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Friday Sermon: Of Tragedy and Hope

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7 years ago

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By Babatunde Jose

The fatherless child is snatched from the breast; the infant of the poor is seized for a debt. Lacking clothes, they go about naked; they carry the sheaves but still go hungry.  They crush the olives among the terraces; they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst. The groans of the dying rise from the city, the souls of the wounded cry out for help.

But God charges no one with wrongdoing (Job 24:8-12)

Our lot as a people can be summed up as a situation of tragedy and hope. Our condition is tragic as this sum up our economic, social and political impotence and inability to change the game; our spiritual powerlessness to invoke the higher authority to lend a hand on our affairs as a result of our iniquities and moral degenerative state and spiritual delinquency. Not only have we been unable to chart a clear and unambiguous path for sustained economic advancement, we have failed to harness our God given potentials as a people to create self sustained development like other countries faced with similar tragedies.

Oscar Wilde said: ‘Behind every exquisite thing that happens, there was a tragedy.’ We have all heard about the pacifying clichés like, ‘bad things can lead to good’, ‘A blessing in disguise’ or ‘beauty from ashes’. This however, is not the case with poverty, which for people in low-income settings, the tragedy of poverty has been turned into a case of double jeopardy.  It is as if people in poverty are being punished twice for the same crime: that they are poor and that due to their poverty, they are unable to bring about change in their condition.

For many, poverty elicits very personal terrible memories. A case in point:  Adidi was born the tenth of 16 children in a small town in Umudike. His father worked a medium income job and their mother stayed home to look after the children. At 14, his father unexpectedly had stroke and died within one week. For all his childhood he knew only one meal a day. He saw poverty ruthlessly ravage his family like a lion tears apart its prey. Some of his siblings and childhood friends remain trapped in poverty. For most of his school days, he used kerosene lamps to do his homework. He has no good memories of the unpleasant smells, the coughs and lung infections they suffered from inhaling the smoke from these lamps – night after night.

What are more dangerous are the generational effects of poverty. Adidi has seen good-hearted, generous former classmates of his turn into mean, selfish politicians and bureaucrats, who take community funds for themselves and their families because poverty has taught them that there aren’t enough resources for all to share. Looking at our clime we see an economy that is trapped in corruption because poverty taught us to hold on to what we have, for tomorrow, we may not have it.

Nigeria and South Africa, which together make up more than half of sub-Saharan Africa’s gross domestic product, are in deep trouble. Nigeria’s petroleum-dependent economy will be lucky to notch up GDP growth of 3 per cent this year, barely enough to keep up with population expansion. The naira is under pressure, foreign exchange is rationed, the budget is strained and a balance of payments crisis is looming.

The grotesque use by politicians of windfall profits around the continent is a reminder that corruption is alive and well.

Judging from the experience on the continent, there are evidences that democratic governments do not necessarily produce better economic results. Our experience in the last 20 years is a glaring testimony to this thesis.

Our growing middle class is also very fragile, where it exists at all. Many of the so-called “middle class” are scraping by on a few dollars a day in insecure jobs. Many well-paid jobs are in the bloated public sector, funded by governments that may no longer be able to afford such expense. We have seen the trauma occasioned by unpaid salaries.

The biggest flaw in the middle class story is that, with a few exceptions, we are not a manufacturing nation. The economic model continues to be to dig stuff out of the ground and sell it to foreign companies.

Kingsley Moghalu argues that declining oil prices are just the spur Nigeria needs finally to diversify and become a manufacturing force. Yet Nigeria is not even at the starting line. Home to 2.5 per cent of the world’s population, the country has just 0.1 per cent of its installed electricity capacity. It has expensive labour, an overvalued currency and a business class skilled at making money through arbitrage and rent-seeking.

IS THERE HOPE?

It’s not sure what one means by hope; whether you mean economic, political or social hope. In search for this elusive and hopeless hope, people turn to the scriptures. But there is no help from there. Its been repeated that the meek will inherit the Earth. But under the present circumstance, that looks like a furlong hope. Given the negative connotations of meek as passive submissiveness in modern English, this is a problem. Some linguistic archaeology is needed, both for Psalm 37:11 and for Matthew 5:5.

Without a doubt one of the classic descriptions of the poor comes from the book of Job: Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go about their labour of foraging food; the wasteland provides food for their children. They gather fodder in the fields and glean in the vineyards of the wicked. Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked; they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold. They are drenched by mountain rains and hug the rocks for lack of shelter (Job 24:5-8).

Job continues, in his description, by pointing out the unfair nature of the social and economic situation, hinting at an abusive and unequal reality, and raising hard questions about the justice of God: The fatherless child is snatched from the breast; the infant of the poor is seized for a debt. Lacking clothes, they go about naked; they carry the sheaves but still go hungry. They crush the olives among the terraces; they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst. The groans of the dying rise from the city, the souls of the wounded cry out for help. But God charges no one with wrongdoing (Job 24:8-12; Job has described what modern sociologists term “the social construction of poverty”. The category of “the poor” is socially constructed and socially maintained, at least in part, by those who are not poor.

Various kinds of social injustice are very much operative at various levels, namely, political, economic, social even religious. The dialectics of the struggles between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have nots; the employed and the unemployed, the powerful and powerless, has become a common place in Africa and has proved itself a great source of worry for the African masses.

We have got nepotism, provincialism, ethnocentrism or tribalism, and various forms of institutionalized social discriminations. This sort of social atmosphere, deeply poisoned and violently charged as it is, poses a serious obstacle to justice and its administration and to the recognition and observance of human rights.

In the domestic sphere, there is the glaring fact of irresponsible procreation or rather irresponsible conception which stubbornly perpetuates the reckless practice of launching new babies into the community, with or without the visibility of the means of livelihood. In consequence, definitely, recognizable human values are being jeopardized. It is human dignity and decency and security in the standard of living that are here being assailed, if not sacrifices. Often irresponsible reproduction gives rise to domestic classrooms of ape-looking children suffering from acute malnutrition and want of care. It is also evident to all observes that illiteracy like malaria is a wide spread plague.

Probably the greatest, obstacles to the realization of human person is ignorance and illiteracy which warp and surround with darkness the human personality, as they inhibit its growth and development and it kills and dims all hope. The good life, which is often acknowledged as the purpose of education becomes impossible where ignorance and illiteracy are the order of the day. What they need is poverty alleviation spearheaded by education, even at its rudimentary level, which will open to them a vista of opportunities in a world increasingly dependent on knowledge.

This is where the state comes in, but unfortunately it has abdicated this role.

It is therefore striking to note that poverty is largely manmade, and not as a result of bad luck or unalterable destiny. What is obvious is the existence and operation of unjust sociopolitical and hence power structures, built on networks of domination and exploitation of the poor by the rich and powerful, which are the causes of poverty.

Barka Juma’at and happy Lenten season

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INEC Heads to Appeal Court, Seeks Suspension of Judgment on Deregistration of ADC, Others

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16 hours ago

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June 16, 2026

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has asked the Court of Appeal in Abuja to stay the execution of the judgment that ordered the deregistration of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and four other political parties.

The Commission also threw its weight behind a notice of appeal lodged by the political parties.

Addressing a three-member panel of the appellate court on Tuesday, the electoral body said it was shocked by the decision of Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja to deliver the judgment despite an order that stopped him from doing so.

INEC, through its team of lawyers led by Mr. Haliru Mohammed, decried that it was not notified that the judgment would be delivered, saying it only heard about the court’s decision through media reports.

“My Lords, we are aware of an order that this court made on May 22, which stopped the delivery of the judgment of the lower court, which was initially reserved for delivery on June 5.

“We were not aware of any notice from the court regarding the delivery of the judgment. We only saw it as breaking news in the media.

“We therefore do not oppose the application of the appellant to stay the execution of the judgment.”

Likewise, counsel to the ADC, Mr. Shuaibu Aruwa, SAN, told the appellate court that Justice Lifu notified the party of the delivery of the judgment via WhatsApp.

Insisting that the decision of the high court was an invitation to anarchy, counsel to the ADC urged the appellate court to invoke its powers and sanction Justice Lifu for disrespecting the judicial hierarchy.

“Sincerely, my Lords, a lot has happened to the judiciary and this profession. What the trial judge did was dare this Court of Appeal by insisting that no one could arrest his judgment, even after his attention was drawn to the stay order from this court.

“The action of the trial judge calls for swift and extraordinary measures from this court. We have come to the stage where this court should press the reset button.

“We are calling on this court to exercise disciplinary jurisdiction under Section 6 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

“We urge this court to take disciplinary steps by immediately suspending that judgment. This court has the power to protect its own integrity. We pray this court suspends the judgment immediately without further delay,” ADC’s lawyer submitted.

The other parties also drew the attention of the appellate court panel to the fact that on June 20, INEC would conduct by-elections across six states of the federation.

They contended that if the judgment were not stayed, it would create problems across the country, maintaining that the Court of Appeal has inherent powers to act in a supervisory capacity and not allow its orders to be disregarded by lower courts.

The appellate court is still hearing submissions from the other parties in the matter.

It will be recalled that aside from the ADC, the other parties the high court directed INEC to deregister are the Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Alliance (AA), Accord Party (AP), and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).

According to the court, the five political parties failed to meet the constitutional requirements to warrant their continued existence and participation in future elections.

It barred INEC from further according recognition to the parties, accepting nominations of candidates from the affected parties, or giving effect to their activities for the purpose of participating in the 2027 general elections.

Moreover, Justice Lifu ordered the defendants to stop parading themselves as registered political parties in the country.
He held that there was merit in a suit filed against them by the National Forum of Former Legislators (NFFL).

The group, in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/2637/2026, prayed the court to determine whether INEC has a constitutional obligation to remove political parties that fail to meet the electoral performance thresholds set out in Section 225A of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), as reinforced by the Electoral Act 2022 and INEC’s regulations.

It was the position of the plaintiff that the five political parties listed as defendants had persistently failed to meet the constitutional benchmarks required to retain their registration.

The former legislators stressed that the requirements include winning at least 25 per cent of votes in a state during a presidential election or securing at least one elective seat at the national, state, or local government level.

They told the court that the ADC and the four other parties performed poorly in both the 2023 general elections and by-elections conducted by INEC, thereby failing to win seats across key tiers of government.

The litigants insisted that the continued existence of the ADC and the other defendants as recognised political parties is unlawful and undermines the integrity of the country’s electoral system.

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2027: Atiku Picks Rotimi Amaechi as Presidential Running Mate

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2 days ago

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June 15, 2026

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The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has picked former Rivers State Governor and former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, as his running mate.

Announcing the decision, ADC National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, said Amaechi’s emergence followed broad consultations within the party and reflected his strong performance as runner-up in the party’s presidential primaries as well as his track records of service to his state and the country.

According to the ADC, Amaechi’s extensive experience across both the legislative and executive arms of government, as former Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, two-term Governor of Rivers State, and former Minister of Transportation, makes him uniquely qualified to complement Atiku’s leadership, strengthen the party’s national appeal, and bolster its campaign to offer Nigerians an experienced and credible alternative ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

The party said the choice of Amaechi underscores its commitment to presenting a leadership team with proven governance experience and national appeal as it prepares for the 2027 presidential contest.

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Abiola Was Not Poisoned, Says Abdulsalam Abubakar

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2 days ago

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June 15, 2026

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By Eric Elezuo

The truth surrounding the circumstance behind the death of the presumed winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential Election, Chief MKO Abiola, may have finally been unveiled if the contents of the book written and presented by former Nigerian Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, is anything to go by. The death of Abiola, which came exactly one month after that of the maximum leader, General Sani Abacha, had fueled widespread speculation that he had been eliminated to prevent his release from prison, and eventual inauguration.

General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.), has dismissed claims that Chief MKO Abiola was poisoned, insisting that an autopsy conducted by pathologists from four different countries attributed his death to natural causes.

Abubakar’s revelations are contained in Chapter 21 of his 264-page, 27-chapter autobiography titled ‘Call of Duty,’ which was publicly presented, alongside two others at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

The presentation was held to mark the former Head of State’s 84th birthday and was attended by President Bola Tinubu, who was represented by Vice President Kashim Shettima as Special Guest of Honour.

TheCable, which had the privilege of publishing the book, had exclusively reported that on the events leading to Abiola’s death on July 7, 1998, Abubakar said the Bashorun collapsed during a meeting with a visiting American delegation comprising Mr Tom Pickering, then U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, and Ms Susan Rice, then Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.

Abubakar wrote:

“I do not believe Abiola was poisoned. The family requested an autopsy and we assembled American, British, Nigerian and Canadian pathologists to conduct it. The autopsy report attributed his death to natural causes.”

The former Head of State further disclosed that Abiola had been managing pre-existing medical conditions, including hypertension and a heart ailment, dating back to 1994 when he was first detained.

The former Head of State said, “As far back as 1994 when he was arrested by the Abacha Administration for declaring himself President, it was public knowledge that Abiola was managing certain medical conditions which could seriously affect the quality of life of any human being.”

According to Abubakar, a radiological report by Colonel (Dr) O. Awofeso, then Chief Consultant Radiologist at the Nigerian Army Defence Hospital, Sokoto, dated September 28, 1994, found that Abiola’s heart was enlarged with “right ventricular preponderance” consistent with hypertensive cardiac disease.

The former military leader narrated how the fatal meeting unfolded, citing Rice’s 2019 memoir, ‘Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For,’ in which she recalled that Abiola began coughing mildly about five minutes into their conversation before it became “wracking” and “dramatic.”

“Rice said she noticed Abiola’s ankles were swollen. About five minutes into their conversation, according to her, ‘Abiola started to cough, at first mildly and intermittently, and then wrackingly with consistency,’” Abubakar wrote, quoting the memoir.

He said Abiola complained of feeling hot and asked that the air-conditioning be turned up, after which a doctor was summoned and diagnosed a heart attack.

Quoting Pickering’s account in a BBC interview shortly after Abiola’s death, Abubakar wrote that the politician “had trouble breathing, went into the toilet and came out obviously very distressed,” before being moved to a couch where he removed his shirt and asked for the room to be ventilated.

“A doctor arrived within 10 minutes and called for immediate hospital attention.

“We all helped to put him in a car, there was no ambulance immediately available. We followed him to the clinic of the Head of State of Nigeria, where doctors immediately began to work on him…but unfortunately at the end of their efforts it was not possible and he died,” Abubakar quoted Pickering as saying.

Abubakar recalled receiving the news from his Chief Security Officer, Abdulrasheed Aliyu, who had led the American delegation to the meeting.

“Aliyu, my CSO, called me. As soon as I picked, he said, in a shaky voice, that there was a problem. I asked: ‘What problem again?’ He said Abiola was dead. My head went blank,” Abubakar wrote.

He described breaking the news to Abiola’s family, recounting how one of the politician’s daughters broke down in tears and was consoled by Rice.

“If we had not allowed the American delegation to see him and he had died in custody, it would have been a different story. It would have been insinuated that he had long died and we were trying to cover it up,” he stated.

The former Head of State also addressed allegations that he received $500m in cash following Abacha’s death, describing the claim as “pure fantasy” and “an absolute imagination.”

He narrated, “I want to put it on record that nobody gave me $500 million or any amount, bigger or smaller.

“Is it possible to collect half a billion dollars in cash and only one person in the world would know about it?”

General Abubakar became the emergency Nigerian rulers at the sudden of General Abacha on June 8, 1998. He was just a month old in office when Abiola also unceremoniously slumped and died right inside the State House clinic.

Abubakar takes the credit for shepherding the nation through a swift transition that lasted less than 12 months, bring Chief Olusegun Obasanjo back to power as a civilian president on May 29, 1999.

Abubakar is respected today as one Nigerian, who is not greedy or overtly ambitious for power.

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