Nigeria: The Warnings From Sanusi And Danjuma

 By Lasisi Olagunju  

The Washington Post of May 29, 1979 reported an exchange between President Idi Amin Dada of Uganda and an agent of a British money-printing firm. The Ugandan dictator asked the man to help him print two million Ugandan shillings worth of 100 shilling notes. The Briton accepted the offer but "gingerly" asked Idi Amin how he was going to be paid for his services. "Print three million and take one million for yourself" was Amin's answer. 

*Danjuma 

The Ugandan leader had a minister of foreign exchange. Before Idi Amin's engagement with the Briton, the minister had informed the president that “the government coffers are empty.” Amin looked deeply at him and retorted: “Why (do) you ministers always come nagging to President Amin? You are stupid. If we have no money, the solution is very simple: you should print more money.”

2023: For Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Son Of Mauritanian Cow Seller Who Speaks For The North

 By Lasisi Olagunju

Alhaji Baba Ahmed, a Mauritanian cow seller, plied his trade from his country to the Gold Coast (now Ghana) and to Dahomey (now Benin Republic). Business was very good but at a point, his customers in Dahomey, with impunity, refused to pay for his cows. Is it not the law that every seller must collect the proceeds of his sale? This was not the case with the cow seller who was not a son-of-the-soil in Dahomey. 

*Hakeem Baba-Ahmed and President Buhari 

The options before him were very limited. My people say if the landlord offends the tenant, it is the tenant who must go; again, if it is the tenant who has wronged the landlord, it is still the tenant who must go. This trader from Mauritania had to move out of Dahomey, leaving his money behind. And he moved, crossing over to Nigeria; first to Sokoto and later to Zaria. He entered Nigeria all alone but soon found Zaria a very conducive environment for his business, for his Islamic scholarship and for raising a family (See Daily Trust of Saturday, January 13, 2018). The Mauritanian finally settled in Zaria around 1920 - that was about 100 years ago - and died on November 5, 1987 in Zaria, reportedly at the age of 104 (see Facebook post of Abdulrahman M. Baba-Ahmed of 9 July, 2021). 

Abuja's Codes of Terror and Error

 By Lasisi Olagunju  

"Whatever the party holds to be the truth is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the party." – George Orwell, in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

*Buhari

We are entering the era of enforced silence. When you firmly fold your lips, you are not likely to hop into trouble. That is the next harbour the ship of Nigeria is sailing to - the port of compulsory silence. This is not about noisy Twitter and its first cousins and the ongoing desperate efforts to murder them in Nigeria. This is about the real next level. Serpentine bills have slithered into our National Assembly seeking to stop the media, mainstream and new, from saying what they are not told to say or report what the people are not authorized to say. The government is really tired of holding conversations with the people and explaining its acts and (in)actions. It earnestly yearns for the opposite of conversation: Silence. Quietness. Soundlessness. It is high time the leaky mouth of the media was sewn up. That is what the regime is working on - it wants a nation of castrated subjects with no rights to rights.  Enough is enough. The process is on.  

Mamman Daura Seeks ‘Competence’

By Lasisi Olagunju

Leader of the 'unseen' persons ruling us, Alhaji Mamman Daura, spoke last week. He said enough of turn-by-turn presidency for Nigeria. He decreed that North-South rotation of the presidency of Nigeria should be dead; from 2023, the most competent among contenders would be put in the Presidential Villa.

*Daura 

The Afenifere reacted sharply; the North is silent; the Ohanaeze spoke hard. Leaders of the Niger Delta also kicked against Daura's executive order banning zoning of the presidency. But what can their puny noise do to a people who built their confidence on solid rock? When a man whose lips rarely move decides to speak out, you had better drop all you are doing and listen carefully. The man who spoke is not known to be a flippant person.