Nature, Sculpture, Architecture in the Osun Forest, Part 2: Atmospheric Potency and Sacred Synergy : The Doorway of Transformation

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Nature, Sculpture, Architecture in the Osun Forest, Part 2

 Atmospheric Potency and Sacred Synergy 

        The  Doorway of Transformation

           Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju 

                           Abstract

This essay examines the Doorway of Transformation, a sacred threshold in Nigeria’s Osun Forest, Osogbo, leading from the Esu shrine complex to the Oro Grove, the Irunmole Conclave, and the Ogboni Grove.

The doorway symbolizes a portal through which the self is reshaped by encounters with the forest’s majestic trees, sculptural forms, and spiritual resonance. 

This transformative experience, framed as an Esu initiation, bridges human consciousness with cosmic mysteries, illuminating the interplay of choice, existence, and interconnectedness at the crossroads of being.

All pictures are by myself. 

       

Doorway from Esu Shrine Complex to Grove Network 

I declare that this doorway is my symbol, that this mysteriously lonely, compellingly inviting and forbidden entranceway is my ancestral door, that Soyinka and Abiodun,  Wenger and Onobrakpeya, Yeats and Abhinavagupta have passed through there.

This doorway is the  door from the Esu shrine complex into the section of the Osun forest in Osogbo, Nigeria,  constituted by the Oro Grove, the Irunmole Conclave and the Ogboni Grove.

The picture above shows it from outside, looking at the forest path it leads into.

External view of Doorway of Transformation showing part of the sculptural tableau, the Esu shrine complex, that immediately precedes it.

Cognitive Concentrations through Solitude

People are hardly seen there. Tourists do not visit. Likely because the space is consecrated to particular esoteric traditions, Oro and Ogboni, of the Yoruba origin Orisa spirituality the forest is associated with and therefore perhaps not open to the public.

A US embassy dignitary and her large entourage were once taken through there in my presence as part of a speedy tour of the forest and its artistic wonders,  its balance of vegetative wildness and human nature culturing, but this section of the vegetative zone is best appreciated in contemplative solitude.

Such a context exposes one to  the  atmospheric density of something that predates humanity, something existing in its own universe apart from the human world, something not open to being subsumed by human vision, something ancient and mysterious that envelops you as you stand or move in silence in that space.

Such an environment helps you better appreciate the immensity into which, by being born into the world, you have been thrown as a person entering the vast and mysterious universe, as depicted in the Urhobo Akporode concept, visualized by the artist Bruce Onobrakpeya in terms of glorious pillars emblazoned with symbols.

Onobrakpeya's Akporode installation, in adapting the majestic verticality of trees as evoked by the Urhobo pillar symbol of  aspiration to Oghene,  the creator of the universe, incidentally evokes the mentally expansive encounter with such spatial regions as this section of the Osun forest, constituted by magnificent trees, vegetal clusters inspiring the effort to make sense of existence though symbols dramatising mystery, awe and the scope and limitations of the understanding gained.

Transformative Configurations 

      Questions of Perception

In a fundamental way, I never emerge  through this door leading to this section of the forest as exactly the same person who passed through it to explore the wonders it leads into.

Those glories are the tree constellations of the Oro Grove and the vegetative womb that is the Ogboni Grove. 

Those magnificences also include the sculptural encapsulations of the Irunmole Conclave, complementing the sublimity of the Ogboni shrine house and  the scuptural matrix of the Esu Shrine Complex from which one passes through that doorway leading into those varied majesties.

The Oro Grove, the most uniquely compelling of the natural wonders of this place, is a relatively small space, its size ironic given its sense of spatial expanse generated by the cumulative force of the upward thrust of trees and the image of a complex network constituting a plant universe,  seeming to cohere into something beyond the material configuration actualized  by the plant world as perceptible to the eye, something that seems to shimmer at the entrance to the grove, out of the range of corporeal vision but palpable enough to be sensed by the attentive person, something akin to an invisible identity constituted by the relationships between the trees at its entrance, an unseeable web of radiance beyond the spectrum of human sight but glowing in a manner that touches sight without revealing itself, like the heat of the sun on the eyelids of a blind person,  who is thereby able to sense the existence of the solar power but cannot see it.

Is this enigmatic presence related to the Yoruba concept "ase", which Rowland Abiodun describes William Fagg as inadvertently referencing, a useful idea if we adapt the term "tribal" in Fagg's description in a creative way?:

"Tribal cultures tend to conceive things as four-dimensional objects in which the fourth or time dimension is dominant and in which matter is only the vehicle, or the outward and visible expression, of energy or life force. Thus it is energy and not matter, dynamic and not static being, which is the true nature of things".  ".

Is it possible to see what is sensed in that magnificent forest space?

Could such perception constitute " oju inu" , the inward eye, the Yoruba understanding of perception beyond the conventional range of the senses, as Babatunde Lawal states,  perception into what is sensed but not seen in such a place as the Oro grove,  opening one into participation in a universe of which the visible dimension of the forest is a limited expression, akin to Wole Soyinka's account of Yoruba Ijala poetry as celebrating "deity [as well as ] animal and plant life, the essence and relationships of growing things and the insights of man into the secrets of the universe"? 

Each tree a message from pre- human intelligences who planted them as a message to humanity as these figures left the Earth, contemplating which idea the tree that inspired it suddenly becoming enclosed in a cloud, invisible put potent,  from which flashes the understanding that I am about to experience something beyond any previous conception I have had, this being a description of a long ago encounter of mine with a tree in Benin-City, an awesome experience sensitizing me to the mystery of trees, their capacity as catalysts for knowledge beyond the boundaries of the mind.

I am suspended in a network of questions, marvels overflowing one's brain as one struggles with a version of Rudolph Otto's "numinous", "an invisible but majestic presence that inspires both dread and fascination and constitutes the non-rational element of vital religion".

Her eyes closed, she contemplates the universe within herself. Opening her eyes, she gives birth to the universe from within herself,  a universe rooted in herself.

Abhinavagupta 's account of how the Hindu Goddess Kali creates the cosmos from within mirrors the forest’s ability to awaken a mental universe, contributory to perceiving and shaping the external world.

Looking up at the soaring trees constituting the Oro grove, a sense of an expanse akin to the limitless unfolding of the sky emerges,  ablaze with stars spread over immense distances, as the watching consciousness is humbled and yet cocooned, minisculized yet uplifted by this glorious capsuling, existing within time yet seeming to enter into something beyond time through walking in silence into a grove in the Osun forest. 

Soyinka incidentally further projects the force of my experience of this vegetative zone as inspiring a senstivity to "the patient, eternal,  immovable immensity that surrounds [the human person] an undented vastness [evoking] a realm of infinity  [suggesting] the profound, elusive phenomenon of being and non-being..the bewildering phenomenon of the cosmic location of [the] human [person]".

Who are those who designated this place as a zone of esoteric power, possibly making it out of bounds to the general public outside initiates of Orisa esoterica? 

What did they observe in this subsumation of trees, as different from others, that led to that conclusion?

Why does my sense of the place as special, arrived at before learning of its particular sacred designation, converge with that of the cultural designators of this place?

To what degree are those people and I responding to something inherent to the space or to qualities attributed to it by ourselves,  triggered by what we see and sense there?

"All the gods of the world were trees and animals,  long, long before they entrusted their sancrosanct magnificence to a human figure", declares Susanne Wenger, the primary architect of the current recognition of the sacred identity of the Osun forest.

Can that be true? 

Nature is likely to be humanity's first encounter with the sacred.

        The Doorway of Transformation 

Something deep in me is touched by those explorations enabled  by the doorway into the forest. The structure of my consciousness is subtly reconfigured. 

Through reverberations  reaching deep into the self, blossoming  in moments of reflection, I am reshaped in ways beyond my full understanding.

Hence I refer to the doorway into this zone as the Doorway of Transformation and that entrace space as my ancestral door,  through which have passed figures representing some of the greatest influences in my quest for the meaning of cosmos, of the place of the human being in the magnificent journey that began when the universe came into being, exploding into existence in a cataclysm  the resonance of which continues to reverberate through the constellation of matter and energy, of principles of order and dynamism thereby generated.

Through the inspirational effects of those spaces I reach greater clarity on my history.

My mind is both elevated and better enlightened about my life as shaped by my quest for understanding. 

I am guided about my efforts in trying to penetrate the infinitely unfolding mystery that is existence.

I therefore undergo an Esu initiation anytime I explore this section of the forest. I experience the transformations represented by Esu, the orisa or deity  associated with the  recreative possibilities of choices symbolized by the crossroads of existence, the orisa enabling connections between forms of being and modes of knowledge,  between humans and spirits,  between human intelligence and spiritual wisdom, and even, as a more radical view puts it, the orisa enabling consciousness of self as different from the world as well as awareness of connectivity with the world,  the orisa to whom is dedicated the shrine complex through which one passes to the network of groves.

 

Note

This essay is a work in progress by a writer whose primary communication medium is social media. 

The further development of the essay requires a social media platform with more robust essay writing capacities than Gmail and Facebook the easiest to use on a phone, where the essay is being composed.

This richer social media system would be LinkedIn which supports rich image integration into the body of the essay beyond the few images allowed into a Google group. 

Facebook enables more images but they can't be integrated into the body of the essay since Facebook Notes were scrapped, leaving only Facebook updates and image albums as the publishing media there.

References and Inspirations

  Inspirations

The presentation of the  motif of the ancestral entranceway  in the opening paragraph of the main body of the essay adapts Irish poet W.B. Yeats in his "Dialogue Between Self and Soul".

The inspirational sequence of names in that first paragraph are not all explicitly reflected in the essay, some of them inspiring sections of the piece without being mentioned. 

I might include reference to them through the expanded image integration of the second edition of the essay.

   References 

Wole Soyinka,  Myth, Literature and the African World.

Bruce Onobrakpeya,  Akporode, Onobrak Arts Centre,  Agbarha-Otor.

Rowland Abiodun, Yoruba Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art.

Babatunde Lawal, " Aworan: Representing the Self and its Metaphysical Other in Yoruba Art".

Rudolph Otto, The Idea of the Holy.

Abhinavagupta, The Tantraloka, Light on the Tantras. English translation by Mark Dyczkowski.

Hotter and Bruckman, Adunni: A Portrait of Susanne Wenger.

Awo Faolokun Fatumnbi, Esu-Elegba: Ifa and the Divine Messenger.

Henry Louis Gates Jr, The Signifying Monkey.

Ayodele Ogundipe, "Retention and Survival of Yoruba Traditional Religion in the Diaspora: Esu in Brazil and Benin Republic" in Ivie: Nigerian Journal of Arts and Culture, Vol.1.No.1, 1986.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju

wonderful 

like Armah’s 

beautyful 

Many thanks for this

your latest evocative description

transporting us on the wings of magic words

to the sacred, mystic, enchanted, living, breathing

tropical Osun Forest, a spiritual location, much like

Ramana Maharshi’s much venerated Arunachala, 

on our mother earth, our people’s planet. 

I was going to question your certainty, going to ask you to please explain what you mean by 

“I declare that this doorway is my symbol, that this mysteriously lonely, compellingly inviting and  

forbidden entranceway is my ancestral door, that Soyinka and Abiodun,  Wenger and

 Onobrakpeya, Yeats and Abhinavagupta have passed through there.” - 

but then there was this brief

section of Matthew Arnold  -

“Sophocles long ago

Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought

Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow

Of human misery…”

of course not about the Sacred Ganges, ringing in my ear 

and of course, what do deities have to do with misery ?  

My tentative question was partly answered by your reference to

 "Dialogue Between Self and Soul"

Many thanks for that too , because it left me wondering whether or not the likes of Walt Whitman , Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau also, possibly the pantheistic William Wordsworth “passed through there”?

Cornelius Ignoramus

Cosmic Ignorance

CI for short 

Would like to know. 

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Thank you very much

Thanks to Thoreau too, for Walden 

This day and age, mention forest and the spectre of deforestation 

appears, and with it, Mercy Mercy Me,  all our ecological concerns, latest edition 

The Language of Trees

 

How much has the Sacred Osun Forest been featured in National Geographic ?

And this exciting news about the trees' underground communication networks ! 

The role of rivers in Hinduism and the holiness of rivers in Hindu civilisation makes it even more exciting to note that “Osun-Osogbo is a sacred grove along the banks of the Osun river “

There are said to be powerful spirits in oceans, rivers, lakes, seas, oceans , hence people are still making baptismal pilgrimage to the River Jordan - and there are also some powerful esoteric sects such as The Brotherhood of the Cross and Star which I know, flourished in Cross Rivers State in the early 1980s,....

So Brer Soyinka also “ passed through there”

From the sublime to the profane , what’s this I hear 

Wole Soyinka says “Peter Obi is not fit to lead Nigeria !”

Fuel + fire : “Why Igbo Man Can't Be President Of Nigeria”

What saith Oluwatoyin ?

On Wednesday, 20 August 2025 at 11:42:47 UTC+2 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

" .

" I hope to contribute to expanding the current inadequate visibility of classical African sacred spaces "

On Thu, 21 Aug 2025, 16:00 Oluwatoyin Adepoju, <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:

Great thanks Cornelius.

The list of inspiring influencers was trimmed to what you saw.

The previous list had Wordsworth and Armah but not those US nature writers whom I know about but have not read.

Thanks for alerting me to that duty to myself.

Also seems I might not have given the correct Yeats poetry reference which I later confirmed is "Blood and the Moon".

The doorway becomes a symbol for my total journey of knowledge, represented by the inspiration of writers some of whom are referenced in the essay.

These personages seem to converge on that doorway which becomes an interdimensional gateway collapsing or conjoinjng various coordinates of space and time representing the when and how of the influence of those masters.

I got the idea from Yeats' " I declare this tower is my symbol/that this winding, gyring, spiring treadmill of a stair is my ancestral stair/that Goldsmith and the Dean, Berkeley and Burke, have travelled there.

I was lucky to explore that section of the forest before learning its a restricted zone.

I want to see if i can get permission to come and go freely from the place in the name of my spiritual and artistic explorations.

The custodians of those locations are hard core Yoruba speakers and being able to speak the language fluently would go a long way but God knows how I would learn to communicate in Yoruba the subtle ideas those zones of the forest inspire in me.

I have many pictures and videos  of the two week pilgrimage initiated by my attending TOFAC 2025 at Osogbo but am yet to work out an adequate manner of sharing them which I hope to do once im free. Gmail to groups now accepts only a very small no of images per post.

Thanks for the reference to Ramana Maharshi and Arunachala. Paul Brunton quotes him as stating that be held that being of various levels of loftiness live in that hill.

I hope to contribute to the current inadequate visibility of classical African sacred.

The best writers on the Osun forest are Susanne Wenger and Ulli Beier but their  books on the subject are not generally well known.

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Great thanks Cornelius.

The list of inspiring influencers was trimmed to what you saw.

The previous list had Wordsworth and Armah but not those US nature writers whom I know about but have not read.

Thanks for alerting me to that duty to myself.

Also seems I might not have given the correct Yeats poetry reference which I later confirmed is "Blood and the Moon".

The doorway becomes a symbol for my total journey of knowledge, represented by the inspiration of writers some of whom are referenced in the essay.

These personages seem to converge on that doorway which becomes an interdimensional gateway collapsing or conjoinjng various coordinates of space and time representing the when and how of the influence of those masters.

I got the idea from Yeats' " I declare this tower is my symbol/that this winding, gyring, spiring treadmill of a stair is my ancestral stair/that Goldsmith and the Dean, Berkeley and Burke, have travelled there.

I was lucky to explore that section of the forest before learning its a restricted zone.

I want to see if i can get permission to come and go freely from the place in the name of my spiritual and artistic explorations.

The custodians of those locations are hard core Yoruba speakers and being able to speak the language fluently would go a long way but God knows how I would learn to communicate in Yoruba the subtle ideas those zones of the forest inspire in me.

I have many pictures and videos  of the two week pilgrimage initiated by my attending TOFAC 2025 at Osogbo but am yet to work out an adequate manner of sharing them which I hope to do once im free. Gmail to groups now accepts only a very small no of images per post.

Thanks for the reference to Ramana Maharshi and Arunachala. Paul Brunton quotes him as stating that be held that being of various levels of loftiness live in that hill.

I hope to contribute to the current inadequate visibility of classical African sacred.

The best writers on the Osun forest are Susanne Wenger and Ulli Beier but their  books on the subject are not generally well known.

On Thu, 21 Aug 2025, 11:55 Cornelius Hamelberg, <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

National Geographic Magazine : The Osun Forest

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Very great thanks for the info on forests, for the Google search and for the rich links, Cornelius.  I lot there I need to learn from.

Im not too excited about naija politics right now so I appeal to keep my peace on it.

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Stockholm

Sweden

Planet Earth 

Today in history: 22nd August…

(Peoples’ Planet) 

the peopled planet 

P.P.

Big Grammar plethora of political parties  

not APC or PDP or LP 

or NNPP or APGA or 

YPP, ADC, PRP, SDP

not Bullshit Party, BP  

not Pi Pi Pi or Koffi’s 

Pi Pi Pi 

Oluwatoyin, 

May the spirits be happy with you ! 

The spirits may be happy with every effort you make to augment and amplify their presence, to put the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove on the world map, and that too could be good for tourism - or could it be that they (the custodians of the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove) prefer secrecy and don’t want too much publicity ?

Please permit this little phantasmagoria: From the mystical and magical to the practical give us our daily bread and butter, the practicalities  - necessities that man is heir to, fresh air, clean water, and from there, maybe, pure fantasy, the numinous, the not so numinous, some more holy or not so holy gobbledegook, another crazy Footnote to Howl or much better, the holy fool , cosmic idiot ( c.i. ) or cosmic clown ( c.c. ) cosmic chi ( c.c. ) cosmic d …cosmic e, f, g sharp minor

“Old lady judges watch people in pairs

Limited in sex, they dare

To push fake morals, insult and stare

While money doesn’t talk, it swears

Obscenity, who really cares

Propaganda, all is phony”

So you’re “not too excited about naija politics right now ”. Surely,  you don’t mean to say that because of this lack of excitement you are prepared to just sit back and watch Naija slide into the abyss, the bottomless pit of anarchy & corruption, a  distinct possibility that Professor Jibrin Ibrahim has been warning about ?

 At least you cannot accuse senior statesman Brother or Brer Soyinka of writing what some critics deemed escapist literature of the type cooked up by fellow Nobel Laureate Hermann Hesse whose rather paci-fis-tic , escapist literature is variously accused of not having confronted the Nazis frontally. But what do I know?  His Siddhartha and Demian et al, set me off on a mystical quest, a wild goose chase, (this was while the Vietnam War was still raging and with the mining of the harbour at Haiphong, I was sure that so help me God, the world was coming to a complete and final END, but what do I know? Every day we're getting closer to it, every day the world is slowly but surely coming to an end, it’s the second law of thermodynamics. Meanwhile,  due to some kind of psychological blockage after several intentful false starts I have as yet been unable to zap right through his Magister Ludi .That’s Hermann Hesse for me and there ain’t any going back to him,from me…

Once someone has passed through the crucible, completed the seven journeys through the seven heavens, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, we would be talking about the whole man, Insan al-Kamil//the perfect man, not about half of the man - and because there’s supposedly no inner division within that kind of consciousness, since there’s the political man whose moral/ human calculations are not dimmed or separated into another sphere nor does he stop acting in synch with - in Soyinka’s case the spiritual man ; His Exalted Literary Majesty, His  Ecclesiastical & Existential  Eminence  Cardinal Wole Soyinka, Voodoo High Priest of an Exalted Super-Natural Yoruba Cult (like tribal Judaism) or a universal religion, and thus we are not to suspect that someone descends from enlightenment to unenlightenment, that someone wakes up and then goes back to sleep  - indeed Baba Ram Dass suggests that if The Buddha were to be one's therapist, at the end of the session/s one would emerge from the treatment fully enlightened and not revert to playing the role of Touchstone or some cosmic clown. ( And by the way in 1979, during dinner at a Stockholm restaurant, Soyinka , Kofi Awonoor and me, just we three,  Kofi Awoonor ( Ewe super-cultural -nationalist) tried to ridicule me because I told him that according to Tibetan Buddhism, we all fell from the same tree. As you know in the region of comparative religious ideas/ mythologies etc, some people are not aware that in the human family there’s also something known as the Bodhi tree, looking down on Shri Hanuman, who the  Pakistani Muslims love to denigrate as “the Hindu Monkey God”, like Salman Rushdie ( check out the opening of his “The Satanic Verses”) they think that we all fell off the same Baobab or Mango tree  not far from our natal hometown in wherever, as Joseph Brodsky put it when asked about his roots, he said, ”Well, I’m not a tree” 

I mention Soyinka*s  steady, not periodic or evanescent commitment to the future of humanity - of the humankind in Nigeria, the redemption of the body politic , the collective soul of the one people who make up the Naija nation, and in that regard we’re not talking about scattered body parts, some dismembered by the wanton looters, much worse than Boko Haram & ransom kidnappers who go for Nigerian bodies and material artefacts not giving a damn about their “soul” / neshama  - whereas I sense that for Brer Soyinka who died daily  - in “The Man Died” ,  and having passed through The Gates of Eden / Nirvana /  Heaven, having walked on hot coals  - last night I made this comparative point in a phone discussion with Baba Kadiri : while Peter Obi was gladly accepting an appointment from Sani Abacha as director of the Ports Authority, Wole Soyinka was on a world tour as self-appointed and anointed anti-Abacha ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, campaigning against that dictator who was then busy trampling on everybody’s democratic rights in Nigeria - which should lead you to conclude, dear Oluwatoyin, that in the political beast too there is no separation in conscience or consciousness between the beast that Abacha was  said to have been and the outside democratic veneer of the beast concealed inside of his within.  Achille Mbembe talks about this in the chapter on obscenity “The Aesthetics of Vulgarity” in his On the Postcolony

Nigeria is forever such an interesting place! I referred to The Brotherhood of the Cross and Star and now thank you for bringing our attention to Yeats’ Blood and the Moon 

By the way, because charity begins at home, I’m surprised  - partly mortified really that you point at the moon but not at everyone's Nigerian darling Christopher Okigbo and his Heavensgate…. 

Speak of loneliness and Rilke comes to mind…  

 

And still more associative thinking , rich and never ending Persian Mysticism and this place name, Konya , Konya and Rumi …

Other facts of life : Lagos Ownership & Identities: The Documentary

May your endeavours prosper ! 

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Great thanks Cornelius, for that passionate and illusive style of scholarship.

Yes, I admire Soyinka's writings and his pro-democracy political activity but his partisan politics does not excite me.

If truly he made those comments about Obi, where are his assessments of the stewardship of Tinubu as President or of Buhari?

When anyone dismisses a Presidential candidate such as Obi, who has a better pedigree than Buhari, whom Soyinka supported and has not disavowed nor does he have the identity challenges of Tinubu why should I be particularly interested?

Is this not the same Soyinka of "The Trouble with Buhari ", the most trenchant anti-Buhari critique before his Presidency enabled by those in the anti-GEJ camp to which Soyinka was central?

Is that not the Soyinka known for his problematic alliance with then Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi and his running battle with GEJ's wife?

Why should I take such a political commentator seriously?

Im tempted to divert attention from this response and check out what Soyinka actually stated about Obi but is that worth my precious early morning time?

Would Soyinka analyse why Obi was able to defeat Tinubu in Lagos, an epochal feat of the kind that has occurred only twice in Nigerian history, the first being Ziks victory in the SW in the 60s?

Will he compare the strategies used to nullify Ziks victory with that used by Lagos APC to regain ground in the subsequent guber elections through a rabid anti-Igbo campaign which some see   as continuing through govt declarations and policies till the present, such as threats of rescinding certificates of land ownership and the renaming of streets?

Will he examine the actuality of claims that Igbos are actively competing with Yorubas for dominance in Lagos, declaring that Lagos is a no man's land free for dominance by anyone?

Is the Soyinka of 2015-2025 the same as the Soyinka of the 60s and the anti-Abacha struggle era?

I've just had a look at what Soyinka is  described as stating about Obi and it seems to confirm my initial stance not to take Soyinka seriously on the subject.

He is quoted as stating Obi can't lead beceause he encourages the vitriolic behaviour of his more combative supporters and even controls such behaviour.

I am yet to see evidence corroborating that view. Ill be pleased to have it pointed out to me.

I also recall the same Soyinka openly supported and enabled the ascension of Buhari, a master of incitive political strategy,  whose followers massacred innocent youth corpers beceause Buhari lost an election which it was clear he could not win,  the same Buhari who declared that "the dog and the baboon would  be covered in blood" if his earlier electoral defeat were repeated in the last race that eventually brought him to the Presidency, the same Buhari who used the Boko Haram insurgency as a political tool by declaring Boko Haram the work of the GEJ govt and on another occasion declaring the war against Boko Haram a war against the North?

Is this Soyinka the kind that should be taken seriously?

Is his current politics different from that of an APC stooge?

A superlative writer and spiritual thinker but an unreliable politician.

Having addressed what would ordinarily not command my attention bcs I would consider it not worthy of my time, I can now proceed to  address other things in your comments.

I would not want my response to the sublime things you are discussing to be mixed with the unenriching discourse on Soyinka's politics so I'll continue in another message.

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks for referencing Okigbo.

His Labyrinths is a masterpiece of animistic mysticism, the idea of union with the source of existence through an element otherwise understood as inanimate but is described as endowed with consciousness by animists.

Okigbo was in the larger list of inspirational figures which I trimmed. I adapt his approach to Idoto in terms of inspiring natural forms in Nigeria.

The description of Arunachala is also oriented towards animistic mysticism in that the hill is understood to be a manifestation of Shiva, the source of the universe.

The aspiration to union with Shiva is an aporoach to Shaivism. The non-dualist school of Shaivism understands the cosmos to be Shiva in action and human consciousness as identical with Shiva.

The difference between animistic mystical orientations to the village stream of which Okigbo’s Idoto is a goddess and Arunachala, depicted as Shiva's manifestation,  is that Okigbo’s identification of Idoto with " the water spirit that nurtures all creation"  as he puts it in the introduction to Labyrinths,  is likely to be a purely personal attribution not shared by others within the culture where Idoto was venerated while the Shaivite interpretation of Arunachala is a cultural consensus among those who identify with the hill in India.

 Mystical theory and practice are very well developed in India.The African situation, on the other hand, is complex.

Thanks

Toyin

On Sat, 23 Aug 2025, 06:00 Oluwatoyin Adepoju, <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:

Correction:

"Great thanks for that passionate and allusive style of scholarship".

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Correction:

"Great thanks for that passionate and allusive style of scholarship".

On Sat, 23 Aug 2025, 05:57 Oluwatoyin Adepoju, <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju :

 Your problem seems to be that it’s not the veracity or reasonableness of Soyinka’s critique that bothers you  - it’s the identity of the critic, and there too you unwittingly commit the biographical heresy, after all Wole Soyinka is not celebrated or venerated by either hagiographer or detractor, as a confounded liar, on the contrary his credibility is not undermined but cemented by the values espoused in his Reith Lectures, which I recommend you pay some attention , and please stop exaggerating about the petty and the patently ridiculous such as his alleged “ running battle with GEJ's wife”

This man ( Eddie Palmieri) just died.

Here’s one of his early hits 

Eddie Palmieri : Harlem River Drive: 

Idle Hands : 

“ You all know the story -- how it all began

It took five days - and then came Man

Oh, the land was free; and so were we

No slavery - to lead the poverty”

The lyrics continued : https://genius.com/Harlem-river-drive-idle-hands-lyrics

Yes indeed,

and on the sixth day God

made man, the political animal 

and so, no holds barred

we primates descend

from the cosmic sea, from

the compassionate, speculative, 

mystical, sublime, to the profane, 

partisan, patriotic, sometimes insane, 

contemporarily political: 

What Wole Soyinka says about Peter Obi

What Femi Fani-Kayode says about Peter Obi

 Femi Fani-Kayode vs Peter Obi

The very last I read on this matter was PETER OBI IS A CHAMELEON by 

 Baba Kadiri, it’s  quite a long a piece that thus metaphorically begins: 

 

 “As we all know, chameleon is a cunningly deceptive reptile blessed with the ability to modify its skin pigmentation to reflect the predominant colour of its immediate environment. Most snakes, birds or other known Carnivore have no appetite for the chameleon, perhaps due to the fact that the skin is reportedly poisonous. Changing colour, combined with its slow movements and its swift swift and sticky tongue which is the longest in the world and can be launched and retrieved in a fraction of second makes it a predator in its own right. Insects and small birds are its major victims. Factually, the  chameleon changes its colour not for self- protection but most importantly for its stomach.” 

As for me, over here in my quiet corner, I have no dog in the fight.

As the bird sang,

“You may be livin' in another country under another name

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes, you are…” (Yes, you are a servant) 

And that’s why you  Gotta Serve Somebody 

As a profound Nigerian national I suppose you have every right to pick and choose what interests you, to vote for Alhaji Atiku or the not so holy Peter Obi and if need be and your good heart so moves or leads you, to vote for some contemporary Biblical Barabbas or the name of the thief on the cross who was crucified with Jesus about whom Jesus said, “This day wilt thou be with me in paradise”

For your purview, some more food for thought, the first part of

PETER OBI IS A CHAMELEON By S. Kadiri

As we all know, chameleon is a cunningly deceptive reptile blessed with the ability to modify its skin pigmentation to reflect the predominant colour of its immediate environment. Most snakes, birds or other known carnivores have no appetite for the chameleon, perhaps due to the fact that the skin is reportedly poisonous. Changing colour, combined with its slow movements and its swift swift and sticky tongue which is the longest in the world and can be launched and retrieved in a fraction of second makes it a predator in its own right. Insects and small birds are its major victims. Factually, the  chameleon changes its colour not for self- protection but most importantly for its stomach. 

 When General Sani Abacha took over power in 1993 and many Nigerians demanded that justice be done to the results of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election, be the young Peter Obi, then in his early thirties, cunningly presented himself as a lover of Abacha's dictatorship. Consequently, General Abacha selected him to be the Director of Nigerian Ports Authority. Obi's period at NPA was noted for importation of junks into Nigeria and coincidentally Obi got enough money from NPA to invest in Fidelity Bank. 

After the death of Abacha, June 8, 1998, the plan for a democratically elected government in Nigeria began. Obi could not join any of the political parties in 1999 because most of them were anti- military dictatorship. However, by 2003, Peter Obi joined the APGA party led by Odumegwu Ojukwu to contest for the governorship of Anambra State. Dr Chris Ngige of the PDP was declared the winner of Anambra State gubernatorial election, 2003. Peter Obi challenged the result in the Court. While the case was pending in the Court, a dispute occurred between Governor Ngige and Chris Uba, the brother of Andy Uba who was Special Adviser to President Obasanjo. Both Andy Uba and Obasanjo were of the opinion that Governor Ngige should at least share the money budgeted for security with Chris Uba who had facilitated the election of the Governor. Ngige refused despite all manners of State's power deployed by Obasanjo to compel Ngige to comply. Thereafter, Chris Uba went public to declare how election result sheets were thumb printed in private lodges in favour of Dr Chris Ngige to become Anambra State Governor. Chris Uba later witnessed in Court against Ngige whose election was nullified six months to the 2007 Federal election and Peter Obi was immediately sworn in as the Governor of Anambra State. 

In the 2007 Federal election, Andy Uba contested against the six months old Peter Obi's governorship. When Andy Uba was declared the winner of the election, Peter Obi filed a constitutional case at the Supreme court, asking it to determine if his four years tenure began when he was sworn in as a Governor late in November 2006 or not. The Supreme Court decided that his four years tenure began when he was sworn in and as such the April 2007 gubernatorial election in Anambra was null and void. Thus, Peter Obi was a two-term APGA political party's Governor of Anambra for  8 years before he handed over to Willie Obiano in 2014. During his 8 years tenure Anambra did not become New York, Paris, or London. Mostly, he deposited a huge portion of the Revenue Allocation received from the Federation Account into fidelity bank in which he had substantial interest. While the people of Anambra were afflicted with constant dysentery and cholera due to lack of potable water, Peter Obi invested billions of naira of Anambra money in beer brewing which was 50 naira per share then but worths only 5 naira per share today.

Back in 2012, Peter Obi publicly vowed never to leave APGA but 8 months after handing over to another UPGA Governor, Peter Obi the Chameleon changed his party colour to PDP. At the 2019 Presidential election, Peter Obi was on a joint ticket with Atiku Abubakar as a Vice-president candidate for PDP. After the eight years tenure of Muhammadu Buhari as the President, it was assumed that it was the turn of the South to produce the president as agreed by the political elites. Atiku Abubakar insisted on contesting in the presidential primary of the PDP. On April 29, 2022, Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi and Atiku Abubakar were among 15 members of the PDP screened and cleared to contest in the PDP presidential primary election scheduled to take place on May 28, 2022. That implies that the PDP in compliance with  Section 77 (2&3) of the Electoral Acts, 2022, must have sent register of containing names of its members to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) latest 28 April 2022 as specifically required in Section 77 (3) of the Electoral Acts, 2022. The PDP membership register thus forwarded to the INEC on 28 April 2022 must have contained the name of Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi as a member of the PDP. However, four days to the PDP presidential primary election, Tuesday, 24 May 2022, P. G. O.O. resigned his membership of PDP. On Friday, 27 May 2022, Obi joined the Labour Party. On Monday 30, 2022, Labour Party had its presidential primary election and Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi emerged as the presidential flag bearer of the party. If the Labour Party had complied with Section 77 (2&3) of the Electoral Acts 2022, it ought to have sent its membership register to INEC latest May 1, 2022, and the name of Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi could not have been there since he was not a member until Friday, 27 May 2022. The implementation of why political parties are required to submit their membership register to INEC thirty days before their primaries, congresses or conventions is to ensure that is to ensure that a person must have been a member of a party for, at least, 30 days to be qualified to contest for an elected post on behalf of the party. Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi was a member of Labour Party for 72 hours when he became their presidential candidate in contravention of *Section 77 (3) of the Electoral Acts, 2022, specifically enacted to prevent those who failed to obtain nomination of their party to contest for an elective post to cross over to any of the small party to buy nomination. That's how lawful Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi the Chameleon is.

Recently, a Nigerian woman by name, Comfort Emmanson, on Ibom Air Uyo-Lagos flight AN 513 was involved in an altercation with Ibom Air's staff. On arriving in Lagos she was manhandled by the staff of Ibom Air before causing her to be arrested by the police and charging her in court where she was remanded in custody pending trial. A week earlier, a male airline passenger was also involved in a dispute with the crews of the airplane during boarding in Lagos. The Staff of the airline, not Ibom Air, did not report the incident to the law enforcing agent. Reacting on the two incidents, Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi saw selective justice where Comfort Emmanson was arraigned in court but not Wasiu Ayinde. At the same time, Obi the Chameleon was apologizing to the Staff of Ibom Air for what he termed the unruly behaviour of Comfort Emmanson. However, NCAA has debunked selective justice according to the following link: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/08/why-ibom-air-passenger-emmanson-was-charged-to-court-and-not-kwam-1-ncaa/

 

*Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi was Governor of Anambra State for eight years and during this period two-thirds of inmates in Anambra were people awaiting trials. Most of them had been in solitary confinement for over five years for offences which on conviction would not be higher than six months. Obi's compassion did not make him to release those innocent souls from prison, even though he had power to do so.  We have heard about *Pandora Papers and Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi's involvement in Offshore Companies in Tax Havens in the British Virgin Islands and Barbados. Obi remained as Director of Next International (UK) Limited while serving as Governor of Anambra State which was in direct variation of Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act. Obi's non- declaration of his Offshore Companies was in gross violation of the provisions of the Constitution of Nigeria that requires public officers to declare all their properties, assets and liabilities. If not for selective justice, people like X-governor Obi would have been behind the bar. Actually, the justice system in Nigeria is selective but as the Yoruba aphorism says, "Bi oju akata ba yo ewo, enu adie ko ni ao ti gbo," meaning if there's boil in the face of jackass, the fowl is not qualified to talk about it…

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Edited 2

Cornelius, 

I stated I'm yet to see evidence that backs Soyinka's claim that Obi controls the negative behavior of the combative ones among his followers.

If you describe Obi as a chameleon, what is Soyinka?

Please go over the reasons why I told you Soyinka's comments are not worthy of being taken seriously, being the stance of a person's whose perspectives are no better than those of an APC stooge.

When you are prepared to analyze the specific points I made about Soyinka's politics instead of of quoting the same Kadiri, an anti-Igbo ideologue, who, in the wake of Obi 's victory in Lagos in the last elections,  argued in this group, in a bout of fantasy, that IPOB was working on invading Lagos, then we can have a serious discussion.

Otherwise we might do well to remain on spiritual and philosophical discussions.

Soyinka is a great writer and a superlative thinker on cultural issues but he is an unreliable politician which is the more accurate way to see him,not simply as a social activist.

He seemed to have supported Biafra during the war, going by his memoir The Man Died and he also legitimized IBB's coup created govt by accepting an appointment in it.

He was a solid fighter against the first Buhari regime but he also enabled Buhari's becoming President even though not only was there no evidence that Buhari was reformed but the evidence indicates that Buhari had become a terrorism supporter.

He is known to condemn Obi but is not known for much critique of Buhari or  any critique of the deeply controversial govt of Tinubu.

So, Soyinka is not best seen as an epitome of political values but as a once impressive social activist as well as a  mercurial politician.

You are invoking Femi Fani Kayode on Peter Obi.

Do you know anything - with all due respect - about the political history of FFK?

And you are invoking the chameleon concept against Obi in contrast to FFK?

Are you aware that FFK is the consummate Nigerian politician of no fixed ideological identity?

A once vitriolic critic of Tinubu and a powerful critic of APC for years, he crossed over to APC and became an APC attack creature, writing hateful things against Igbos after Obi's victory in Lagos, advocating a sweeping economic emasculation of Igbos in Lagos even if it meant the denudation of strategic sectors of the Lagos economy, such as the technological hub known as the Computer Village and Alabama International Market bcs of what he described as Igbo dominance there?

A brilliant writer but a person of no political stability.

I looked through what Kadiri had to say about Obi.

Has Kadiri similarly addressed  the controversies about Tinubu and Buhari?

Why the selectivity?

Thanks 

Toyin

On Sun, Aug 24, 2025, 9:53 PM Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:

Edited

Cornelius, 

I stated I'm yet to see evidence that backs Soyinka's claim that Obi controls the negative behavior of the combative ones among his followers.

If you describe Obi as a chameleon, what is Soyinka?

Please go over the reasons why I told you Soyinka's comments are not worthy of being taken seriously, being the stance of a person's whose perspectives are no better than those of an APC stooge.

When you are prepared to analyze the specific points I made about Soyinka's politics instead of of quoting the same Kadiri, an anti-Igbo ideologue, who, in the wake of Obi 's victory in Lagos in the last elections,  argued in this group, in a bout of fantasy, that IPOB was working on invading Lagos, then we can have a serious discussion.

Otherwise we might do well to remain on spiritual and philosophical discussions.

Soyinka is a great writer and a superlative thinker on cultural issues but he is an unreliable politician which is the more accurate way to see him,not simply as a social activist.

He seemed to have supported Biafra during the war, going by his memoir The Man Died and he also legitimized IBB's coup created govt by accepting an appointment in it.

He was a solid fighter against the first Buhari regime but he also enabled Buhari's becoming President even though not only was there no evidence that Buhari was reformed but the evidence indicates that Buhari had become a terrorism supporter.

He is known to condemn Obi but is not known for much critique of Buhari or  any critique of the deeply controversial govt of Tinubu.

So, Soyinka is not best seen as an epitome of political values but as a once impressive social activist as well as a  mercurial politician.

You are invoking Femi Fani Kayode on Peter Obi.

Do you know anything - with all due respect - about the political history of FFK?

And you are invoking the chameleon concept against Obi in contrast to FFK?

Are you aware that FFK is the consummate Nigerian politician of no fixed ideological identity?

A once vitriolic critique of Tinubu he crossed over to APC and became an APC attack creature, writing hateful things against Igbos after Obi's victory in Lagos, advocating a sweeping economic emasculation of Igbos in Lagos even if it meant the denudation of the Lagos economy?

A brilliant writer but a person of no political stability.

I looked through what Kadiri had to say about Obi.

Has Kadiri similarly addressed  the controversies about Tinubu and Buhari?

Why the selectivity?

Thanks 

Toyin

On Sun, Aug 24, 2025, 9:51 PM Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:

Cornelius, 

I stated I'm yet to see evidence that backs Soyinka's claim that Obi controls the negative behavior of the combative ones among his followers.

If you describe Obi as a chameleon, what if Soyinka?

Please go over the reasons why I told you Soyinka's comments are not worthy of being taken seriously, being the stance of a person's whose perspectives are no better than those of an APC stooge.

When you are prepared to analyze the specific points I made about Soyinka's politics instead of of quoting the same Kadiri, an anti-Igbo ideologue, who, in the wake of Obi 's victory in Lagos in the last elections,  argued in this group, in a bout of fantasy, that IPOB was working on invading Lagos, then we can have a serious discussion.

Otherwise we might do well to remain on spiritual and philosophical discussions.

Soyinka is a great writer and a superlative thinker on cultural issues but he is an unreliable politician which is the more accurate way to see him,not simply as a social activist.

He seemed to have supported Biafra during the war, going by his memoir The Man Died and he also legitimized IBB's coup created govt by accepting an appointment in it.

He was a solid fighter against the first Buhari regime but he also enabled Buhari's becoming President even though not only was there no evidence that Buhari was reformed but the evidence indicates that Buhari had become a terrorism supporter.

He is known to condemn Obi but is not known for much critique of Buhari or  any critique of the deeply controversial govt of Tinubu.

So, Soyinka is not best seen as an epitome of political values but as a once impressive social activist as well as a  mercurial politician.

You are invoking Femi Fani Kayode on Peter Obi.

Do you know anything - with all due respect - about the political history of FFK?

And you are invoking the chameleon concept against Obi in contrast to FFK?

Are you aware that FFK is the consummate Nigerian politician of no fixed ideological identity?

A once vitriolic critique of Tinubu he crossed over to APC and became an APC attack creature, writing hateful things against Igbos after Obi's victory in Lagos, advocating a sweeping economic emasculation of Igbos in Lagos even if it meant the denudation of the Lagos economy?

A brilliant writer but a person of no political stability.

I looked through what Kadiri had to say about Obi.

Has Kadiri similarly addressed  the controversies about Tinubu and Buhari?

Why the selectivity?

Thanks 

Toyin

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Cornelius, 

I stated I'm yet to see evidence that backs Soyinka's claim that Obi controls the negative behavior of the combative ones among his followers.

If you describe Obi as a chameleon, what if Soyinka?

Please go over the reasons why I told you Soyinka's comments are not worthy of being taken seriously, being the stance of a person's whose perspectives are no better than those of an APC stooge.

When you are prepared to analyze the specific points I made about Soyinka's politics instead of of quoting the same Kadiri, an anti-Igbo ideologue, who, in the wake of Obi 's victory in Lagos in the last elections,  argued in this group, in a bout of fantasy, that IPOB was working on invading Lagos, then we can have a serious discussion.

Otherwise we might do well to remain on spiritual and philosophical discussions.

Soyinka is a great writer and a superlative thinker on cultural issues but he is an unreliable politician which is the more accurate way to see him,not simply as a social activist.

He seemed to have supported Biafra during the war, going by his memoir The Man Died and he also legitimized IBB's coup created govt by accepting an appointment in it.

He was a solid fighter against the first Buhari regime but he also enabled Buhari's becoming President even though not only was there no evidence that Buhari was reformed but the evidence indicates that Buhari had become a terrorism supporter.

He is known to condemn Obi but is not known for much critique of Buhari or  any critique of the deeply controversial govt of Tinubu.

So, Soyinka is not best seen as an epitome of political values but as a once impressive social activist as well as a  mercurial politician.

You are invoking Femi Fani Kayode on Peter Obi.

Do you know anything - with all due respect - about the political history of FFK?

And you are invoking the chameleon concept against Obi in contrast to FFK?

Are you aware that FFK is the consummate Nigerian politician of no fixed ideological identity?

A once vitriolic critique of Tinubu he crossed over to APC and became an APC attack creature, writing hateful things against Igbos after Obi's victory in Lagos, advocating a sweeping economic emasculation of Igbos in Lagos even if it meant the denudation of the Lagos economy?

A brilliant writer but a person of no political stability.

I looked through what Kadiri had to say about Obi.

Has Kadiri similarly addressed  the controversies about Tinubu and Buhari?

Why the selectivity?

Thanks 

Toyin

On Sun, Aug 24, 2025, 7:51 PM Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Edited

Cornelius, 

I stated I'm yet to see evidence that backs Soyinka's claim that Obi controls the negative behavior of the combative ones among his followers.

If you describe Obi as a chameleon, what is Soyinka?

Please go over the reasons why I told you Soyinka's comments are not worthy of being taken seriously, being the stance of a person's whose perspectives are no better than those of an APC stooge.

When you are prepared to analyze the specific points I made about Soyinka's politics instead of of quoting the same Kadiri, an anti-Igbo ideologue, who, in the wake of Obi 's victory in Lagos in the last elections,  argued in this group, in a bout of fantasy, that IPOB was working on invading Lagos, then we can have a serious discussion.

Otherwise we might do well to remain on spiritual and philosophical discussions.

Soyinka is a great writer and a superlative thinker on cultural issues but he is an unreliable politician which is the more accurate way to see him,not simply as a social activist.

He seemed to have supported Biafra during the war, going by his memoir The Man Died and he also legitimized IBB's coup created govt by accepting an appointment in it.

He was a solid fighter against the first Buhari regime but he also enabled Buhari's becoming President even though not only was there no evidence that Buhari was reformed but the evidence indicates that Buhari had become a terrorism supporter.

He is known to condemn Obi but is not known for much critique of Buhari or  any critique of the deeply controversial govt of Tinubu.

So, Soyinka is not best seen as an epitome of political values but as a once impressive social activist as well as a  mercurial politician.

You are invoking Femi Fani Kayode on Peter Obi.

Do you know anything - with all due respect - about the political history of FFK?

And you are invoking the chameleon concept against Obi in contrast to FFK?

Are you aware that FFK is the consummate Nigerian politician of no fixed ideological identity?

A once vitriolic critique of Tinubu he crossed over to APC and became an APC attack creature, writing hateful things against Igbos after Obi's victory in Lagos, advocating a sweeping economic emasculation of Igbos in Lagos even if it meant the denudation of the Lagos economy?

A brilliant writer but a person of no political stability.

I looked through what Kadiri had to say about Obi.

Has Kadiri similarly addressed  the controversies about Tinubu and Buhari?

Why the selectivity?

Thanks 

Toyin

On Sun, Aug 24, 2025, 9:51 PM Oluwatoyin Adepoju <ovde...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Oluwatoyin,

Moving forward after so much grieving about the past , I really envy your vantage position, that you are actually in Nigeria and can feel the political temperature there, whereas, for instance, I can only sympathise with you in a more abstract way when you suffer epileptic fits of no electricity and have to read by candlelight 

Hopefully, you will soon catch up with modernity!

Cheers !  President Bola Ahmed Tinubu the transformer is on the move! 

 Freedom starts here : Top 50 Massive Projects Transforming Lagos State

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n13YmkG1qYo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsxtM7To4I4

Sadly, your judgement passed on Wole Soyinka has not changed. You seem to believe that he is not being even-handed because he seems to be or has been less critical of Nigeria's former President Buhari and Nigeria’ s current President Tinubu. That, dear Oluwatoyin does not invalidate, diminish or detract from the many truths that he has voiced about Peter Obi, including the incontrovertible fact that as the anointed leader of his flock ”the Obidients” Obi could have done more to curb the flock’s exuberance /over-enthusiasm when some of them went on the rampage in Lagos, claiming Lagos to be “ No Man’s Land “. He could have told them to stop the nonsense , and as faithful 

“ Obidients ”or Zombies, they would have probably obeyed him. Did you follow up on Femi Fani-Kayode’s commentary on the concept of Lagos as a” No Man’s Land”?

First of all, let me set the record straight : I’d like to assure you that I'm not into the idolatry and deification business. It seems that you are always asking for some incriminating ”evidence “ without which the criminal is presumed to be innocent, right ? According to Spinoza Forever and Witness of The End when it comes to deification, even Jesus is not exempt, speak less of a wanton sinner like your Peter Obi .

As I've already told you, I don’t have a dog in the fight about who is going to win the next Presidential Election in Nigeria. Not even if Johnny Onyeukwu or Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju or Ojogbon Falafel himself or Her Distinguished Royal Highness Lady Ofe Owerri herself were to be running for that unenviable position.

For your edification : Nahjul Balagha :Sermon 3 in which Amir al Mu'minin - Imam Ali, alaihi salam says, “But I remained low when they were low and flew high when they flew high” . In the given circumstances that’s  an example of strategic adaptation…

Please take note : It was not Cornelius Ignoramus that said “Peter Obi is a chameleon” - although in my view it is always a matter of degree, the extent to which political chameleonism , camouflage, adaptive political behaviour,  critically adjusted to be in synch with circumstances as could be required to survive and even triumph, gains the upper hand in certain circumstances. It should be therefore understandable that in trying to win the support of Bishop David Ayedepo he should play the religious card , likening his position of Christian presidential candidate to that of flagbearer of the Cross of Jesus  and comparing the presidential election to a religious war between him and his main opponent, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a Muslim and by definition, belonging to the army of Prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa salam. The chameleonic behaviour of course kicks in when on the campaign trail the pragmatic opportunist Peter Obi travels  to Nigeria’s Muslim North and in his own strategic interest does not repeat that kind of nonsense, that” it’s a religious war” but on the contrary , as the smart guy that he is,  whilst courting the Muslim vote he knows that at the very least he  must give the Muslims the impression that he truly loves them and does not want to annihilate them in a religious or a non-religious war; he may even quote this Quranic passage that declares “Christians are closest to the believers” and therefore policy wise try to act accordingly (humbly) 

Antonio Rey Idolo

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks, Cornelius.

Could you describe the details of this- im not aware of such a thing happening-

"the Obidients”... exuberance /over-enthusiasm when some of them went on the rampage in Lagos, claiming Lagos to be “ No Man’s Land “.

Bcs you suggested it, I looked into the FFK link. As expected, it's one of the most idiotic things I have ever read.

The man has no shame.

He and Bayo Onanuga, assistant to Tinubu, were the most visible arrowheads of the struggle to reverse APC's historic defeat in Lagos, using ethnic war as a means of dividing the electorate. 

Everything he wrote there is nonsense and desperate fantasy which he too knows there is no evidence in support of.

He was mouthing ridiculous things about IPOB, a separatist movement which has no interest in Nigeria as something Obi will impose on Nigeria while Obi has not even suggested any identification with IPOB.

He excoriates Rhodes Vivour then Lagos guber candidate, on the grounds of his having an Igbo wife as therefore an anti Yoruba aspirant while he, FFK, had earlier boasted of his amorous relationships with Igbo women.

Please Cornelius,  if you bring up FFK in this discussion again I will ignore it.

I shall also ignore any anti-Obi critique that is not critically grounded. 

We need to use our time better.

You might need better grounding in the background to these issues you are so confidently addressing.

Apologies for any abrasiveness. 

We are better off in our religio/philosophical discussions. 

Thanks

Toyin

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Oluwatoyin,

Once upon a time, only because of Uncle Jeff ( John Bandele Jeffery-Coker) and Herbert Macaulay, I became interested in the early history of Lagos mostly gleaned from Michael Crowder's The Story of Nigeria. I am not a  Lagosian , unfortunately, I  never kept the appointment I had with my friend Chris Okonkwo at the Surulere Night Club. Maybe, just as well.

You had better look into this matter of who is saying most vociferously that “Lagos is no man's land". I daresay that it’s not the original Yoruba inhabitants that are making that kind of outlandish, absolutely preposterous Christopher Columbus type of claim. Unfortunately, some of the people asserting “ Lagos is no man's land” took some flak. Well grounded or not, I'm sure that you must have read about it in the newspapers. It was discussed in this forum.

You must understand that people - Nigerians - including Nigeria’s former Minister of culture and tourism could get a little emotional when defending or asserting some proprietary rights over their own hometown and homeland. Take Freetown for example  once the capital of the Western Area of Sierra Leone , which was a crown Colony. The very last time that I was there - and for only a total of ten days  - 20th April to 30th April 1970 and then back to Ghana  - the population of Freetown was less than 250,000 souls. Today it’s over 2 million, with an overwhelming influx from the former protectorate…

Today’s Cosmopolitanism does not necessarily confirm the idea that “Lagos is no man's land" - Search - or that New York, London, Paris or indeed Jerusalem is a “ No man’s land !” 

It should be interesting to convene a special  panel discussion of this palaver featuring you,  Kwame Anthony Appiah , Kemi Badenoch , Peter Obi and of course  Femi Fani-Kayode 

Third World : Lagos Jump

E.T Mensah & Victor Olaiya : Trumpet Highlife 

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

To the best of my knowledge, such a thing has never happened - 

the Obidients”... exuberance /over-enthusiasm when some of them went on the rampage in Lagos, claiming Lagos to be “ No Man’s Land “.

II understand it as a narrative created by APC Lagos when they lost the Presidential election to Obi"s Labour.

 Hopefully the same multi-ethnic coalition which defeated them will do it again.

I have been following the subject closely before, during and after the elections.

People need to breathe after the less than people elevating politics of the Nigerian political class.

All this talk of owning or not owning Lagos is ultimately a smokescreen created by people whose interests is in distracting the electorate while they emasculate them of their political vision to unseat vested interests impoverishing Nigerians.

Thanks 

They  

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,

dear patient one,

listening to My Back Pages 

I sometimes wonder,

where is your sense of humour?

You remember, about ten years ago, all the hullabaloo

about the Oba of Lagos (jocularly) threatening to drown 

all his Igbo friends in the Lagos Lagoon

 if they did not support

 his own chosen candidate ?

Ceasefire? Where? 

You may if you like, stop right here 

and read no further :

Femi Fani-Kayode and the Igbos of Lagos

This reminds me of the Torah portion Parshat Shemot / Parshat Shemot , of special relevance , the probable fear /fear-mongering among Yoruba stalwarts, Yoruba nationalists, cultural chauvinists, die-hards like our Femi Fani-Kayode, not without cause, another demographic nightmare this time about  Lagos, Nigeria, a very particular fear, the fear of being outnumbered in their own  LAGOS, their own piece of God's real estate, being outnumbered  by the upstart, long-shuffering, stiff-necked, stiff upper lip, chest-beating, self-righteous, “I. Go. Before. Others.” immigrant Igbos who are now to be seen everywhere since they started their veritable invasion of Lagos a few decades ago

Exodus 1 : 7 -10 ( King James Version) 

“but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.  “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

What you refer to as “ anti-Igbo has been variously explained to me by the following analogy :  you let the itinerant wanderer in, give him a pallet on the floor in your kitchen ,and gradually, gradually he takes over the rest of your living space and eventually declares himself “Lord of The Manor !”  I last heard this analogy from an Algerian acquaintance who was trying to get me all worked up about Israel and the Pals, he wanted to know whether or not I thought it was right that the Israeli settler now wanted to evacuate his Palestinian brother from his own kitchen ?

Here’s the foundation to whatever narrative is there for you to understand: You don’t go to another country - by air, sea, road or rail) are warmly welcomed by the generosity of the indigenous Yoruba inhabitants of that place, occupy vast swathes of it  -. and ( as Fela would say,  “gradually, gradually") as your numbers increase  -. and by dint of hard work , as you begin to enjoy the fruits of your labour, begin to show some economic dominance and prosperity, you start telling the original inhabitants that the land where you are now prospering is a “ No Man’s Land.”  Acting on such a perception is bound to have some consequences , some repercussions  - perhaps, some serious backlash such as you taking some “flak” - you think that you're on the moon, take off with some ideological rampage about Lagos being "no man's land", and they do some damage in return, it's known as retribution

I suppose the ultimate nightmare for the ultra Yoruba / Oduduwa nationalists is that the Igbo population in Lagos state could so increase and outnumber the Yoruba, that in a couple of years the Igbos could  after a referendum on secession, raise their flag over Lagos and declare that state the New Biafra  because they have an overwhelming, absolute  majority. Israelis also have or used to have a fear known as the demographic nightmare 

I don’t know what are the ideological foundations or platform of the PDP of which Obi was a leading member and thought that it was his turn to be ratified as their presidential bearer - instead of Alhaji Atiku 

Conversant with the ideological roots of the British Labour Party  - and over here, Sweden’s Social  Democrats, I must confess  that I was more than slightly taken aback by the popular Nigerian media’s vision of “Obi's Labour” -  a party that he became a member of on the ( date)  which he took over within a few a few days, and helter-skelter their presidential candidate a few days later 

In part, this is the kind of Chameleon that Baba Kadiri was talking about… one who jumps from one ideological platform to another  - today he is a “ liberal -conservative” whatever that means in the the Nigerian political jungle/ spectrum - tomorrow he is a wannabe leader of  “The Conservatives" -like Margaret Thatcher, and Ginny come lately, Kemi Badenoch , then he's born again on board with the Labour Party (Nigeria)  next thing you know he's wearing the mantle of the late Karl Marx  - like a bumble bee of no fixed ideological abode, commitment or location, any which way the big chop money must come…

As per Baba Kadiri’s painstakingly accurate narration,

“However, four days to the PDP presidential primary election, Tuesday, 24 May 2022, P. G. O.O. resigned his membership of PDP. On Friday, 27 May 2022, Obi joined the Labour Party. On Monday 30, 2022, Labour Party had its presidential primary election and Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi emerged as the presidential flag bearer of the party. If the Labour Party had complied with Section 77 (2&3) of the Electoral Acts 2022, it ought to have sent its membership register to INEC latest May 1, 2022, and the name of Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi could not have been there since he was not a member until Friday, 27 May 2022. The implementation of why political parties are required to submit their membership register to INEC thirty days before their primaries, congresses or conventions is to ensure that a person must have been a member of a party for, at least, 30 days to be qualified to contest for an elected post on behalf of the party. Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi was a member of Labour Party for 72 hours when he became their presidential candidate in contravention of *Section 77 (3) of the Electoral Acts, 2022, specifically enacted to prevent those who failed to obtain nomination of their party to contest for an elective post to cross over to any of the small parties to buy nomination. That's how lawful Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi the Chameleon is.”

Interesting: Julius Malema speaking live from Nigeria 

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju,

dear patient one,

listening to My Back Pages 

I sometimes wonder,

where is your sense of humour?

You remember, about ten years ago, all the hullabaloo

about the Oba of Lagos (jocularly) threatening to drown 

all his Igbo friends in the Lagos Lagoon

 if they did not support

 his own chosen candidate ?

Ceasefire? Where? 

You may if you like, stop right here 

and read no further :

Femi Fani-Kayode and the Igbos of Lagos

This reminds me of the Torah portion Parshat Shemot / Parshat Shemot , of special relevance , the probable fear /fear-mongering among Yoruba stalwarts, Yoruba nationalists, cultural chauvinists, die-hards like our Femi Fani-Kayode, not without cause, another demographic nightmare this time about  Lagos, Nigeria, a very particular fear, the fear of being outnumbered in their own  LAGOS, their own piece of God's real estate, being outnumbered  by the upstart, long-shuffering, stiff-necked, stiff upper lip, chest-beating, self-righteous, acronym. “I. Go. Before. Others”, immigrant Igbos who are now to be seen everywhere since they started their veritable invasion of Lagos a few decades ago

Exodus 1 : 7 -10 ( King James Version) 

“but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.  “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

What you refer to as “ anti-Igbo has been variously explained to me by the following analogy :  you let the itinerant wanderer in, give him a pallet on the floor in your kitchen ,and gradually, gradually he takes over the rest of your living space and eventually declares himself “Lord of The Manor !”  I last heard this analogy from an Algerian acquaintance who was trying to get me all worked up about Israel and the Pals, he wanted to know whether or not I thought it was right that the Israeli settler now wanted to evacuate his Palestinian brother from his own kitchen ?

Here’s the foundation to whatever narrative is there for you to understand: You don’t go to another country - by air, sea, road or rail) are warmly welcomed by the generosity of the indigenous Yoruba inhabitants of that place, occupy vast swathes of it  -. and ( as Fela would say,  “gradually, gradually") as your numbers increase  -. and by dint of hard work , as you begin to enjoy the fruits of your labour, begin to show some economic dominance and prosperity, you start telling the original inhabitants that the land where you are now prospering is a “ No Man’s Land.”  Acting on such a perception is bound to have  some consequences , some repercussions  - perhaps, some serious backlash such as you taking some “flak” -you go on an ideological rampage ,they go on a punitive, physical rampage to cause some damage...

I suppose the ultimate nightmare for the ultra Yoruba / Oduduwa nationalists is that the Igbo population in Lagos state could so increase and outnumber the Yoruba, that in a couple of years the Igbos could  after a referendum on secession, raise their flag over Lagos and declare that state the New Biafra  because they have an overwhelming, absolute  majority. Israelis also have or used to have a fear known as the demographic nightmare 

I don’t know what are the ideological foundations or platform of the PDP of which Obi was a leading member and thought that it was his turn to be ratified as their presidential bearer - instead of Alhaji Atiku 

Conversant with the ideological roots of the British Labour Party  - and over here, Sweden’s Social  Democrats, I must confess  that I was more than slightly taken aback by the popular Nigerian media’s vision of “Obi's Labour” -  a party that he became a member of on the ( date)  which he took over within a few a few days, and helter-skelter their presidential candidate a few days later 

In part, this is the kind of Chameleon that Baba Kadiri was talking about… one who jumps from one ideological platform to another  - today he is a “ liberal -conservative” whatever that means in the the Nigerian political jungle/ spectrum - tomorrow he is a wannabe leader of  “The Conservatives" -like Margaret Thatcher, and Ginny come lately, Kemi Badenoch , then he's born again on board with the Labour Party (Nigeria)  next thing you know he's wearing the mantle of the late Karl Marx  - like a bumble bee of no fixed ideological commitment or location, any which way the chop money must  come…

As per Baba Kadiri’s painstakingly accurate narration,

“However, four days to the PDP presidential primary election, Tuesday, 24 May 2022, P. G. O.O. resigned his membership of PDP. On Friday, 27 May 2022, Obi joined the Labour Party. On Monday 30, 2022, Labour Party had its presidential primary election and Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi emerged as the presidential flag bearer of the party. If the Labour Party had complied with Section 77 (2&3) of the Electoral Acts 2022, it ought to have sent its membership register to INEC latest May 1, 2022, and the name of Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi could not have been there since he was not a member until Friday, 27 May 2022. The implementation of why political parties are required to submit their membership register to INEC thirty days before their primaries, congresses or conventions is to ensure that a person must have been a member of a party for, at least, 30 days to be qualified to contest for an elected post on behalf of the party. Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi was a member of Labour Party for 72 hours when he became their presidential candidate in contravention of *Section 77 (3) of the Electoral Acts, 2022, specifically enacted to prevent those who failed to obtain nomination of their party to contest for an elective post to cross over to any of the small parties to buy nomination. That's how lawful Peter Gregory Onwuabuasi Obi the Chameleon is.”

On Tuesday, 26 August 2025 at 01:44:43 UTC+2 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:

[Salimonu Kadiri]

When you are prepared to analyze the specific points I made about Soyinka's politics instead of quoting the same Kadiri, an anti-Igbo ideologue who in the wake of Obi's victory in the last elections, argued in this group, in a bout of fantasy, that IPOB was working on invading Lagos, then we can have a serious discussion - Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju to Cornelius Hamelberg.

To begin with, on what do you, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, base your assertion that I, Kadiri, is an anti-Igbo ideologue? Can you, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, quote me word for word with specific date when I, Kadiri, argued on this forum that IPOB was working on invading Lagos? If you fail to answer these two questions, you will, to me, forever remain a dishonest person just like your political leader, Peter Gregory Onwubuasi  Obi.

I was not in Nigeria when the last Federal elections were held but I followed the elections through social media. When the result of the Presidential election in Lagos was released and it showed that Obi won over Tinubu, many online Nigerian newspapers reported that jubilating Obi supporters carried IPOB flag to at Alausa, in Ikeja, the seat of Lagos State Government. Although I referred to the reported incident in my post on this forum at the time, I did not suggest or imply that IPOB was working on invading Lagos.

Based on Wole Soyinka personal and direct dealings with Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi, the former referred to the latter as inherently dishonest and unfit to be president of Federal Republic of Nigeria. I have gone through Peter Obi's political stewardships when he first ruled Anambra State as a Governor from 2006 to March 2014 and his political whoredoms thereafter. In addition to my views on Obi, posted earlier by Cornelius on this forum, I hereby provide further information about Obi of which I would want Adepoju to correct me if I am wrong.

On Tuesday, August 11, 2011, Peter Gregory Onwuabusi Obi appeared unexpectedly at a worker's rally, in Aloma Junction, Awka, the Capital of Anambra State but he was jeered with a hostile song in Igbo thus: IKWUSIGO, INABAGO, 419/EZIGBO ONYEORI AZULU AZU K'IBU 419, meaning - Have you finished speaking, are you leaving, 419/a well-trained thief is who you are, 419.The following link is my source.  https://todaynatoday.wordpress.com/2011/08/13/anambra-workers-declare-war-on-governor-obi 

In the online Sahara Reporters of 28 August 2011, John Chikadibie Okafor authored an article captioned, "PETER OBI'S GOVERNMENT MAGIC AND CHEEKY CLAIMS." A part of the article stated, "Health workers in Anambra State, have been on strike for about eight months now, there is no functional water scheme anywhere in the State, and most importantly, armed robbery and kidnapping have brought the commercial town of Nnewi to its knees." So, Obi pretending that armed robbery and kidnapping is a recent phenomenon in Nigeria is a rant of a dishonest politician. On September 20, 2011 Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi threatened to sack 3,000 environmental workers (cleaners) because they demanded to be paid the enacted national minimum wage of N30,000/month, a threat he later carried out. Obi allowed Doctors in Anambra State's hospitals to go on strike from January 2011 to 27 February 2012 when the Doctors themselves called off the strike because they could no longer withstand the suffering of ordinary people of Anambra. In the Nigerian online newspaper, The Leadership, of December 4, 2011, David-Chiddy Eleke reported  that the Anambra State Government had arrested and repatriated 29 beggars to their home States in Ebonyi, another Igbo State, and Akwa Ibom State. For the sake of clarity, it was Saint Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi, who was Governor of Anambra State, when Igbo and Kalabari beggars were bundled out of Anambra as advanced Christmas gift to their respective state of origin in 2011. In 2012, Lecturers at Anambra State University were on strike for six months to press their demand for better condition of service and pay.

United Nations General Assembly's resolution 36/28 of 1981 endorsed the definition of youths as persons aged between 15 and 24. All UN statistics are based on this definition. Article 1 of the United Nations convention on the rights of a child also defines children as persons up to the age of 18. The African Youths Charter recognises youths as people between the age of 15 and 35. The period between Youth and Old Age, 60 years, is called middle age. Thus, Youth ends at a maximum age of 35 years. Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi was 45 years when he reclaimed his mandate as Governor of Anambra State in 2006 and he was 53 years old when his tenure ended in 2014. When he contested for the Presidency in 2023, Peter Gregory Onwubuasi Obi was 61 years plus. During the eight years Obi was Governor of Anambra State he ignored the Anambra Youths but while contesting to be President of Nigeria at the age of 61+, he deceitfully and dishonestly proclaimed himself as the representative and voice of the Nigerian Youths. By the above submission, I am not saying that the political opponents of Peter Gregory Onwubuasi are good, rather, what I am pointing out is that his political characters are worse than those of his opponents he is busy criticising daily.

S. Kadiri

---

From: usaafric...@googlegroups.com <usaafric...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
Sent: 25 August 2025 16:32
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Nature, Sculpture, Architecture in the Osun Forest, Part 2: Atmospheric Potency and Sacred Synergy : The Doorway of Transformation

 

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Thanks Cornelius 

Should you not focus on speaking for yourself instead of this tendency to quote FFK and Kadiri?

Can you share with us evidence about this No Man's Land mantra of dominance you ascribe to Igbos?

As for your critique of Obi as moving across parties, why are you vilifying him for what is a general Nigerian political culture?

Can you point to evidence that justifies your description of the Biafra vision as one of conquest of Lagos 

 rather than of secession of the Igbo heartlands in the SE?

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Stockholm

Sweden

Peoples Planet 

27th August ( Ebunolrun’s birth day) 

Oluwatoyin Adepoju,

Since this cosmic piece of stardust is not omnipresent or omniscient, please let’s not start by asking for the impossible tittle-tattle , since I’m not stationed there, next to you, in the brilliant heart of Nigeria. If it is not Cornelius that is thinking for himself, then who do you think is writing this and thinking for me?  As Malcolm X  once said - yes I’m quoting him too  - along with Wole Soyinka, Baba Kadiri, Femi Fani-Kayode, other thinkers, “think for yourself” and that’s what I’m doing. 

With regard to the admissible evidence that you are requesting, in this court of law, I can only go by what your idol, Peter Obi (not my cup of tea) is verifiably reported to have done according to millions of star witnesses and newspaper reporters , biased opinion-makers in the naija social media, and they could all be wrong of course , like a pack of God-forsaken hyenas & confounded liars. Unlike you, since I’m not in Obi’s  head , I can only quote what he says, has said and what others say and have said about him and come to my own conclusions about him, Moses, Jesus, Freud,  etc. 

Is that not what you are also doing ?

What you identify as certain Igbos’ “No Man's Land mantra” is popular knowledge, widely reported in the Nigerian press, has been discussed in this forum, and is not one of the mysteries demanding faith and a suspension of rationality and disbelief.

And what gives you the impression that I’m “vilifying” Obi? To tell you the truth, he can go to hell for all I care, and by the way as the salvation hymn goes, there’s no hiding place down there. 

BTW, I think that ideally, anyone should be able to migrate from where they are to wherever they may find greener pastures within the Naija Federation. 

I expect that next you'll be telling me to supply you some evidence for the thesis that

In search of greener pastures 

Igbos have migrated from their

neck of Igboland to everywhere

where the grass is much greener 

than the colour of the yankee dollar

yours sin-cerely Spinoza Forever 

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Oluwatoyin 

You ask,” Can you point to evidence that justifies your description of the Biafra vision as one of conquest of Lagos  rather than of secession of the Igbo heartlands in the SE?”

That was some faulty ( insensitive) reading on your part, completely misunderstanding and misinterpreting both my tone and my intention. I was only joking. To fast forward such a vision , I suppose that if the Igbos populated Nigeria fast enough, in accordance with Professor Mobolaji Aluko’s usual good-hearted best wishes “ May your tribe increase" , then after a referendum in say circa the year AD 2070 when the population of Nigeria would have exceeded 700 Million, the Igbos could simply vote overwhelmingly by a two-thirds majority to change the name of the country from Nigeria to Biafra and thereafter raise their flag over the whole Federation.

Someone could then write some hall of fame poetry about the miraculous event. 

Song : I believe in miracles 

On Wednesday, 27 August 2025 at 01:21:16 UTC+2 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

This is not true-

"  many online Nigerian mewspapers reported that that jubilating Obi supporters carried IPOB flag to at Alausa, in Ikeja, the seat of Lagos State Government. "

I don't expect that ANY news medium carried such an improbable story.

Even if any carried it, it would not be a reputable news medium.

As I responded to you when you made that fantastically improbable claim, that account is a piece of fantasy demonstrating ignorance of the security architecture of Alausa, of the varied mindsets of Igbo people in Lagos and of the multi-ethnic citizen coalition that defeated Tinubu in Lagos and how and why that coalition was formed.

I live in Lagos, within a one hour drive from Alausa, so im familiar with the place.

Im also informed about the mood in Lagos before the elections and also made enquiries when I visited Obafemi Awolowo University in Ife, a Yoruba heartland, and compared my findings with my Lagos enquiries.

Alausa Security Architecture

Alausa, particularly the section housing the state government's offices, is bristling with heavy security- stern looking soldiers, Mobile Police and sundry security agencies,  most of them fiercely armed.

The offices are also in some cases sequestered behind multiple checkpoints manned by fully armed soldiers and mobile policemen.

No agitator can penetrate those bastions, talk less an IPOB advocate, a group classed as a terrorist group by the Nigerian government.

Any such fool might still be languishing in prison by now or would not have survived that first day of idiotic agitation at the seat of the state government.

Lagos Igbos and IPOB

Lagos is not a place where IPOB can gain traction.

Lagos is a cosmopolitan city in which various ethnicities gather in search of their fortunes.

IPOB is a separatist group that wants to cut off from Nigeria.

There is no connection with the Biafra penetration of the Midwest and the attempted annexation of the SW during the civil war.

The Biafra vision then was about both sovereignty and capturing Nigerian resources.

The current approach is limited to the quest for sovereignty and even then I doubt there has ever been a general pro-IPOB consensus among Igbos anywhere because the  conditions of 1967 are not the same as those of the 2000s.

Why Tinubu Lost in Lagos to a Multi-Ethnic Coalition

Tinubu and the APC lost in Lagos beceause of their association with inhuman government initiatives, reflected particularly in the Lekki toll gate massacre.

There was almost no way they would win in Lagos after that experience in particular.

People of various ethnicities were determined to try a new way of doing politics and they saw that opportunity in Peter Obi.

Those orientations even extended to some lecturers in OAU, who saw Tinubu as representing a negative old order.

So the notion that Igbos carried IPOB flag to Alausa is most certainly fictional and the idea that anyone reported such an improbability is also most likely fictional.

All that stuff you have written about Obi which I don't know whether they are true or not, can also be compiled about Tinubu and the multiple questions around  him, about Atiku and other candidates.

As for Soyinka, he lost his public credibility when the Buhari disaster unfurled, a candidate he should have known better than to support.

His fixation with Obi further reduces his credibility as he seems blind to the inadequacies of the Tinubu govt, an APC govt with whom he is identified.

[Dr. Oohay]

AI AIN’T JUST A MACHINE

Unfortunately, some of us in this group have increasingly substituted AI for their own authentic thinking. Always remember that all AI (including generative type such as ChatGPT) STILL more or less lies within HUMAN control. AI is still a HUMAN entity. Our conversations will move more authentically or be more like ourselves as long as we don’t let it take over our OWN thinking. Heck, use the machine but don’t let it “out-use” you (man or woman). Learn to tame Frankenstein. Much of AI is excellent, but here lies the paradox: Much of A I is ALSO useless. Those humans who don’t think for themselves sometimes may forever remain colonized or recolonized. AI AIN’T God (in any sense). AI is STILL a HUMAN computer.

Oohay.

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[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

IPOB and Igbo are not necessarily united.

The current situation in the SE is so bad,  from the business emasculating strategy of every Monday sit at home to widespread and murderous lawlessness emerging from IPOB militia who have gone rogue, some say, that IPOB has been thoroughly demarketed in the SE, talk less Lagos, where Igbos would thank God for their distance from
the mayhem.

So the idea of a Lagos centred or general IPOB mindset covering a decisive population of Igbos in Nigeria is most unlikely.

On demographics, how many Igbos can there possibly be in Nigeria,and in what positions i
of authority, in contrast to Yorubas, Hausas and others  that can move to Igboize Nigeria politically?

A practically impossible conjecture.

I wonder how you came by these negatively enthocentric and reality defying conjecjures.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

There’s no denying that just like still waters, so too Igbo tigritude sentiments and to some extent Igbo nostalgia and longing for what could have been Biafra, runs deep. When it comes to secret ballot in any proposed future referendum, there’s no telling what the outcome would be, if the referendum were to be confined to what you believe to be a less ambitious - not the whole national cake but the more reasonable & feasible option, your own words, “secession of the Igbo heartlands in the SE”

https://www.globalpolitics.se/

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

“A practically impossible conjecture.”

You “wonder” how  I “came by these negatively ethnocentric and reality-defying conjectures.”

Adepoju _cosmic,

This phrase comes in handy : Elementary, my dear Watson , and here are the simple reasons why you’re not me and please take note when it comes to what you call “reality-defying conjectures” or “these negatively ethnocentric and reality-defying conjectures” there’s almost no limit to the mind’s fantasies,  sky, moon and stars  are  not off limits and as you take off, as you say, “Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge”, please remember this, remember who you are ,  and may your tribe increase

You “wonder” how  I “came by these negatively ethnocentric and reality-defying conjectures.”? 

 I “came by these negatively ethnocentric and reality-defying conjectures”, because, it could be that I am a racist, a tribalist, and to quote what you said to me I “ might need better grounding in the background to these issues” that I am “ so confidently addressing.”

All this may be true, because 

(a)  unlike you, I was baptised in the holy waters of the Umuahia River (full immersion)  and kept the company of Biafran war veterans in Umuahia, and especially in ABA and Owerri and through my relatively long liaison in that region (1981-84)  developed some close friendships and strong affiliation with some of the indigenes. But long before that, during the Biafra War which I followed closely -from a great distance, from the beginning to the end, occasionally listened to Ojukwu’s live radio broadcasts with Chuks and some other Igbos students - to the extent that emotionally, sympathetically and empathetically I should hope that I know what I’m talking about

 (b) given your austere high seriousness and what you may mis-apprehend  as some kind of general levity  on my part, about some of these matters (and take note, the word levity has nothing to do with the Levites) I do not presume that you are familiar with the genre known as satire , nor I take it as for granted that you ever read Gulliver's Travels or that you occasionally read The Onion 

A question for you : Do you think that John Lennon had Chinua Achebe’s There was a Country, and then composed  Imagine as a heartfelt response ?

On Wednesday, 27 August 2025 at 17:39:30 UTC+2 Oluwatoyin Adepoju wrote:

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

When the bizarre truth is oftimes stranger than fiction 

a short list , none from this century 

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Out of sheer frustration, trying to cope with reality : Satirical news sites

Rapidly approaching nihilism, there's also the Theatre of the Absurd

to give yourself a back to reality pinch , to examine and self-examine....

Some states within the federation think that the whole body politic is sick,

is dysfunctional, and they therefore want to cut out , want a divorce, think and 

feel that they would be far better off on their self-governing own.

That's the genesis of the  secessionist dream...

Umar Johnson was in Sweden

 

[ogunlakaiye]

This is not true: many online Nigerian newspapers reported that jubilating Obi supporters carried IPOB flag to Alausa, in Ikeja, the seat of Lagos State Government. I don't expect that ANY news medium carried such an improbable story. Even if any carried it, it would not be a reputable medium. I live in Lagos, within one hour drive from Alausa, so im familiar with the place. So the notion that Igbos carried IPOB flag to Alausa is most certainly fictional and the idea that anyone reported such an impossibility is also most likely fictional -Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju.

Noteworthy is that when I wrote that "jubilant Obi supporters carried IPOB flag to Alausa, in Ikeja the seat of Lagos State Government," Professor Òrúnmìlà gazed into his oracle to dishonestly interpret it to mean, "IGBOS CARRIED IPOB FLAG TO ALAUSA." Yet the Ifa Priest Consultant, Adepoju, has the gut to project his own fiction on me. Abuja is the seat of Federal Government of Nigeria and security wise government offices, national assembly and the presidency are well fortified. Similarly and as it is in all the States of Nigeria, Lagos State Assembly, Governor's, Commissioner's and Government's offices are fortified. Just as demonstrators can protest and wave any kind of flag they want in other parts Abuja the seat of the Government of Nigeria without reaching the Presidency, National Assembly, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, so can people demonstrate in Alausa without affecting areas where the government structures are situated. Presuming himself to be writing wisely, Adepoju buttressed his claim that IPOB flag waving supporters of Obi could not have demonstrated at Alausa without him knowing or seeing when he stated: I LIVE IN LAGOS, WITHIN ONE HOUR DRIVE FROM ALAUSA. If the speed limit in an urban area like Lagos is 30 kilometres per hour, that means that our Ifa priest lives 30 Kilometres from Alausa. Therefore, only a psychotic mythologist would ascribe to himself the ability to see demonstrators 30 kilometres away from his residence, even if he is equipped with a very strong binocular. Checking through my archives, I discovered that the Online Nigerian-Guardian, -Vanguard and -Premium Times that published the IPOB flag waving supporters of Obi at Alausa have now deleted it. However, the Nation online of March 2,2023, partly stated thus, ".... it was wild Jubilation on Monday as they invaded Alausa with Obi party's flag following INEC announcement of his victory .. "  https://thenationonline.net/beyond-peter-obi-lagos-victory/ Evidently, whether it was IPOB flag or Obi's party flag that was waved, a  victory demonstration was staged at Alausa contrary to what professor Òrúnmìlà did not expect.  In fact, nearly all Nigerian news media carried the report on Saturday April 1, 2023, that one  Eze Ndigbo of Ajao Estate in Lagos State, Fredrick Nwajagu, was arrested after threatening to invite IPOB to Lagos. 

On Lagos being no man's land, it was the former Governor of Abia State (Orji Uzor Kalu), 1999-2007, who made the statement in 2013 following the relocation of 14 Anambra vagrants from Lagos back to their State and subsequent controversies. Kalu said specifically, "Lagos is no man's land and that 55% of the revenue generated in Lagos State belongs to the Igbo."  Consequent to that statement, Femi Fani-Kayode authored a rebut in the Online Nigerian Premium Times of August 8, 2013. https://www.premiumtimesng.com/142477-the-bitter-truth-about-the-igbo-by-femi-fani-kayode.html. 

In view of the aforesaid, I hereby repeat two previous questions of mine which you have failed to address: On what do you, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, base your assertion that I, Kadiri is an anti-Igbo ideologue? Can you, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, quote me word for word, with specific date, when I, Kadiri, argued on this platform that IPOB was working on invading Lagos? In anticipation of your responses it might be useful to inform you that if my criticism of Obi to you implies anti-Igbo, because he is of Igbo ethnic origin, then your criticism of Soyinka must imply that you are anti-Yoruba because Soyinka is a Yoruba and you are an Edo man, although, masked with typical Yoruba names.

S. Kadiri

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Oga Kadiri,

The relationship between the topography of Alausa and its security architecture dictates the kind of activity possible there.

Understanding those parameters means one can anticipate the kinds of activity possible in those locations without the need for one's physical presence there.

Secondly,  my knowledge of Alausa and its security configuration in relation to its topography is reinforced by the fact that I have been part of a group of demonstrators there during the relatively recent EndBad Government demonstrations and can testify to how far into the location we could go and the terms that enabled our presence in a section of Alausa,  terms that are not likely to have been extended to Labour Party demonstrators and which would have been utterly impossible for IPOB flag waving demonstrators.

1. Alausa Security Architecture

Are you now conceding that the idea that demonstrators carried IPOB flags to the government offices at Alausa is either improbable or impossible?

You seem to be modifying your claim to reference demonstrations in Lagos generally rather than reaching the seat of government in Alausa, the incredible claim you were earlier eager to promote?

The following summation of yours is a geographical and historical contradiction: 

Abuja is the seat of Federal Government of Nigeria and security wise government offices, national assembly and the presidency are well fortified. 

Similarly and as it is in all the States of Nigeria, Lagos State Assembly, Governor's, Commissioner's and Government's offices are fortified.

 Just as demonstrators can protest and wave any kind of flag they want in other parts Abuja the seat of the Government of Nigeria without reaching the Presidency, National Assembly, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, so can people demonstrate in Alausa without affecting areas where the government structures are situated"

Geographical Contradiction 

Its not possible to demonstrate in Alausa without reaching the seat of government beceause the government offices are central locations of Alausa. 

Google "Alausa" and see its description as  the seat of Lagos state government.

Historical Contradition

Your argument is contradicted by the facts of  protests  at Alausa. 

Demonstrations at Alausa

I was part of the relatively recent End Bad Government protests the final day of which took place in Alausa.

The march of protesters started in another part of Lagos and proceeded to Alausa.

We were able to assemble on the main road at the sides of which are various government offices and commercial establishments such as Ikeja City Mall.

We could not move into the road leading off the main road into the governor's office beceause that road was blocked by a thick phalanx of battle ready policemen.

Even our presence at the perimeter of the section leading to the governors office was made possible by the understanding of the authorities, possibly mindful of the Ikeja Toll Gate disaster who allowed the EndBadGovernance protests at its Mile 12 centre and its Alausa convergence but hedged it with heavy, battle ready, thickly armed police and military presence, on foot and in such assault vehicles as armoured personnel carriers.

I was there and recorded almost everything and can share the action videos, video interviews and images if required, which I did through a dedicated WhatsApp group.

In the light of the relationship between the geography and security architecture of Alausa, in particular, and Lagos State in general,  when a fantasist declares that anyone carried the flag of IPOB, a SE secessionist group declared a terrorist organisation by the Nigerian government to do whatever at Alausa, the sheer ridiculousness of the idea should be clear.

No one can "invade" Alausa without weapons nor can they go beyond the main road branching off to the office of the governor.

The other claim that Labour supporters demonstrated in that zone, the other edge of which is also a busy commercial hub containing the Ikeja City Mall which has a cinema, a bookshop, an eatery and various other businesses is  unlikely.

The IPOB connection is the height of the ridiculous.

Only a suicidal person would carry the flag of a federal govt listed terrorist organisation to an environment engineered for rapid armed forces response.

But should we blame you?

You might not live in Nigeria,  might know little about the geography and security of these environments you are pontificating about or even about Nigerian govt security in general to recognize ridiculous claims when you see them.

Also ridiculous to the point almost of craziness is the claim that Obi supporters "invaded" Alausa with the Labour Party flag on Obi's victory. 

Your candidate has won, defeating the lion, the hitherto almighty Jagaban, in his own den, Lagos,  described as his fiefdom for decades.

You then carry yourself and proceed to Alausa, the seat of govt where his influence is described as reigning supreme, presided by a governor described as hand chosen by him?

To achieve what?

To hasten your journey to eternity?

You can be accussed of anything, you can suffer physical abuse for which you might never get justice and all bcs of an unnecessary move in the face of an already certain electoral victory.

What you might have been misled by is a video visible on a Google search for " ipob flag in alausa" but which commentators debunk the claim of a flag being waved on a road leading to Alausa as an IPOB flag and even though it was identified as a Labour Party flag with Obi's name, the gathering was not at Alausa. 

On the Lagos is No Man’s Land Claim

You are yet to establish the Abia state governor ever made such a nonsensical claim.

Even then, does he represent Lagos Igbos?

Googling the Lagos is No Mans Land concept demonstrates the various personalities it has been asdociated with.

Between History and Fantasy, Between Fact and Bigotry

Why have I gone to all this trouble?

So as to do my own duty in dispelling fantasy described as history, bigotry presented as fact.

Having failed to validate your claim that Obi's supporters carried an IPOB flag to Alausa, and serving us with a deadlink that you claim leads to a report that it was actually a Labour Party flag, you conclude: 

" Evidently, whether it was IPOB flag or Obi's party flag that was waved, a  victory demonstration was staged at Alausa"

You struggle to assert something you have never been able to prove,  either after the last elections when you projected this fantasy or now.

Not only that, you conflate the significance of the flag of a registered political party in Nigeria,  the Labour Party, a party taking part in elections nationwide,  with the flag of a seccetionist group limited to Nigeria's SE, which has no interest in Nigeria and which is declared as a terrorist group by the Nigetian govt.

Why are you doing this?

Bcs the Labour Party Presidential candidate,  Peter Obi, is from the SE, and people like you automatically conflate SE(Igbo)=Biafra vision=IPOB.

What is the business of a person seeking national office with secessionist dreams?

Can he do it singlehanded in a complex system of govt?

Buhari did everything he could to favour the imperialistic agendas of the Fulani militia and violent Fulani herdsmen led by Miyetti Allah, even co opting the security services and the judiciary but the massive pushback ensured they have remained within their traditional hunting grounds of the Middle Belt while even Buhari's state Katsina has become a centre for terrorism possibly enabled by the lawlessness his govt enabled through the Fulani armed groups and their civil society spokesmen whom he allowed to reign as a parallel govt.

If Cornelius and yourself persist with those comically uninformed claims and analyses, I might not respond agsun bcs I won't be able to afford the time.

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Does the cerebral

comically

uninformed

cosmic clown 

think 

that Baba Kadiri

wants to have a serious discussion

with a crazy mo-fo like him ?

BTW, those of us with a sense of humour

prefer to be entertained by Mr.Macaroni

Just ask the axis - “he knows everything”

Not funny : “Joseph was not carpenter” 

Anywhere like heaven…

[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Baba Kadiri,

Demonstrations in Alausa, Lagos (Google)

Demonstrations in Alausa, Lagos ( Bing) 

Don’t mind Oluwatoyin Adepoju. He has a problem . “Proverbs are the palm-oil with which words are eaten"?  Fools rush in where angels fear to tread, and some empty barrels make the most noise when they think they are making merry music. 

In this thread, he has deliberately ignored what you stated in your postings and since he is in love with the sound of his own voice and the empty barrel that he's beating, so suitably programmed, he has decided to go ahead with the micro-mantra chip that has been planted inside his head.

At this point, his main problems are 

(a) He seems to think that an explanation is a proof, when in fact, an explanation is not a proof (pretty much in the same manner that some of Christianity's explicators seem to believe that an explanation of the Holy Trinity is proof divine /divine proof of the existence of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit , that their explanation of 1+1+1= 1, not 3, is an example of Divine Mathematics, as indeed is their explanation that “Jesus died for our sins”. So, having explained how heavily fortified and impregnable is the Alausa fortress - just as he says, “Understanding those parameters means one can anticipate the kinds of activity possible in those locations without the need for one's physical presence there.” According to the long-winded Besserwisser, Obi’s flag-waving supporters who only wanted to do a victory dance outside those heavily fortified portals would actually need a bunker-busting bomb or two to obliterate that facility before they would be able to even go near it.. 

(b) Perhaps the only proof he would be willing to accept would be video footage - even some AI generated material manufactured in Hollywood or Nollywood, of Obi’s supporters doing their victory lap on the way to Alausa or in Alausa. It would not occur to him that the absence  of such video footage is not proof that such a thing did not happen - or that Jesus did not turn water into wine, walk on water, raise Lazarus from the dead, died on the cross, was buried, resurrected on the third day and ascended to sit at the right hand of his Father in heaven a few days later. 

The notion that “Every nation has the government it deserves” partly or wholly explains why the USA has Trump and why it’s the karma of the God of Israel's chosen people, that they are now saddled with their longest lasting Prime Minister since the birth of Methuselah and the death of Nebuchadnezzar

The fact is that Peter Obi ‘s ambition to be elected Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju’s next president will be determined by the Nigerian Electorate and if his dreams come true then the people of Nigeria would have elected the president they deserve. In the realm of logical fallacies is that not what’s known as circular reasoning ?

Had I not visited Shola Adenekan on facebook (nice photo) I would not have known about this:

World Ifa Festival 2025 ( Google)

World Ifa Festival 2025 (Bing)

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also"? 

I did an archive search in this forum 

(https://groups.google.com/g/usaafricadialogue/search?q=World%20Ifa%20Festival%202025%20 ) 

and remain flabbergasted  because apparently the self-anointed Professor Òrúnmìlà did not have the wherewithal to grace the festival with his presence and then report back to the forum about the glorious event…

He should hit the campaign trail with Peter Obi

who will be spending plenty of money

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

"the cerebral, comically uninformed cosmic clown"

Cornelius

A magnificent combination of ideas begging to be actualized in imaginative literature.

Cerebral, yet comically uninformed and clownish, the entirety wrapped in a cosmic context.

I could ask an AI to compose a story to bring this rich constellation of ideas to life.

Thanks 

Toyin

[ogunlakaiye]

Thank you Oluwatoyin for your splashes of spittle and recoiling of your tongue inwardly in twisting my assertion, that it was reported that jubilant supporters of Obi carried IPOB flag to Alausa, in Ikeja, the seat of Lagos State Government, to imply that Igbos carried IPOB flags to Alausa. On Wednesday, 27 August 2025, you stated categorically that it was impossible and improbable for demonstration to take place in Alausa because of the security facilities there. Despite the fortification of Alausa, you now claim to have demonstrated in Alausa for your self-styled, End Bad Governance. Certainly, you and your cohorts must have obtained permission to demonstrate and were directed to which routes you should follow and the final place the demonstrators should assemble. Unlike your legal demonstration, jubilant Obi supporters demonstrated spontaneously without permission from the authorities after Obi was declared a winner of the Presidential election in Lagos. Whether jubilant Obi supporters waved labour flags mixed with IPOB flags  is of no significance and of course the demonstrators did not obtain the consent of Obi before engaging in their illegal demonstration on his behalf. You asked me, "Are you now conceding that the idea that the demonstrators carried IPOB FLAGS TO THE GOVERNMENT OFFICES AT ALAUSA IS EITHER IMPROBABLE OR IMPOSSIBLE?" To that I will say that your question is surreptitious because I have never at any time during our written dialogues maintained  that "demonstrators carried IPOB flags to Government offices at Alausa."  In fact you commenced your written dialogue of 27 August 2025 with reference to me thus: This is not true - many online Nigerian newspapers reported that jubilating Obi supporters CARRIED IPOB FLAG TO ALAUSA IN IKEJA, THE SEAT OF LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT. Throw away your noxious Ifa oracle, you will be able to see the difference between what I wrote, "Obi supporters carried IPOB flag to Alausa, in Ikeja, the seat of Lagos State Government," and your oracular version, "demonstrators carried IPOB flags to the government offices at Alausa. Of course, Professor Òrúnmìlà who listens only to the voice of demons and claims to understand their language will always tell us that he can transform a scurrying rat into roaring lion.

S. Kadiri

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

No permission was obtained for the EndBadGovernance protests.

The state govt tried to declare it illegal but the organizers insisted on the right of every Nigerian to protest.

There is no evidence anywhere that Obi supporters demonstrated in Alausa or carried any flags to Alausa.

You continue to conflate the significance of the flag of the Labour Party,  a national registered Nigerian political party, with that of IPOB, a South East secessionist group,  because the Labour Party candidate Peter Obi and IPOB are both from the SE:

" Whether jubilant Obi supporters waved labour flags mixed with IPOB flags  is of no significance"

So, is the title of "anti-Igbo ( SE) ideologue" not a good name for you?

Bros, we can conclude that you have nothing to contribute on this matter.

Bottom line- the Biafra=Igbo=IPOB correlation is a fallacy.

Nigerians are collective victims of the multi-ethnic political class.

All that ethnic infighting does not serve the interests of the populace.

Without the splitting of the electorate through such diversionary measures,  there is almost no way Tinubu is getting a second term anywhere bcs of the suffering he has imposed on Nigerians through his removal of fuel subsidy without economic safeguards for the populace,  the same safeguards he learnedly argued needed to be put in place before such a removal, at the succesful demonstration he, Soyinka and fellow travellers carried out to stop GEJ from doing what he, Tinubu did on the first day he came to power, deflecting the responsibility for that strategic policy move to his predecessor,  his fellow APC President Buhari,  a most unleaderly behaviour.