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THE NEED FOR NANS TO TAKE ON CULTISM – BY Salami Ismail Oyewale 

The National Association of Nigerian Students  (NANS) – the apex student body responsible for the welfare of over 30.1 million Nigerian Students both at home and in diaspora – is in a quagmire. Our association is torn between loyalty to cultism and loyalty to the welfare of Nigerian Students.

There is an urgent need for NANS to take the bull by the horn and confront the menace of cultism in various campuses across the length and breadth of Nigeria head on. NANS has the deeply entrenched structure to mobilise nationally to stampede cultism to a standstill. But our association is being docile on this cogent issue tarnishing the image of Nigerian Students. 
This association must stand and defend – as a matter of topmost priority – the interest of wellmeaning Nigerian Students caught in the firing line by rival cult groups. 
This silence from NANS on cultism in Nigeria is deafening. The recent gruesome murder(s) by rival cult groups domiciled in the Ekiti State University (EKSU) is worrisome and troubling. As it has happened in Ekiti, it will happen elsewhere. 
Genuine comrades, cadres and student leaders from the lowlands in the South through the hills and plateaus in the Central to the plains in the North must take a stand. It is our battle. It cannot be fought on our behalf. We must not abscond in our duty to preserve the little integrity left of the Nigerian Students Movement.

The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) is yet to release a statement on the recent killings in EKSU. NANS must borrow a leaf from the once vibrant OAU Student’s Union Government whose standout performance during her glorious years has always been the total war waged on, any and every form of, cultism on the OAU campus. Examples abound of other ideologically driven SUGs in the country who took such stance.

The leadership of NANS across all levels – state, zonal and national – must desist from patronising cult members before, during and after every of its conventions and programmes. I make bold to state categorically without fear or favour that the NANS is one of the greatest patronisers of cult members in this country!
Students and cultists are light and darkness. We should never meet. We are two parallels that will and must never converge. Students are ideologues. Cultists are rogues. Students are pro-intellectuallism. Cultists are pro-violence. Students use pen. Cultists use weapons. Students are the hope for a rosy future. Cultists are the remembrance of our brutal past. Students are progressives. Cultists are reactionaries.
The campaign season is already taking shape in the rank and file of NANS comrades. From the equatorial in the South to the semi-arid in the North, the battle for the NANS top seat is shaping up to be delivered to the tropicals in the Central. Let any aspirant present a blueprint to stamp out cultism from our campuses and we shall devote resources and mobilise same for such aspiration.

P.S:

Kindly join the Anti-Cultism social media campaign to lend your voice to this menace which has eaten deep into the fabric of Nigerian education system by posting thus on your various social media accounts:

I AM NOT A CULTIST. WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Salami Ismail Oyewale is my name … I am a prominent youth and former students leader in Nigeria. I am not a CULTIST …. I have never been a part of any of their clandestine activities. 

#ShunCultismInNigeria

#StopTheKillingsOnOurCampuses
#SayNoToCultism
#CultismIsEvil

#SayNoToEKSUkilling

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For as many lazy-myopic Northern elite that we have in this country, there are double greedy-selfish Southern elite too.

The Southern masses who pride themselves as hardworking, literate, far sighted and smart are just a bunch of self-deceiving hypocrites who are as complicit as their Northern counterparts.

 

God knows that Northerners have very little to do with the terrible reputation Nigeria has all over the world.

 

How many Hausa or Fulani people have you seen paraded for drug trafficking or internet fraudster (419ers)? This job description is the speciality of the Igbos and Yorubas!

 

The strongest football team in Bandung, the third largest city in Indonesia, is a team of Nigerians in prison and guess what, they are all Southerners!

 

But no, Let us focus on VVF, leaving the log in our eye while trying to fix the speck in another’s eye!

 

For the Northern VVF statistics, peruse the Southern HIV/AIDS statistics. For Northern insurgents/terrorists, see Southern vandals/kidnappers. For Northern beggars statistics, check the Southern prostitutes statistics!

 

While the Northern elites deliberately ran down a very productive region to chase after petrodollars, their Southern elites also stifled the Southern masses for selfish interests.

Let’s go down the slavery lane. Slavery built Liverpool. Why did slavery not build Badagry or Benin Or Calabar? Every slave in Liverpool was previously sold at some African port, so what did the Africans do with their share of the loot? Evidently our forefathers were very much like the Nigerian leadership today – shortsighted and inept!

 

Truth be told, the lack of a feudal system handicaps the South. Everybody is a ‘big man’ or an ‘over-sabi’. No one wants to bow down or follow. How can you have leadership without a follower-ship?

 

Then people talk about tourism in Nigeria. How can tourism flourish when the porter thinks he is better than the tourist and only carries your bag for the opportunity to steal it?

Yes , it is a very Southern thing  and we will say ‘Malo/Aboki (Hausa) is not sharp’. But in all honesty, virtually all Southern ‘street smartness’ is criminally inclined!

I hope you will see this as an expression of facts and not a propagation of tribalism!

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Any Northern elite fighting over oil is lazy and myopic! The North is so blessed with arable land more than capable of making that region economically viable and independent. If the Northerners had gotten their acts together, we should not be importing wheat and rice in this country!

The most hardworking Northerners are the indigenous ethnicities. The Fulani (feudal) wants to be served. The Hausas are very hardworking, but mingling with the Fulanis has made them talk from both sides of the mouth!

Virtually all textile plants in the North have shut down. Cotton farms are almost non existent!

To make matters worse,the enabling environment is hostile. would you invest in the North as at present? I am not talking Kogi or Kebbi states. Both Benue (especially the Tiv part) and Plateau states are conflict hotbeds! The NE is ravaged by insurgency.

The Northern elites are lazy and they prefer the easy way out. They are the champions of petro-corruption. Crude oil brings the big pie and since they got their hands stuck in it, they do not want to let go.

The indigenous Northerners are extremely hardworking. Most agricultural products that sustain us in this country come from the North.

My sympathy lies with the millions of the Northern poor masses as they are mainly restricted by the feudal systems obtainable in the North.

The Northern ruling elites, especially the governors, need to work aggressively on the very low Human Development Index (HDI) of the Northern region. Folks of Northern extraction have been at the helms of affairs in this country for over 40 years of our 56-year existence, yet the Northern region’s HDI is extremely poor and that’s putting it mildly!

The feudal overlords and Arabic conquistadors see their subjects as insignificant beyond their selfish interests. They exhibit little appetite for upgrading the mental values of their subjects. Hence the reason why illiteracy, VVF, poverty is comparatively higher in the North. An offshoot of these negatives indices is the birth of homegrown terrorism! The data is there for everyone to see.

I hope you will see this as an expression of facts and not a propagation of tribalism!

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While I was gravitating towards giving Justice Iyang Okoro of the Supreme Court the benefit of doubt, the learned but allegedly corrupt legal luminary threw lots of spanner in the wheel of my thought process with this aspect of his story:

In his letter,

Justice Okoro has claimed that the sum of $38,800 found in his apartment during the raid by the DSS were the accumulation of the $24,000/year and €10,000/year ecstacode (travel & medical allowance) he has been receiving as a Supreme Court Justice for the past 3 years.

Balderdash!

The old man expects me to believe that he has been stockpiling $38,800 in his private vault over a 3-year period!

I hear you Sir! 😂

CRAP!

Please don’t tell me it was recession that didn’t make him take the money to the bank or invest the money on something.

There was no recession 3 years ago.

There was no recession 2 years ago.

Baba was keeping raw dollars in his house!

Justice Okoro cum Bureau-De-Change operator! 😀

The spin doctors are at work here!

On the other hand, based on allegations alone, Rt. Hon. Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi – the Minister of Transportation – should be behind bars by now.
He has been fingered in virtually all the corruption cases and violence from the South-South!

Finally, there’s nothing like “judiciary independence” in this country. From Justice Okoro’s letter, his allegations (which I tend to believe) of “executive pressure” from Amaechi and Umana is very disturbing.

The executive arm of government all over this country is notorious for placing undue pressure on the judiciary. It is worrisome!

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While I totally agree that women need protection. I also agree that their rights are being trampled upon on a daily basis in the most tragic of manners. Their self esteem is significantly reduced because of a disease called the “male chauvinism”. Their sexuality is continually exploited negatively and they are made to feel their appearance is the most socially acceptable thing they can possess, thus making a lot of women focus on their appearance for most of their lives and not on their brain.

I believe feminism isn’t just about protecting the female from being sexually objectified but more importantly about realising that there is more to every woman than their looks and their ability to prepare a sumptuous meal. Realising that they have as much mental capacities and capabilities (if not more) as the male. And their relevance within society and even within our families is tremendous, even as tremendous as that of the man.

Feminism should not be about the woman desperately trying to be equal to the man. It should be built on the ideology (and fact, if I must add) that the role of a woman is just as important as that of a man within the society.

What I disagree with – in its entirety – is the subtle attack on religion as the bane of feminism. I will never agree to any submission that says religion plays a major role in subjugating women.

It is nonsensical to posit that religion is the principal reason for female subjugation. In fact, some ideologues are stating that no other factor has had more influence on suppressing feminism than religion!

Arguments such as – “religion places the woman beneath the man”, “religion talks about submission”, “religion talks about how a woman is only good for giving birth and what’s in between her legs”, “religion reduces a woman’s value and dignity based on her sexual activities” – sounds blasphemous to me!

They are also positing thus: “from the very first book in the Bible, the idea of the female was portrayed to be that of a supporting cast and not one of the main character. And as one who led humanity to their downfall.”

My response to these lazy ideologues is simple and straightforward – the author of the first book in the Bible knows that the female is best suited as a supporting cast and not the main cast.

All of humanity derives its “ideology” from religion.

What the proponents of the new ideologues are saying in essence is that the human race should discard religion in its entirety. This proposition is dangerous!

Blaming religion for “female subjugation” is actually a direct confrontation on all religious beliefs. Religion is divine. The rulings are sacrosanct. Various religions have guided the human race since time immemorial.

Without religion, the human race would have been in total and utter chaos! I will NEVER challenge that which has kept, preserved and maintained the hegemony of all human race irrespective of colour, creed or race since time immemorial.

The only problem with genuine feminism is the unchecked eruption of ideologues with populist appeal who parade themselves as “modern day pro-feminists”!

I’ve deliberately refrained from mentioning “Christianity” or “Islam”. I kept on harping on “religion”.

Whatever the type of religion is – Jewish, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Traditional beliefs etc – the bottom line is this: religion remains the number one glue holding this world together. Without religion, this planet would have been blasted to smithereens!

Calling out religion as a stumbling block to feminism is outright balderdash!

Salami Ismail Oyewale “El’Sama”

 

 

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Sometimes we take life and people for granted.

MARRIED OR NOT, YOU SHOULD READ THIS …

“When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her hand and said, I’ve got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly. Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.

Suddenly I didn’t know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her know what I was thinking. I want a DIVORCE. I raised the topic calmly. She didn’t seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked me softly, why?

I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw away the chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn’t talk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find out what had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her a satisfactory answer; she had lost my heart to Jane. I didn’t love her anymore. I just pitied her!

With a deep sense of guilt, I drafted a divorce agreement which stated that she could own our house, our car, and 30% stake of my company. She glanced at it and then tore it into pieces. The woman who had spent TEN years of her life with me had become a stranger. I felt sorry for her wasted time, resources and energy but I could not take back what I had said for I loved Jane so dearly. Finally she cried loudly in front of me, which was what I had expected to see. To me her cry was actually a kind of release. The idea of divorce which had obsessed me for several weeks seemed to be firmer and clearer now.

The next day, I came back home very late and found her writing something at the table. I didn’t have supper but went straight to sleep and fell asleep very fast because I was tired after an eventful day with Jane. When I woke up, she was still there at the table writing. I just did not care so I turned over and was asleep again.

In the morning she presented her divorce conditions: she didn’t want anything from me, but needed a month’s notice before the divorce. She requested that in that one month we both struggle to live as normal a life as possible. Her reasons were simple: our son had his exams in a month’s time and she didn’t want to disrupt him with our broken marriage.

This was agreeable to me. But she had something more, she asked me to recall how I had carried her into out bridal room on our wedding day. She requested that every day for the month’s duration I carry her out of our bedroom to the front door ever morning. I thought she was going crazy. Just to make our last days together bearable I accepted her odd request.

I told Jane about my wife’s divorce conditions. She laughed loudly and thought it was absurd. No matter what tricks she applies, she has to face the divorce, she said scornfully.

My wife and I hadn’t had any body contact since my divorce intention was explicitly expressed. So when I carried her out on the first day, we both appeared clumsy. Our son clapped behind us, “daddy is holding mummy in his arms”. His words brought me a sense of pain. From the bedroom to the sitting room, then to the door, I walked over ten meters with her in my arms. She closed her eyes and said softly; don’t tell our son about the divorce. I nodded, feeling somewhat upset. I put her down outside the door. She went to wait for the bus to work. I drove alone to the office.

On the second day, both of us acted much more easily. She leaned on my chest. I could smell the fragrance of her blouse. I realised that I hadn’t looked at this woman carefully for a long time. I realised she was not young any more. There were fine wrinkles on her face, her hair was graying! Our marriage had taken its toll on her. For a minute I wondered what I had done to her.

On the fourth day, when I lifted her up, I felt a sense of intimacy returning. This was the woman who had given ten years of her life to me. On the fifth and sixth day, I realised that our sense of intimacy was growing again. I didn’t tell Jane about this. It became easier to carry her as the month slipped by. Perhaps the everyday workout made me stronger.

She was choosing what to wear one morning. She tried on quite a few dresses but could not find a suitable one. Then she sighed, all my dresses have grown bigger. I suddenly realised that she had grown so thin, that was the reason why I could carry her more easily.

Suddenly it hit me… she had buried so much pain and bitterness in her heart. Subconsciously I reached out and touched her head.

Our son came in at the moment and said, “Dad, it’s time to carry mom out”. To him, seeing his father carrying his mother out had become an essential part of his life. My wife gestured to our son to come closer and hugged him tightly. I turned my face away because I was afraid I might change my mind at this last minute. I then held her in my arms, walking from the bedroom, through the sitting room, to the hallway. Her hand surrounded my neck softly and naturally. I held her body tightly; it was just like our wedding day.

But her much lighter weight made me sad. On the last day, when I held her in my arms I could hardly move a step. Our son had gone to school. I held her tightly and said, I hadn’t noticed that our life lacked intimacy. I drove to office…. jumped out of the car swiftly without locking the door. I was afraid any delay would make me change my mind…I walked upstairs. Jane opened the door and I said to her, Sorry, Jane, I do not want the divorce anymore.

She looked at me, astonished, and then touched my forehead. Do you have a fever? She said. I moved her hand off my head. Sorry, Jane, I said, I won’t divorce. My marriage life was boring probably because she and I didn’t value the details of our lives, not because we didn’t love each other anymore. Now I realize that since I carried her into my home on our wedding day I am supposed to hold her until death do us apart. Jane seemed to suddenly wake up. She gave me a heavy slap and then slammed the door and burst into tears. I walked downstairs and drove away. At the floral shop on the way, I ordered a bouquet of flowers for my wife. The sales girl asked me what to write on the card. I smiled and wrote, “I’ll carry you out every morning until death do us apart”.

That evening I arrived home, flowers in my hands, a smile on my face, I ran up stairs, only to find my wife in the bed -dead. My wife had been fighting CANCER for months and I was so busy with Jane to even notice. She knew that she would die soon and she wanted to save me from the whatever negative reaction from our son, in case we push through with the divorce, at least, in the eyes of our son, I’m a loving husband….

The small details of your lives are what really matter in a relationship. It is not the mansion, the car, property, the money in the bank. These create an environment conducive for happiness but cannot give happiness in themselves.

So find time to be your spouse’s friend and do those little things for each other that build intimacy. If you are not in a relationship now, remember this for the second (or third) time around. It’s never too late.

If you don’t share this, nothing will happen to you.

If you do, you just might save a marriage. Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. ♥

Thank you for reading: Like & Share.

SOURCE: Prince Akhiro Sangukho

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