or folly of President Tinubu’s Taxpayer Identification scheme which should normally - in accord with sound Social Democratic principle, I suppose would aim at basically, taxing the rich, some kind of Robin Hood tax-a tion
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1aUk4XJFUq/?mibextid=wwXIfr
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USA Africa Dialogue Series - Screening: I Was Grilled for Over Two and a Half Hours – Peter Obi (Photos)
Screening: I Was Grilled for Over Two and a Half Hours – Peter Obi (Photos)
https://thisdawn.com/screening-i-was-grilled-for-over-2-1-2-hours-peter-obi-photos/
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https://thisdawn.com/screening-i-was-grilled-for-over-2-1-2-hours-peter-obi-photos/
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USA Africa Dialogue Series - Kidnap, Murder of Students, Teacher: NUT Oyo Calls for 'Fasting & Prayers' Instead of Protest or Strike, Sparks Outrage
Kidnap, Murder of Students, Teacher: NUT Oyo Calls for 'Fasting & Prayers' Instead of Protest or Strike, Sparks Outrage
https://thisdawn.com/kidnap-murder-of-students-teacher-nut-oyo-calls-for-fasting-prayers/
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https://thisdawn.com/kidnap-murder-of-students-teacher-nut-oyo-calls-for-fasting-prayers/
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USA Africa Dialogue Series - EDITORIAL: Taxpayer ID Trap — Tinubu Squeezing Blood from Stones. Nigerians Must Rise Against
EDITORIAL: Taxpayer ID Trap — Tinubu Squeezing Blood from Stones. Nigerians Must Rise Against
https://thisdawn.com/editorial-taxpayer-id-trap-tinubu-squeezing-blood-from-stones/
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https://thisdawn.com/editorial-taxpayer-id-trap-tinubu-squeezing-blood-from-stones/
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USA Africa Dialogue Series - Final Reminder: The Toyin Falola Masterclass: Crisis and Crisis Management in Africa
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Adebayo Ajadi
Assistant Brand Manager,
Toyin Falola Network
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- Toyin Falola Annual Conference on Africa and the African Diaspora (TOFAC) +234-810-7262-267 | +1 (512) 689-6067 | https://toyinfalolanetwork.org Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Linkedin
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USA Africa Dialogue Series - Michael Oyedokun: The Democratization of Death and the Zoning of Corpses, Part 2, By Toyin Falola
Michael Oyedokun: The Democratization of Death and the Zoning of Corpses, Part 2, By Toyin Falola
https://toyinfalolanetwork.org/michael-oyedokun-the-democratization-of-death-and-the-zoning-of-corpses-part-2/
https://toyinfalolanetwork.org/michael-oyedokun-the-democratization-of-death-and-the-zoning-of-corpses-part-2/
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USA Africa Dialogue Series - Michael Oyedokun — The Face of a Nation That Failed Its Teacher
Michael Oyedokun — The Face of a Nation That Failed Its Teacher
https://thisdawn.com/oyedokun-the-face-of-a-nation-that-failed-its-teacher/
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https://thisdawn.com/oyedokun-the-face-of-a-nation-that-failed-its-teacher/
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Final Reminder: The Toyin Falola Masterclass: Crisis and Crisis Management in Africa
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Tuesday, May 19, 2026
USA Africa Dialogue Series - Africa Still Arrives When Others Convene
Africa Still Arrives When Others Convene
The Nairobi Africa Forward Summit reveals a continent of rising geopolitical importance still struggling to convert demographic and mineral power into institutional leverage.
By John Onyeukwu | Policy and Reform Column, Business a.m. | Mon May 18- Sun May 24, 2026 | pullout attached
On May 11–12, 2026, more than 30 African heads of state gathered in Nairobi for the Africa Forward Summit hosted by France and Kenya. Standing beside Kenyan President William Ruto, French President Emmanuel Macron announced 23 billion euros ($27 billion) in investment commitments targeted at infrastructure, agriculture, artificial intelligence, logistics, and energy transition.
The summit was historic for another reason: it was the first major France–Africa summit hosted in an English-speaking African country rather than a Francophone former colony.
That symbolism was intentional.
France is recalibrating its Africa strategy after years of declining influence across the Sahel. Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have expelled French troops. Anti-French sentiment has surged across parts of West and Central Africa. The old “Françafrique” architecture, the network of political, military, and economic influence through which Paris maintained leverage over former colonies, is under visible strain.
Nairobi represented France’s attempt to reset its African posture.
Yet beneath the optimism of investment pledges and diplomatic speeches lies a deeper and more uncomfortable reality:
Africa still assembles faster when external powers convene it than when its own institutions do.
That is the real significance of Nairobi.
Because while France demonstrated remarkable strategic coordination in gathering African leaders around a defined geopolitical and economic agenda, African institutions themselves still struggle with continental coherence.
The issue is not that France is engaging Africa. Every major power now operates some version of “Africa+1 diplomacy.” China has FOCAC. Russia hosts Russia–Africa summits. The European Union runs EU–Africa partnerships. Turkey, India, Japan, the Gulf states, and the United States increasingly do the same.
That is because Africa matters more now than at any point since independence.
The continent holds roughly 30 percent of the world’s critical minerals required for the global energy transition, including cobalt, lithium, manganese, uranium, graphite, and rare earth resources. The Democratic Republic of Congo alone accounts for nearly 70 percent of global cobalt production, while Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia are becoming increasingly strategic to global battery and renewable energy supply chains.
Africa’s population is projected to exceed 2.5 billion by 2050, with one in every four people on earth expected to be African. By 2100, Nigeria alone could become the world’s third most populous country after India and China. In labour-force terms, Africa represents the future of the global workforce at a time when Europe, Japan, China, and parts of North America face demographic ageing and shrinking productivity pools.
In geopolitical terms, Africa is no longer peripheral, and the world understands this. The problem is that Africa’s institutions have not evolved at the same speed as Africa’s strategic importance.
This explains the growing discomfort many Africans feel when dozens of leaders gather enthusiastically for externally convened summits while institutions such as the African Union and Economic Community of West African States continue to struggle with implementation, financing, coordination, and enforcement.
The contrast becomes sharper when compared with other regions.
The European Union, despite internal disagreements over migration, Ukraine, energy policy, and nationalism, negotiates globally through consolidated trade and regulatory frameworks. ASEAN countries maintain strategic coordination despite political differences ranging from democracies to military-influenced systems. Gulf states increasingly align sovereign wealth investments with long-term geopolitical objectives. Even Latin American blocs, though imperfect, have periodically coordinated commodity and trade positions.
Africa, by contrast, often approaches global negotiations through fragmented national calculations.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) theoretically created the world’s largest free trade zone by number of participating countries. Yet intra-African trade still hovers around 15 percent of total African trade, compared to approximately 60 percent in Europe and over 40 percent in East Asia. Border inefficiencies, infrastructure deficits, weak logistics integration, currency fragmentation, and inconsistent regulatory systems continue to undermine continental economic cohesion.
The optics matter because diplomacy is theatre before it becomes policy.
When African leaders rapidly converge at the invitation of Paris, Beijing, Brussels, or Washington, but continental institutions struggle to enforce treaties or sustain strategic consensus, it reinforces a troubling perception: Africa still responds more effectively to external conveners than to itself.
Former Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah warned that neocolonialism would persist not through direct occupation, but through systems of influence and dependency. That warning remains relevant because power today is exercised less through flags and armies and more through finance, technology, logistics, trade, and diplomatic architecture.
The Nairobi summit illustrates that evolution. Macron repeatedly framed the gathering as a “partnership of equals.” President Ruto likewise argued that Africa should move “from aid and loans to investment and trade.” The rhetoric was modern and commercially framed.
But structure matters more than language.
Who convened the summit?
Who defined the agenda?
Who coordinated the investment architecture?
Who shaped the diplomatic framework?
That is where power resides.
To be clear, African leaders are not attending these summits out of weakness alone. There are rational strategic reasons for participation. African governments need capital, technology partnerships, infrastructure financing, AI access, climate adaptation funding, and industrial investment. And external powers are competing aggressively to provide them.
French firms such as CMA CGM, TotalEnergies, and Orange announced major commitments at the summit. Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote was also among prominent African business leaders present.
Attendance itself is therefore not the problem. Fragmentation is.
The United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) exposes the developmental implications of this fragmentation. Despite extraordinary resource wealth, many African states remain near the bottom of global human development rankings. Niger, Chad, South Sudan, Burundi, Mali, and the Central African Republic continue to face severe poverty, weak industrialisation, low educational attainment, and fragile health systems.
At the same time, African countries collectively lose billions annually through illicit financial flows, commodity underpricing, tax avoidance structures, and external debt servicing. According to estimates by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, illicit financial outflows from the continent exceed annual development assistance received by many African states. In effect, Africa exports wealth while importing dependency. Africa exports strategic minerals but captures limited value-chain benefits. Africa supplies raw materials but imports refined industrial products. Africa hosts summit after summit yet remains infrastructure-deficient and heavily indebted.
This contradiction increasingly fuels scepticism among younger Africans, many of whom now question whether decades of “partnership diplomacy” have genuinely transformed Africa’s structural development or merely modernised dependency through softer language.
To his credit, Macron acknowledged part of this tension before the summit when he argued that colonialism alone could no longer explain Africa’s governance challenges and that post-independence leadership failure must also be confronted. He was not entirely wrong.
Africa’s crisis is no longer solely external. It is also institutional.
African leaders frequently invoke Pan-Africanism rhetorically while governing primarily through national political calculations. Continentalism often appears strongest during ceremonies and weakest during crises. The recent instability across the Sahel, Sudan, eastern Congo, and parts of the Horn of Africa has further exposed the limitations of Africa’s collective security architecture.
Yet the irony is profound:
The growing number of “Africa+1” summits simultaneously reveals Africa’s weakness and Africa’s importance.
France is not investing diplomatic energy into Nairobi out of charity. Europe understands that Africa will shape the future of migration, labour-force growth, AI markets, food security, critical minerals, climate politics, and energy systems.
China understands this.
Russia understands this.
The Gulf states understand this.
The United States understands this.
The deeper question is whether African institutions understand it deeply enough to negotiate collectively from a position of strategic confidence rather than fragmented necessity.
Former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere once warned that “without unity there is no future for Africa.” Decades later, that warning remains painfully relevant. Because the central issue today is no longer whether Africa matters, it clearly does.
The real question is whether Africa can build institutions strong enough to ensure that when the world gathers around the continent, Africa itself, not external capitals, sets the terms of engagement.
John Onyeukwu
http://www.policy.hu/onyeukwu/
http://www.policy.hu/onyeukwu/
http://about.me/onyeukwu
“Let us move forward to fight poverty, to establish equity, and assure peace for the next generation.”
-- James D. Wolfensohn
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“Let us move forward to fight poverty, to establish equity, and assure peace for the next generation.”
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