Opinion
Babalakin’s sense of honour
Femi Macaulay
It takes a sense of honour to decide to leave a high public position simply because it is the honourable thing to do. Dr Wale Babalakin (SAN) demonstrated a sense of principle and a sense of honour by resigning as Pro-Chancellor of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) following his objection to the operation of the seven-member special visitation panel set up by the Federal Government to review the actions of the governing council under him.
The governing council had announced the removal of the vice chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, “based on investigation of serious acts of wrongdoing, gross misconduct, financial recklessness and abuse of office, ” and named Prof. Theophilus Omololu Soyombo as acting vice chancellor.
These actions were undone by the Federal Government in a statement on August 21 directing Babalakin and Ogundipe to “recuse themselves from official duties” pending the outcome of the panel’s probe.
The panel was to review the report of the council sub-committee on review of expenditure of the university since May 2017 and make appropriate recommendations after affording all those indicted an opportunity to defend themselves; examine the steps taken by the council leading to the removal of Ogundipe, and ascertain whether due process was followed as stipulated in the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act, 2003, and the principle of fair hearing adhered to; and determine whether the process (if any) leading to the appointment of Soyombo was consistent with the provisions of the enabling Act.
Also, it was to make appropriate recommendations including sanctions for all those found culpable by the special visitation team on the allegations contained in the report as well as other subsequent actions arising therefrom; and make any other recommendations that will assist the government to take decisions that will ensure peaceful, stable and effective administration of the university.
He listed the major reasons for Ogundipe’s removal: Corruption and financial recklessness; Forgery; Complicity in the collapse of the university library and planned cover up; Deliberate policy of wrongfully concealing information; Depriving the Faculties in the university of funds; Concealing and distorting finances of the Internally Generating Units of the university; Undermining the academic process and seeking to appoint a professor by fiat; Siphoning of the university’s funds through dubious contract awards; Undermining the office of the Registrar; Failure to follow due process in organising the university’s convocation ceremony; and Sponsoring or acquiescing in the unconstitutional actions of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), University of Lagos chapter.
Apart from resigning as pro-chancellor of the university, a position he had occupied since May 2017, Babalakin also resigned as Chairman of the Federal Government Negotiation Team on the Agreement reached with university unions in 2009, a position he had occupied since January 2017.
Considering that his position as head of the negotiating team, which preceded his role as pro-chancellor, was not threatened, it is a reflection of his sense of honour that he chose to leave that position as well.
It is a testimony to his reputation for performance that he was considered suitable for these positions connected with the university system in Nigeria: Pro-Chancellor, University of Maiduguri (2009 – 2013); Chairman, Council of Pro-Chancellors of all Federal Universities (2009 – 2013); Chairman, Federal Government Implementation Team of the 2009 Agreement (2009 – 2013); Chairman, Federal Government Negotiation Team of the 2009 Agreement (from 2017); Pro-Chancellor, University of Lagos (from 2017).
Before the visitor’s intervention, and the investigation by the visitation panel, Babalakin had argued that, under the relevant Universities Act, the visitor had no role in the removal of vice chancellors, which he said was within the powers of the governing council.
Indeed, this is the crux of the matter. Ogundipe’s removal and Soyombo’s appointment, which the panel was set up to probe, “deal with the interpretation of the laws of the land,” Babalakin said in his resignation letter.
“The appropriate forum to determine the laws of the land is a court of law or a judicial tribunal. It cannot be determined by academics of a different discipline no matter how distinguished. These terms of reference are ultra-vires the visitation panel as constituted,” he added.
This means that the panel’s report concerning the removal and appointment should not be expected to provide an authoritative guide on the interpretation of the relevant Act because it cannot do so. It also means that there is a need for an authoritative interpretation.
Initially, Ogundipe had gone to court to challenge his removal by the governing council, but later withdrew the case. A judicial interpretation may well be necessary to clarify the relevant Act.
It is thought-provoking that there is a disagreement on the interpretation of the Act on which the governing council under Babalakin based its removal of Ogundipe. Since there is such a fundamental disagreement, it is not enough to leave the interpretation of the Act to the visitation panel as constituted. Babalakin’s resignation highlighted the need for judicial clarification.
The point is that if there is no clarity regarding the powers of the governing council, the kind of crisis that necessitated this special visitation panel at UNILAG could recur in other federal universities.
The authorities should give serious consideration to Babalakin’s argument for a judicial tribunal to authoritatively interpret the Act and clarify the powers of the governing council. It is noteworthy that the Chancellor of the university, Alhaji Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai Al Amin El-Kanemi, was quoted as saying in a letter addressed to the minister, that there were “too many vested interests in this matter, who are not approaching the issues objectively.”
Babalakin has chosen to “stand by principle” and “bow out in honour.” Should he have waited for President Buhari’s decision on the matter based on the visitation panel’s report?
From the time the panel was set up, he has consistently maintained that it could not determine the questions of law and interpretation central to the matter.
His resignation reflects his consistency, which should prompt a different approach to resolving the crisis.
Opinion
Bombing Iran: Trump’s grave error, by Fani-Kayode
Bombing Iran: Trump’s grave error, by Fani-Kayode
President Donald Trump, I am constrained to ask you the following question.
With respect, do you really believe there can be peace after you have dropped all those bombs?
If so you are far less intelligent than I thought and power has blinded your better judgement.
You have clearly lost your senses, your emotions have taken over and, like a scorned woman, you are unable to exercise any logical or rational thinking.
At this point perhaps the best course for the American people is to have you impeached. The world and America would be better for it.
How I wish you had listened to the likes of Tulsi Gabbard (your own Head of Security and Intelligence), Candace Owen, Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones, Nick Fuentes, Marjorie Green, Scott Ritter, Norman Finklestein, Aiden Hunter, Professor Mearsheimer, Andrew Tate, Tristan Tate, Steve Bannon, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Colonel Douglas Macgregor, David Icke & so many other influential, cerebal & saner figures in your country & elsewhere & NOT dropped these bombs on Iran.
Sadly you have gone against the tide of world opinion & even that of most of those in your MAGA movement & nation & attacked her.
This was a monumental mistake & grave error.
A few day ago I accused you of suffering from hubris (which always leads to nemesis) & you have proved me right.
With this single act of stupidity & recklessness you have murdered sleep & destroyed everything positive that you ever did for your country both in your first & second coming.
Worse of all you have betrayed God & the American people who put you on the throne to make PEACE and bring justice, sanity & order to the world.
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Instead of doing that you have joined hands with the children of satan & the sons of perdition to destroy the world & bring nothing but division, carnage, blood & tears.
War comes at a high price & a weakened Iran is a dangerous Iran with nothing to lose.
You have woken up the lion in them & left them with no choice but to rise up & defend themselves from your attack & not just the attacks from your puppet Israel.
This is especially so given the fact that it is clear that the threat to them, despite your fake assurances & lies, is existential & your ultimate intention is to remove their Government, dismember their nation & turn it into something worse than modern-day Libya, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Afghanistan & Gaza.
Simply put you want to kill their leaders, cut off their balls as a nation and turn them into a pitiful shadow of their former selves & a weak & pathetic collection of powerless, hungry, ravaged & desperate eunuchs & refugees.
You want to shatter their identity & dreams, denigrate their history & pride, decimate their dignity & heritage, shame their essence & ancestors, bring them to their knees & turn them into a nation of vagrants, vassals & homeless beggars.
They will NEVER allow this to happen without a fight & unlike in the case of others they do have strong friends & allies in China, Russia, Pakistan, North Korea, Turkey, South Africa, Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Middle East, the Global South & much of the Muslim world.
It is not about winning for them but about defending their people, fighting for their pride, honouring their heritage, affirming their rich & noble history & standing up for their rights even if it means that they all have to die. Martyrdom is joy to them & that is what you are up against.
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I suggest you look to all your military bases, assets & personnel & allies in the Middle East & Arab Gulf states & to the waters of the Hormuz Straits because they will now ALL be tagretted by the Iranians.
If you think they will bow to you, run away from the fight & not respond then you know nothing about their sense of pride, self-respect, culture, history or faith.
They would rather die than bend the knee to the likes of you & this is a noble trait which we should ALL emulate.
You were never ‘America First’ but rather you are ‘Israel First’. You were never for #MAGA (Make America Great Again) but rather you were for MIGA (Make Israel Great Again)!
By bombing Iran & entering the fray you have brought the entire world one step closer to WW3, you have opened the gates of hell, you have set the Middle East on fire & you have thrust your people into a war which was not theirs to fight & for no just cause on behalf of an ethno-fascist, racist, genocidal, child-killing, ethnic-cleansing and mass murdering apartheid state of religious bigots, right-wing extremists, Zionists & fanatics which control both you & your country.
Make no mistake, the Iranians WILL hit back & this will be the beginning of the end of not just American hegemony & the American empire but also of your legacy & the MAGA movement.
As a consequence of your fragile ego, low intelligence quotient, pride, vanity, poor choices, bullying disposition & inexplicable desire to serve Bibi Netanyahu and the nation of Israel even at the expense of yours, millions of people will die and full scale war shall return to not just the Middle East but ultimately to the entire world.
I once thought you were a man of vision, strength, peace and compassion but I was wrong.
Now I know that you are no better than a shallow fool and a road-side bully: a dangerous and despicable creature that has no honor, no truth, no value for human life and no love of God.
May the Lord save the world from you and your neocon, fascist and Zionist friends and allies.
(Chief Femi Fani-Kayode is the Sadaukin Shinkafi, the Wakilin Doka Potiskum, the Otunba Joga Orile, a former Minister of Culture and Tourism and a former Minister of Aviation)
Bombing Iran: Trump’s grave error, by Fani-Kayode
Opinion
Farooq Kperogi : Seeing Nigeria from my American daughter’s eyes
Farooq Kperogi : Seeing Nigeria from my American daughter’s eyes
Farooq Kperogi : Seeing Nigeria from my American daughter’s eyes
Opinion
Herdsmen and crabs swimming in Benue’s river of blood
Herdsmen and crabs swimming in Benue’s river of blood
Tunde Odesola
(Published in The PUNCH, on Friday, June 20, 2025)
Long before man dug a hole in every inch of the earth searching for oil, the crab had been in the business of oil drilling. The crab’s house – I mean its burrow – not its shell, is an oil rig at work.
For many Great Akokites, the most beautiful site in the University of Lagos isn’t the 13-storey Senate Building or the golden auditorium – it’s the Lagoon Front. The Lagoon Front is the wide-armed rendezvous where the vast Lagos Lagoon kisses Akoka’s scholarly shoreline, ohing and ahing as water caresses the bank…swoosh, slosh, splosh.
By day, the Lagoon Front is home to thinkers. By night, it’s a love nest to Romeos and Juliets exploring a soft-lit Eden. I was both thinker and wanderer, often tracing the scenic curvy road past the Lagoon Front toward the vice chancellor’s lodge, feet shuffling, thoughts flowing. Great Akokites! Great!
As a student, I was a regular daytime visitor to the Lagoon Front. There, I encountered the crab in its natural habitat. Its burrows were filled with oil water, and I always wondered what the crab had to do with oil. It never occurred to me to research the phenomenon.
But the song of Adawa King, Admiral Dele Abiodun, the Juju maestro, keeps whispering to me, “Epo ti alakan won se, lati bi odun mejo, ko i t’agolo ofo lo ja si,” meaning: “The palm oil being produced by the crab since three years ago, has not filled a single tin – wasted labour.”
Does the crab produce palm oil? I have answers now. The crab does not produce oil. Science says the claw-bearer burrows into mudflats, mangroves or brackish wetlands, where there’s a high amount of decaying organic materials like leaves, algae, or animal waste.
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As these materials decompose, they release natural oils, fatty acids and hydrocarbons, forming the shiny or oily film that cloaks the crab’s burrow. Also, some crabs produce mucus-like substances to reinforce their burrows or line the walls. These secretions can reflect light and appear oily, especially when wet. Science washes oil off the burrow.
However, a morality tale in African mythology tells a story of the crab known locally as Akan or Alakan. The Akan isn’t just an armoured crawler, it’s a drunkard, a debtor, a trickster, who frequents the bar of Adaba the Dove, a brewer and merchant of enjoyment.
Regularly, the crab crawls sideways to the dove’s bar, drinks and stands up to go. “Where’s my money?” the dove asks. “I’ll pay you when I come tomorrow,” the crab replies.
The next day, Mr Crab, carrying his pincers like armoured tanks, comes visiting, drinking and enjoying himself. Dove: “Where’s the money for the drinks?” Crab: “I’ll pay you tomorrow.” Days turn into weeks, and Akan fails to fulfil his promise. A shouting match ensues one afternoon. Then, friends advise Akan to go and tell a debt collector — the slithering, cold-blooded Ejo the snake, whose business nomenclature is ògò – debt collecting.
The snake agrees to help Adaba retrieve its money from Akan. So, before Akan arrives the next day to binge, the snake is already seated. After drinking, the crab gets up and heads for the door. “Hey! Where’s my money?” “I’ll give it to you tomorrow.” The dove pounces and calls on the snake to help retrieve all his money. Wahala!
No one has seen the crab run so fast. Maybe the drink was anabolic steroids to its 10 legs. But the snake followed in hot chase, with the dove flapping behind them, cooing, “Bere mu kun-kun, bere mu kun-kun,” meaning – Grab it tightly! Grab it tightly!” But the crab narrowly makes it into its burrow. And, the dove becomes even more agitated, cooing wildly, “Bere mu kun-kun, bere mu kun-kun.”
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This is a tricky test for the debt-collector, who pauses outside the burrow. Eventually, the snake inches its head into the burrow slowly; there was darkness and silence, then a sharp snap – ‘pai’ – and the snake swirls back outside in severe pain, writhing on the ground without its head. The debtor decapitates the debt collector; the crab has done its worst.
Nigeria is a crab republic. Since 1999, corruption wore a green-white-green agbada and sat in the saddle of democracy inside Aso Rock, aiding and abetting the crabs called leaders. Nigerian crabby leaders share similarities with the storied crab. Both sets are debtors, drunkards and tricksters.
Though aeons set the fabled crab and Nigeria’s crab-leaders apart, both are experts in fakery – producing fake oil, selling fake hope, and repaying kindness with evil. Nigerian crab leaders are meaner than the devil.
Where else but in the crabholes of Nigeria do herdsmen slaughter villagers by the hundreds without a single arrest? The crab government knows the killers, but peasant lives don’t matter in the burrows, nor do they matter in Benue, the current scene of bloodshed. Herdsmen are gods. Peasants are dogs.
The serpent swallowed its tail a long time ago when Jona-Dumb looked for his shoelace while the nation burnt, and the skeletal tyrant handed over the country to herdsmen before heading to Katsina ranch. Now, the mafia lord, cigar between clenched lips, presses down his Chicago boots on the masses’ neck, toasting to his impending 2027 electoral victory. “It is my turn!”
Since Olusegun Obasanjo’s reign, herdsmen have painted Nigeria red. Yet no killer has ever worn handcuffs (except once), no machete has been brought to court. But the DSS – Department of Supression and Suffocation – is hounding the call for a shadow government.
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There is a WIKEd crab in Abuja, roaming freely and wildly – claws up, ready to fight even its own shadow. He epitomises the crab mentality that defines Nigerian politics – drag others down, cling to power, oppress the oppressed, kill and loot.
For security purposes, the mythical crab safeguards its carapace with its protruding eyes, “oju ni alakan fi n sori,” but the crabs lording it over Nigeria don’t give a hoot if herdsmen level a whole state since they have armed escort, armoured cars and their hands in the till.
If you think that Nigerians don’t know that President Bola Tinubu’s visit to Benue was just a photo opportunity aka photo-op, which will not stop the next bloodbath, take a look at the photo of the mother sitting by the wounded child’s bedside in the hospital when the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, came calling. Her stare was icy, helpless and distant as if Akume and his well-fed band never existed. The picture captures Nigerians’ regret and loss of hope in the Tinubu government.
Popular social media influencer, Martins Vincent Otse, aka VeryDarkMan, visited Yelewata and interviewed an unnamed resident in the aftermath of the pogrom. The resident said the police engaged the killers, who later used another route to enter Yelewata and massacre.
Specifically, the resident mentioned Fulani herdsmen as the perpetrators of the mass murder carried out on the rainy night. Yes, rain fell, blood flowed, and the government yawned.
As national leader of the All Progressives Congress, I remember Tinubu disagreeing with those accusing herdsmen of being the killers of the daughter of Pa Reuben Fasoranti in 2022. Tinubu had asked, “Where are the cows?” But the police later arrested the killers, and the court sentenced them to death.
I implore Tinubu’s DSS to carry out a nationwide investigation to unravel if the herdsmen rode into Yelewata on cows. Maybe they will find some chewing cud beside the burnt corpses.
In Nigeria’s crab empire, cows roam, killer herdsmen thrive, lands abound without food, and oil wealth is meaningless. What is the name of a big-for-nothing country?
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: @Tunde Odesola
X: @Tunde_Odesola
Herdsmen and crabs swimming in Benue’s river of blood
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