As someone who meets and speaks about entrepreneurs regularly, there is one sentence I hate hearing and that sentence is: "I want to be an entrepreneur."

A person who says that sentence is most likely to fail at entrepreneurship. You cannot want to be an entrepreneur. You either are or you aren't. And if you are an entrepreneur, you can't work a regular job because you need to be creating and building, not working behind a computer.

So, how do you know if you're an entrepreneur or not? Here are 5 signs that you might be an entrepreneur.

You're willing to work hard without getting paid

This point is so important, hence it being first on the list. Too many people read tech news and assume that starting a company means raising monster rounds of financing and ultimately buying yourself your dream Lamborghini.

Unless you've already been down the entrepreneurial path, you probably don't know what it entails and just how hard it is.

I know of many entrepreneurs who have been building their company for years, have failed to raise capital and are still dedicated to success without any income to support their family.

I have to be honest, I don't know how they do it. But if you're so dedicated to your mission that you're willing to take loans to make sure you have food on the table, there's a good chance you are resilient enough to be an entrepreneur.

When you fail, you celebrate

No one likes to fail, right? Wrong. A good entrepreneur celebrates failure because they can learn from that experience and leverage those lessons to do better next time.

The journey to building a successful company is full of failures, whether it is on the execution side, raising capital, going to market or many other parts of the process.

Anyone who thinks that they'll just build the company and achieve success without failures along the way has never been an entrepreneur and probably will never be one.

The more competition you have, the happier you are

This is yet another very counter intuitive part of being a successful entrepreneur. If you're opening a pizza shop and someone opens another one next door, chances are, you will be upset or at least, worried.

However, when building a company, especially a technology company, competition should be celebrated. If another company is trying to solve the same problem as you, that means that the problem is a real one and there is demand for a solution.

If you are alone in your landscape and there is no other company addressing your market, that is a real red flag for anyone who is going to engage with the company whether it is an investor, a potential partner or anyone else.

The word 'impossible' gets you excited

When you tell a regular person that something is impossible to do, they move on to the next thing. When you tell an entrepreneur that something is impossible, they will respond: "Hold my beer."

Every service you use today was once deemed impossible. Do you think that when the founder of Uber pitched investors that they thought it was possible to change laws and build a successful company by turning all drivers into taxi drivers? They didn't.

A good entrepreneur is actually motivated by the words: "That is impossible." A good entrepreneur makes the impossible, possible.

When you hear of a problem, instead of complaining, you aim to solve it

We all experience challenges in our lives, some bigger than others. Most people, when faced with adversity might complain and enter victim mode.

A good entrepreneur, when facing a challenge, focuses on how to build a product that will help overcome that challenge.

A newbie entrepreneur focuses on their solution. A seasoned entrepreneur obsesses over the problem they are trying to solve. Before pitching your solution to an investor, focus on the problem, the pain point and how many people around the world have that same problem.

Once you've established that the problem is significant and widespread, then, and only then should you focus on your solution.

It has been said that entrepreneurs are wired differently than most people and I believe that to be the case because if you examine the behavior of an entrepreneur without context, good chance you'd be confused and even dismissive.

 

Inc

On August 10, 2024, Nigeria witnessed the culmination of a 10-day nationwide protest movement against economic hardship and government policies. The protests, which began on August 1, reached their peak with a planned "one-million-man march" across the country, particularly in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja.

Key Developments:

1. One-Million-Man Hunger Protest:

   - Protesters in Abuja commenced their march early Saturday morning.

   - Demonstrators carried placards and chanted slogans such as "we are hungry" and "End hunger."

   - The protest aimed to highlight the high cost of living and demand changes in government policies.

2. Protest Locations and Strategies:

   - In Abuja, protesters strategically avoided heavily policed areas like the MKO Abiola National Stadium and Eagle Square.

   - Demonstrations were reported in Apo and Lokogoma districts, starting as early as 7 AM.

   - Protesters called for an end to hunger and the reversal of fuel subsidy removal.

3. Police Response and Confrontations:

   - In the Galadimawa area of Abuja, police used teargas and live ammunition to disperse protesters.

   - The confrontation occurred around 9:30am, about three hours after the protest began.

   - No casualties were reported, but protesters were forced to flee for safety.

4. Arrests and Tensions:

   - In Ondo State, several protesters, including Kunle Ajayi Wizeman, the gubernatorial candidate of the African Action Congress (AAC), were arrested.

   - Human rights activist and lawyer Tope Temokun condemned the arrests, describing them as unnecessary and deceitful.

   - Temokun called on the Ondo State Governor to order the unconditional release of those arrested.

5. National Context:

   - The protests are a response to President Bola Tinubu's economic policies, particularly the removal of fuel subsidies.

   - Earlier in the week, President Tinubu addressed the nation, calling for an end to the protests, but many remained unsatisfied with his speech.

   - Amnesty International reported that over 20 people were killed across the country during the first days of demonstrations.

6. Regional Variations:

   - In Kano, instead of protests, special prayer sessions and Qur'anic recitations against hardship and hunger were held at various locations across the state.

7. Ongoing Concerns:

   - Protesters continue to demand drastic solutions to the prevailing economic hardship.

   - There are fears of potential violence and further clashes with security forces.

   - The right to peaceful protest remains a contentious issue, with activists asserting it as a constitutional right.

Conclusion:

As the planned 10-day protest period comes to an end, tensions remain high across Nigeria. The government faces increasing pressure to address economic concerns, particularly regarding the cost of living and fuel prices. The use of force by police and the arrests of protesters have raised concerns about the state's response to civil dissent.

Billionaire businessman Tony Elumelu has called on Nigerian security agencies to identify and expose those responsible for stealing the country’s crude oil, particularly through the use of large vessels operating in Nigerian waters. Elumelu’s comments, made during an interview with the Financial Times, underscore the ongoing issue of oil theft, which he claims has significantly contributed to the withdrawal of foreign oil companies from Nigeria.

Elumelu, who leads Heirs Holdings, has personally experienced the impact of crude oil theft. He recounted how, in 2022, his company had to halt production due to rampant theft, which saw over 95% of their oil output stolen. “How can we be losing over 95 percent of oil production to thieves?” he questioned. He cited the example of the Bonny Terminal, which should receive over 200,000 barrels of crude oil daily but instead got less than 3,000 barrels, leading Shell to declare force majeure.

Despite these challenges, oil theft continues to plague his operations. Elumelu revealed that even now, 18 percent of the crude pumped from his fields is stolen. “42,000 barrels of crude are pumped out daily. Theft still takes away about 18 percent of production,” he stated.

Elumelu criticized the lack of accountability and transparency in addressing this issue. He expressed frustration that the security agencies have not yet identified those behind the thefts, noting that such large-scale operations require significant resources and planning. “This is oil theft, we’re not talking about stealing a bottle of Coke you can put in your pocket. The government should know, they should tell us,” he demanded.

In addition to oil theft, Elumelu also discussed the challenges he faced under the previous administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. He revealed that a deal to acquire an oilfield was blocked by Buhari and his late Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari, despite his company’s $2.5 billion bid. Elumelu described the decision as illogical, especially since the purchase would have been from a foreign company.

Reflecting on his investment in Nigeria’s oil sector, Elumelu explained that his decision to buy a 45 percent stake in an oilfield three years ago was driven by a desire to ensure energy security for the country. “Energy security is crucial for a country that doesn’t produce enough electricity for its roughly 200 million citizens,” he said.

Elumelu also touched on the phenomenon known as the “japa syndrome,” where young Nigerians leave the country in search of better opportunities abroad. He expressed support for those who choose to seek opportunities elsewhere due to the lack of job prospects at home, while also encouraging those who remain to strive to make a lasting impact.

As Nigeria continues to grapple with the twin challenges of oil theft and economic instability, Elumelu’s remarks highlight the urgent need for effective governance and accountability to secure the nation’s resources and future.

The Dangote Oil Refinery has called on Nigeria's upstream oil regulator to force producers to abide by a law that stipulates they supply local refineries, saying that lax enforcement was raising its operational costs.

The 650,000-barrel-per-day capacity refinery, built by Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote on the outskirts of Lagos for $20 billion, has struggled to get sufficient supplies from Nigeria, where vandalism and low investment impede oil production.

In a statement issued on Friday, Dangote Refinery accused the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) of failing to enforce the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation (DCSO), a provision that requires crude oil producers to supply domestic refiners with a portion of their production.

"Our concern has always been that the NUPRC is pushing, but the international oil companies are not following the instructions," said Anthony Chiejina, a Dangote Refinery spokesperson in the statement.

"Consequently, we often purchase the same Nigerian crude from international traders at an additional $3-$4 premium per barrel which translates to $3-$4 million per cargo," he said.

The refinery said it was expecting to receive 15 cargoes for September out of which NNPC had allocated them six.

In a statement, the NUPRC said some producers were experiencing operational challenges while others had pledged most of their output to oil traders who financed drilling. It also said forcing them to raise their supply would violate their contracts.

Dangote Refinery requires 325,000 bpd of supply, but since it started operating in January, it has received nearly half of that amount, data from the regulator shows.

The DCSO was created by Nigeria's 2021 Petroleum Industry Act, but it has proven difficult to enforce due to dwindling oil production and the cash-strapped state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation using much of its production for crude-backed loans.

The Dangote Oil Refinery has also had a row with the downstream regulator over fuel imports, as it scrambles to compete in a challenging environment.

 

Reuters

 

A conservative coalition in Iraq has pushed proposals to lower the legal age of marriage for girls to just nine-years-old, sparking fierce backlash from activists and rights groups.

Protesters demonstrated in Baghdad this week to express their outrage at changes that would allow aspects of personal status matters to be legislated by religious sects, rather than the courts.

With many Iraqi marriages conducted informally and left unregistered, the revisions would allow figures from Sunni and Shia religious sects to finalise unions between people in law.

But critics fear the Shia code would be based on 'Jaafari jurisprudence', allowing girls as young as nine and boys as young as 15 to marry. Under current Iraqi law, both can marry from 18.

'The Iraqi community categorically rejects these proposals, it is a degrading step for both Iraqi men and women alike. This is what we have been fighting against for years,' women's rights activist Suhalia Al Assam told The National this week.

The amendments to Law No. 188, the Personal Status Law of 1959 have been pushed by a coalition of conservative Shia Islamist parties, which form the largest bloc in parliament.

The Coordination Framework attempted to carry out a first reading on July 24, but shelved the plans until last Sunday after meeting political resistance.

Many protesters gathered in Tahrir Square in the capital on Thursday to voice their opposition to the bill, which some said would foment further division in society.

Iraq's current law states that marriage requires 'a sound mind and completing eighteen years of age', with provisions for women fleeing abuse in annulling a contract.

Fifteen-year-olds can submit a marriage request, which judges can choose to approve if they deem the individual well and obtain their legal guardian's consent.

A judge may permit the marriage of a fifteen-year-old 'if he finds this absolutely necessary', the law states, without providing further details. 

Under the new laws, marrying Muslim couples would choose either a Sunni or Shia sect, who would be able to represent them in 'all matters of personal status' - rather than the civil judiciary.

"When a dispute occurs between the spouses regarding the doctrine according to whose provisions the marriage contract was concluded, the contract is deemed to have been concluded in accordance with the husband’s doctrine unless evidence exists to the contrary,' the draft says.

And figures from the offices of each 'endowment' would be able to finalise marriages, rather than the courts.

This may also see unregistered marriages - more than a fifth of which involve girls under 14 - legitimised by the state.

The current amendments circulating do not directly refer to the issue of child marriages - but previous drafts have, inspiring sharp and ongoing criticism from rights activists.

Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), told Middle East Eye the Coordination Framework was using the changes to distract from their own 'corruption' and political failures.

She said the proposals served to 'terrorise Iraqi women and civil society with a legislation that strips away all the rights that Iraqi women gained in modern times'.

Ms Mohammed added that the bill would 'force archaic Islamic sharia on them that regards women as bodies for pleasure and breeding, and not as human being[s] with human rights.'

On July 28, activists wielded signs reading 'the era of female slaves is over' and 'no to the marriage of minors' as they walked through Tahrir Square in Baghdad, the outlet reports.

The 1959 law was introduced nearly 30 years after the British left by a progressive, left-wing nationalist government under Abdul-Karim Qasim. 

Since the invasion of Iraq and fall of Saddam Hussein, right-wing groups have tried to repeal many of these laws and rights.

Proposals have included banning the marriage of Muslim men and non-Muslim women, and legalising marital rape.

Many Iraqis, especially in built-up hubs like Baghdad, have liberal attitudes towards women's rights.

 

Daily Mail 

Families flee new Israeli assault in Gaza's Khan Younis

Israeli tanks returned to the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis on Friday, forcing families to evacuate along congested roadways, as Palestinian fighters continued to attack Israeli troops from the ruins, residents and the military said.

Israeli planes carried out strikes across the enclave on Friday, killing at least 35 Palestinians, the Gaza health ministry said.

Thousands of people fled eastern Khan Younis in vehicles and on foot, belongings heaped on donkey carts and motorcycle rickshaws as they made their slow escape along congested roads.

With Israel and Lebanon braced for a possible escalation in fighting, leaders from the United States, Egypt and Qatar tried to revive efforts to halt the fighting in Gaza, scheduling a new round of talks for Aug. 15.

In recent weeks Israeli forces which swept into nearly the entire Gaza Strip over more than ten months of war have been returning to the ruins of areas where they said they had defeated Hamas fighters, while warning that they might regroup.

In the latest assault, the military dropped leaflets ordering residents and displaced people sheltering in eastern Khan Younis, Gaza's main southern city, to evacuate from an area that has already seen repeated waves of fighting.

Families packed into buses and cars, many seeking shelter in Al-Mawasi, a sandy stretch of ground along the coast, though some expressed fear over attacks there even though it is designated as a safe zone by Israeli forces.

Um Raed Abu Elyan said she and her family were "running from the fire, we are running with our children from fear".

Asked where would she go she replied: "God knows, we are walking now. They said to go to humanitarian areas, but there is no safe place here in Gaza. It is all destroyed and damaged."

Later on Friday, an Israeli air strike killed six Palestinians in Al-Mawasi, medics said. Another strike on a house nearby killed four people, including a girl, and wounded several others, they added.

Among the dead were two local journalists, Tamim Abu Muaamar and Abdallah Al-Susi, along with several of their relatives, medics and fellow journalists said. Their deaths brought the number of Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli fire to 168 since Oct 7, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said.

The Israeli military said troops hit dozens of Hamas targets in Khan Younis and Rafah close to the Egyptian border, seizing arms depots, destroying infrastructure and killing dozens of fighters armed with weapons including rocket propelled grenades.

CEASEFIRE TALKS

The meeting called for Aug. 15 to discuss a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal follows previous talks that have failed to yield a ceasefire since a single week-long truce last November.

Israel's prime minister's office said a delegation would be sent to the talks but declined to give further details. A Hamas official told Reuters the group was "studying" the new offer for talks, refusing to elaborate. The newly appointed overall leader of Hamas, Yahya Sinwar, is believed to run the battle, possibly from the tunnels of Gaza.

In a statement, the Hamas armed wing vowed loyalty to Sinwar in a show of challenge to Israel, which puts Sinwar on the top of its marked-for-death officials.

Fears are growing of a possible broader conflict. Iran has vowed to retaliateafter Hamas's leader Ismail Haniyeh was assassinated in Tehran and Israel killed a top commander of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in a strike on a Beirut suburb.

A Hamas response to the latest proposal for talks "needs to be studied carefully with its allies. If Israel was serious about reaching a ceasefire, they could have simply accepted the proposal Hamas agreed to," said one Palestinian official familiar with the mediation effort.

Israel launched its assault on Gaza aiming to wipe out Hamas after the group's fighters attacked Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, Israel has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to figures from health officials in the enclave, who say thousands of others are feared dead under the rubble.

Israel says it has killed or incapacitated more than 14,000 Hamas fighters, roughly half the number it estimated it faced at the start of the war.

Palestinians say that despite the near total devastation of Gaza, Hamas fighters remain able to mount guerrilla attacks and ambushes even as Israel prepares for war on a possible second front on the Lebanese border.

 

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia fighting intense battles against major Ukrainian incursion

Russia was fighting intense battles on Saturday against thousands of Ukrainian troops as deep as 20 km (12 miles) inside the Kursk region after Ukraine's biggest attack on Russian sovereign territory since the start of the war in 2022.

Ukrainian forces rammed through the Russian border early on Tuesday and swept across some Western parts of Russia's Kursk region, a surprise attack that may be aimed at gaining leverage in possible ceasefire talks after the U.S. election.

Supported by swarms of drones and heavy artillery fire, Ukrainian units moved quickly to carve out a sliver of the Western Russian territory beside the border while sabotage units pierced deeper inside Russia, according to Russian war bloggers.

"The armed forces continue to repel the attempted invasion by the Ukrainian armed forces," Russia's defence ministry said on Saturday, adding that intense battles were focused around Malaya Loknya, Olgovka and Ivashkovskoye, settlements around 10-20 km inside Russia.

In a sign of the gravity of the situation, Russia imposed a sweeping security regime in three border regions on Saturday while Belarus said it had repelled what it thinks was a major drone attack from Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin cast the Ukrainian attack as a major provocation and though Russia's top general, Valery Gerasimov, said on Wednesday that Ukraine's incursion had been halted, Russia has thus far failed to push the Ukrainian forces back over the border.

Russian military bloggers said on Saturday the situation had stabilised after Russia rushed in forces to halt the surprise advance, though they said Ukraine was swiftly building up forces.

The Ukrainian attack has prompted some in Moscow to question why Ukraine was able to pierce the Kursk region so easily after more than two years of the most intense land war in Europe since World War Two.

"A full scale military operation is underway against a very serious enemy who are certainly not idiots," said Yuri Podolyaka, a popular Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger. He said that Russian aviation had saved the day by pummeling scores of invading Ukrainian units, but also said the truth should be told about the gravity of the situation.

U.S. SUPPORT

The battles around Sudzha come at a crucial juncture in the war: Kyiv is concerned that U.S. support could weaken if Republican Donald Trump wins the November presidential election.

Trump has said he would end the war, and both Russia and Ukraine are keen to gain the strongest possible bargaining position on the battlefield.

Ukraine wants to pin down Russian forces, which control 18% of its territory, while showing the West that it can still muster major military operations that hurt Russia even if the Kursk front is unlikely to change the outcome of the war.

Ukraine has not commented directly on the attack but video posted on Ukrainian media purported to show Ukrainian soldiers in control of a gas measuring facility in the border town of Sudzha, where Russian natural gas flowsinto Ukraine for transit to Europe.

Reuters could not verify the video. Reports from Russian sources said Ukraine was in control of some areas of Sudzha. Gas was still flowing through the pipeline on Saturday.

Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), ordered an anti-terrorist regime be imposed on Kursk, Bryansk and Belgorod regions - which have a combined area of nearly 92,000 square km.

The measures essentially give the security services sweeping powers to lockdown an area, including controls on communications and limits on a host of usual freedoms. Thousands of civilians have been evacuated from Kursk region.

Some reports said Ukrainian forces were pushing towards the Kursk nuclear power station, which supplies a major chunk of southern Russia's electricity. It has a total six reactors, two shutdown, two under construction and two operational.

The acting governor of Kursk region, Alexei Smirnov, said drone debris had fallen on a power substation near Kurchatov, the town which serves the Kursk nuclear station, which said it was operating as normal on Saturday.

The head of the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency noted the "significant military activity" in the area and called for restraint.

Russian diplomats in Vienna told the IAEA that fragments, possibly from downed missiles, had been found, though there was no evidence of an attack on the station.

** Russia launches air attack on Ukraine's Kyiv, mayor says

Russia launched an air attack on Kyiv, with air defence systems engaged on the outskirts of the city in repelling the strikes, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital and military administration officials said early on Sunday.

"Air defence units operating, air raid alert continues," Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Reuters witnesses said they heard at least two explosions in what sounded like air defence units at work.

It was not immediately clear if the attack caused any damage or injuries.

Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said on Telegram that the capital remained under the threat of Russia's ballistic missiles.

Kyiv, its surrounding region and all of eastern Ukraine were under air raid alerts, Ukraine's air force said on Telegram.

 

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian missile destroys Ukrainian command post in Kursk

A missile strike has destroyed a Ukrainian command-and-control center in Russia’s Kursk Region, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has claimed, releasing video of the strike. Ukrainian forces launched a large-scale incursion into the border region earlier this week.   

In a statement on Saturday, the ministry said that an Iskander-M short-range ballistic missile system had carried out a strike on a previously reconnoitered command post of Ukraine’s 22nd Separate Mechanized Brigade not far from the border between the two nations.  

“As a result, the command staff of the… brigade, 15 people in total, was eliminated”, the statement said, adding that “there will be no mercy.”  

Drone footage released by the ministry shows what appears to be a cluster of several buildings in the middle of a heavily wooded area, with at least one Ukrainian armored vehicle also present in the area. One of the buildings is then hit by a powerful explosion, sending a plume of smoke into the air.  

Iskander missiles can carry a payload of up to 700kg of explosives up to 500km and travel at hypersonic speeds. Russia has been using this weapon in recent weeks to strike staging areas used by Ukrainian forces, command and control centers, airfields, defense industrial facilities, and other military targets.  

The incursion into Kursk Region is Kiev’s largest assault on Russian territory since the outbreak of the conflict. While the Russian Defense Ministry initially said that the Ukrainian spearhead consisted of around 1,000 servicemen and dozens of armored vehicles, including some provided by the West, subsequent media reports suggested that the total force was at least several times larger and that some elite Ukrainian units had been thrown into the thick of the fighting.  

Moscow has denounced the raid as a provocation and has accused Kiev of targeting civilians. Ukrainian officials, meanwhile, have said that the purpose of the incursion is to instill fear in the Russian population and achieve a more advantageous position for eventual talks with Moscow.  

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian advance has been halted and that reserves had been redeployed to the region. It claims that Kiev has so far lost up to 1,100 troops and 140 armored vehicles in the area.

** Ukrainian special forces decimated in botched landing operation – Moscow

The Russian military has wiped out a Ukrainian special forces unit that attempted to conduct an amphibious operation in Nikolayev Region, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said, releasing a video showing the aftermath of a fierce battle.

In a statement on Friday, the ministry said Russian forces foiled an attempt by a Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance group to land on the Kinburn Spit, a narrow stretch of land that connects to Russia’s Kherson Region and extends into the Black Sea.

Officials said the group, which included up to 16 service members on two high-speed motorboats, attempted to disembark on the spit under the cover of two other vessels. They added that the force suffered its first casualties on the beach when it hit a minefield. Those who managed to reach dry land were cut down by small arms fire, the statement said.

After suffering heavy losses, the Ukrainian military tried to evacuate from the coastline. However, as they attempted to do so, two boats were destroyed by artillery and missile fire, the ministry said, adding that the total number of Ukrainian casualties was 12.

Officials also shared drone footage of the landing site, which shows at least one heavily damaged boat stuck on the shore, with several bodies lying around.

Several Russian Telegram channels covering the conflict said the Ukrainian troops had come under fire from mortars and multiple rocket launchers, and that up to 80% of the force had been eliminated. They also posted a highly graphic video from the battlefield, apparently further from the coast, showing what appears to be at least four Ukrainian soldiers killed in action.

Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) has confirmed the raid, claiming its forces incurred losses on the Russians. The agency said Ukrainian special forces attacked Russian fortifications in the area and that the troops raised a Ukrainian flag near a monument to famed Russian commander Aleksandr Suvorov – located not far from the beach.

Ukrainian forces occasionally attempt to stage amphibious operations in Kherson Region, including across the Dnieper River, and sometimes in Crimea, although they almost never manage to hold on their gains for long.

 

Reuters/RT

 

There were no signs that something ominous would happen that day. No foreboding of any sort. For me, Thursday, August 1, 2024, began like any other day. I woke up feeling healthy and sound, grateful to my Maker for allowing me to see the dawn of another day. 

However, to my shock, in the eerie hours of that Thursday, news filtered in that the highly revered paramount ruler of my town, Idanre in Ondo State, Oba Fredrick Adegunle Aroloye, Arubiefin IV, the Owa of Idanreland, had gone to join his ancestors. For 30 minutes, I was dumbstruck, bewildered, and speechless. I couldn’t accept that my Owa had passed on to the world beyond. Just like that!

When I regained my composure, sweet memories of my beloved Kabiyesi began to reel through my mind. He was everything to me—a steadfast figure in my life, especially during my 32 remarkable years with the Tribune Group of Newspapers, years marked by both triumphs and trials. Through the ups and downs, God proved Himself mighty, and Kabiyesi was a rock for me.

I vividly remember the day I launched my first memoir in 1998. Kabiyesi traveled all the way from Idanre to Ibadan, accompanied by a retinue of his senior Chiefs, and stayed throughout the programme to honor me. What he said and did that day will stay with me until my last breath.

His love and affection for me went beyond that of a ruler for his subject; it was akin to the unwavering filial love a father has for a biological son in whom he is well pleased. He crowned this affection when he honored me with the traditional title of Ajagunla of Idanreland. He explained that he had been following my travails and achievements in the Nigerian Tribune, and that my victories over physical and spiritual battles called for a significant celebration.

Oba Aroloye was an extraordinary man of valor, piety, and integrity. These attributes were evident throughout his 48-year reign. He welcomed all—both young and old—with agape love. Even in his old age, he attended social and political events with vigor and affection. His reign was peaceful and marked by numerous monumental achievements, most notably putting Idanre on the world map.

Above all, from his first day on the throne, he made God his rock and pillar of support. Until his passing, his daily ritual, especially at dawn, included waking his Oloris (Queens) and other members of the royal household at 5 a.m. for early morning prayers before any other activities. No day ended without evening prayers. His devotion to God was unparalleled. He served God so fervently that a church was built in his honor. My King also had a deep love for church hymns and was never short of songs of praise to his Maker, no matter the situation. If you called him the King David of his time, you would not be exaggerating. 

Indeed, Oba Fredrick Adegunle Aroloye, Arubiefin IV, the Owa of Idanreland, knew and served his God. And doesn’t the Bible say that those who know their God will be strong and do exploits? (Daniel 11:32). The departed Owa of Idanre knew his God and did exploits, leaving giant footprints on the sands of time. 

As the heavens open their arms to welcome Oba Fredrick Adegunle Aroloye, Arubiefin IV, to paradise—God’s abode, where there is no pain or sorrow, where there is everlasting joy, eternal celebration, and endless worship of God—I have no doubt in my mind that the Owa of Idanre is happy and blissfully singing HALLELUJAH with the Angels.

Indeed, heaven’s gain is our earthly loss. Yes, Oba Aroloye was 102 years old when he joined his ancestors on Tuesday, July 30, 2024. Yes, the late Owa of Idanre was the longest-ruling monarch in Ondo State, having ruled for 48 years after ascending the throne in 1976. But despite his longevity, his passing is a significant blow to me. I will miss him sorely. Rest in perfect peace, my King.

**Folu Olamiti is the publisher of Newspot Online and former Editor of Sunday Tribune, as well as Executive Director of the Nigerian Tribune Group of Newspapers. Prior to establishing Newspot, he served as Resident Consultant, Media and Publicity, at the anti-graft agency ICPC, and as immediate past Chairman of the Board of Management Advent Cable Network Nigeria Television (ACNNTV).

The10-day nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests that ended yesterday, known by the reduplicative compound “Zanga-Zanga” in Hausaphone northern Nigeria, have ruptured the coalition that President Bola Tinubu managed to build with a portion of the northern Nigerian Muslim political establishment since 2014, which put Muhammadu Buhari in power in 2015 and 2019 and him in 2023.

But this Zanga-Zanga-inspired rupture also reveals the initial precarity and fragility of the strange-bedfellows coalition. Buhari and Tinubu were previously fierce political adversaries who distrusted each other’s motives and undermined each other. Their alliance was more accurately a political scaffold that papered over their contradictions for a temporary gain, which was the ouster of Goodluck Jonathan from power.

Tinubu’s associates and acolytes in the Southwest, who said they protected Buhari from revolt in their region even when he bungled governance with uncommon ineptitude, are understandably miffed at the rawness, fierce intensity, and undiluted anti-Tinubu fervor of the protests in northern Nigeria.

They are wondering why Buhari, his associates, and even the APC establishment in the North didn’t return the favour. The answers are obvious, but people in power are often blind to the obvious, especially if the obvious is disquieting.

First, Buhari and his supporters know that the Tinubu group, which had a tight leash on the Southwest political space, didn’t protect Buhari from the consequences of his infernal incompetence out of any high-minded considerations. They did so because they needed power after Buhari’s term in office. It was unvarnished calculative opportunism.

Since Buhari’s people have no expectation of any kind of requital from Tinubu, like Tinubu did from them, they felt no obligation to protect or explain away Tinubu’s own hard-hearted incompetence. The chase often stops after a conquest. Men who woo women can relate to this sentiment.

Second, the misery that Tinubu’s simultaneous policies of never-before-seen astronomical petrol price increase and devaluation of the naira unleashed on the country are felt more deeply in the North than in any part of the country because of the preexisting multidimensional poverty in the region and the pervading insecurity that makes farming almost impossible.

Money is now both hard to find and worthless when it is found, and food is both hard to find and unaffordable when it is found. That is an unprecedentedly profound, not to mention unsurvivable, existential torment.

Two days after the #EndBadGovernance protests started, I told someone that many people in the North have been rendered so desolate, so destitute, and so despondent by the economic crunch that they are looking to cash in on the protests to commit suicide by police bullets because Islam forbids suicide.

Islam teaches that committing suicide guarantees an unfettered passage to the hottest depths of hellfire in the hereafter. I said many people who couldn’t survive the pain and humiliation of perpetual hunger might tempt security forces to shoot them so they could end it all and not fear that they would provoke the wrath of their Creator for committing suicide.

Of course, this is twisted thinking because a famous hadith, which every Muslim who took Islamic Studies in secondary school knows, says “Actions shall be judged according to intention.”

Well, my predictions turned out to be accurate. A friend shared a video of scores of protesters in a northern city chanting, “da yunwa ta kashe mu, da ma bullet ya kashe mu” (rough translation: “Instead of dying of hunger, we would rather be killed by a bullet”) as they confronted gun-wielding military and police officers.

There is also the viral video of protesters bursting into the Zamfara State Government House in Gusau and defying, even daring, menacing, gun-toting soldiers who tried to stop them. Several such scenes have been replicated throughout the North.

The mistake the government is making is to dismiss the protests as entirely politically motivated. They are not. Even if they wanted, Buhari and his associates couldn’t stop the protests both because the shelf life of Buhari’s “magic” has expired (his own house was besieged in Daura, and he had been pelted with stones while he was in power in cities like Kano and Maiduguri where he had been idolized) and because the extent of anguish people are going through now is unappeasable.

Apart from the usual criminals of opportunity (who exploit every unrest to steal and destroy), the vast majority of protesters think their only hope of living is to risk death and push back at policies that kill them slowly but surely. You can’t persuade people who have nothing to lose by dying.

That was why American author Dan Groat pointed out in his 2014 book titled In Monarchs and Mendicants, “Not interested in scarin’ anybody, but people with good sense are afraid of a man with nothin’ to lose.” Lance Conrad echoed this in his book The Price of Nobility when he said, “Only a fool would underestimate a man with nothing to lose.”

People who weren’t exempt from the rage of protesters can’t stop protesters from protesting.

The self-inflicted attenuation of Tinubu’s political capital in the North plays into the old debate in the Southwest about the best coalitional strategy to attain and retain power for the Yoruba.

The Obafemi Awolowo strategy, which Afenifere still believes in, sees the Muslim North as a competitor and not an ally. The Awo strategy for getting power is to build an alliance between the entire South and Northern Christians.

But the Ladoke Akintola template sees the Muslim North as a strategic partner in light of the deep historical and cultural ties that bind Yoruba people and several linguistic, ethnic, and cultural groups in the Muslim North, such as Borgu, Nupe, Igala, and Hausa people. (Read my October 9, 2021, column titled “Arewa and Oduduwa More Alike than Unlike.”) This is hardly surprising because even though Akintola was a Christian, he was from Ogbomoso whose traditional ruler traces ancestral roots to Borgu.

MKO Abiola—and now Tinubu—subscribe to the Akintola template. Abiola was briefly vindicated when he won the June 12, 1993, presidential election with enormous support from the North, including Kano, his opponent’s home state.

But the revocation of his epochal electoral triumph by a Northern military head of state—and the decidedly ethnic and regional character the fight for and the opposition to his mandate later took—appeared to justify the distrust of the Muslim North by the Awo group, which nonetheless gave full-throated support to Abiola to reclaim his mandate.

Tinubu, undeterred by Abiola’s experience, reinvented the Akintola template. It’s as if he wanted to prove that he could tread the same path and get to the destination that Abiola couldn’t get to. That must be why he called his presidential bid “Renewed Hope.” Abiola’s was “Hope.” Like Abiola, he chose a Muslim running mate. And, like Abiola, his running mate is a Kanuri man from Borno.

With the Muslim North now souring on him only one year into his first term and the unlikelihood of his ever recovering whatever goodwill he had from the region if he continues with his economic policies that push people to the brink of the existential precipice, the Awo/Afenifere group may be having the last laugh.

So, what should he do? The best option is to discard the IMF/World Bank neoliberal policies he’s enamored with (which have never worked anywhere in the world) and embrace Awolowo’s welfarist capitalist template of governance that puts the development and wellbeing of people at the center of policies. That may restore his goodwill with the North—and even earn him more support elsewhere.

The other options are non-starters, but I’ll mention them anyway. Like Olusegun Obasanjo who won his first term with the support of the Muslim North, but who later used the Awo/Afenifere template to get a second term, Tinubu can court the Christian North and galvanize the South. Goodluck Jonathan used this template in 2011 and won.

The problem is that if Peter Obi runs in 2027, and I don’t see any reason why he won’t, Tinubu won’t be able to galvanize the South into a unified voting bloc. And, although the worst fears of his Muslim-Muslim ticket among Christians haven’t materialized, northern Christians are unlikely to embrace him wholeheartedly, however hard he tries to woo them.

In other words, Tinubu is cooked, as Gen Zs say. Anything short of bringing down the cost of petrol, restoring the value of the naira, and making everyday things affordable will doom Tinubu’s first term and deny him a second term because he is now effectively a political orphan.

Undoubtedly, the political matrimony between President Bola Tinubu and Northern Nigeria is at Talaq stage. 

Talaq is the Islamic unilateral repudiation of a marital union. There are no sobs, no wails. No dabbing of the face with a handkerchief. But, the dusts provoked by the matrimonial dislocation hang notoriously in the sky. Even bystanders miles away can see them. The marriage is only 15 months old but the couple’s patience for each other is rope-thin. As our elders say, right in the presence of the kolanut seller, irreverent worms slide inside his pods. A matrimony celebrated with pomp and ceremony is now a chaotic market row. The gluttonous cat has eaten the poisonous meat of a toad. A post on X late last week even claimed that “Northerners have (begun) Al-Qunut prayers against Tinubu…Al-Qunut prayers (are) done…to eliminate evil.” There is a litany of allegations hung on the neck of the seismic marriage. It ranges from prostitution, abandonment, betrayal to battery. While the world sees the palm fronds, (mariwo) the egungun of the matrimony would seem to have been long gone.

Well, as the saying goes, a household of misbehaving children is a reflection that it is devoid of elders with wisdom – (T’ómodé ilé bá ńse réderède, àgbà ibè ni ò ní làákàyè). Elders then summoned the couple and demanded the reason for their tiff. Flaunting patriarchal righteousness, the husband has kept mum, dragging smoke off his burning cigarette intermittently. The Northern wife however did the narration, tears coursing down her cheeks. On her knees, she tells the story of Lagere, the cripple and Python, a huge heavy-bodied reptile which kills its prey by constriction. Lagere was a prince crippled from birth. At his turn to succeed his father, Kingmakers bucked, citing an existing tradition forbidding disabled on traditional stools. Downcast, Lagere hopped down river road to commit suicide. As he folded his deformed leg to jump into the river, a huge python emerged from nowhere and demanded why he contemplated suicide. Moved, Python promised to help him. The snake jumped up, wrapped himself round Lagere and constricted him. Upon unwrapping self from the cripple, the deformed leg received strength. Overexcited, Lagere swore to show gratitude to Python.

Before he was crowned king, continued the Northern Wife, the Ifa Oracle summoned to divine Lagere’s reign muttered a saying, the purport of which was cryptic to all at the time. The Oracle said, “Oore tán, asiwèrè gbàgbé” meaning, at the fullness of time, the foolish will forget a kindness of the past. Lagere then ordered that a groove be earmarked in the palace for the worship of the mysterious reptile. He indeed worshipped Python for months. One day, however, having smoked alien weeds, the king’s head exploded with pride. Lagere reasoned that His Imperial Majesty shouldn’t be seen groveling before an ordinary reptile. He then ordered that the animal be brought to the palace to be sacrificed to him. On seeing what King Lagere was about to do with him, Python cried passionately and asked for mercy. Lagere would not listen. But as he was being dragged down for propitiation, Python suddenly pounced on Lagere, twined self round him. Instantly, he returned to his old cripple state. The town then dethroned Lagere. “That, elders of the land, is my story,” narrated the Northerner wife.

Being a student of Nigeria’s political history and one right inside its vortex, from its beginning, it should have occurred to Tinubu and his Northern bride that their matrimony would be short-lived. As the one who holds an umbrella all-day long would find out only later at sunset that they carry a heavy object, only at dusk would an Oko Ìyàwó Elépòn Búlúù (a vulgar Yoruba folksy appellation for a newly-wedded groom) realize that wedlock is the least of matrimonial rituals. Meeting responsibilities of matrimony is the toughest nut to crack. So long as there is a colony of lice on clothe, the fingernail cannot be devoid of blood. While narrating her ordeals and betrayal of trust from Lagere, the Northerner wife had lapsed into a Yoruba proverb which says that if a monkey is uncertain about the danger upon a tree, it should not be found climbing it (Bi oju alakedun o da igi, kii gun) to which the elders nodded in unison.

Before the #EndBadGovernance protests which began on August 1, the depth of the matrimonial discord between Tinubu and the North was, at best, at the level of guesswork. For instance, we knew that it is almost an impossibility that tantrums won’t follow a stubborn child given a knock on the head. When the Tinubu government thus disgraced Nasir el-Rufai last year, tantrums were expected. So when the Tinubu government, for which he pulled critical chestnuts off the fire, rewarded him with a non-ministerial clearance by the Senate, many could swear by their mothers’ graves that the northern Eliri, the minutest of all rats, will become one of the rebellious faggots that will upset the fire. And that, whenever the North was reorganizing for an Araba, Eliri would play a prominent role. Araba should remind any student of Nigerian history of the historical Northern Nigerian cry of disaffection with the Nigerian state of affairs immediately Aguiyi Ironsi promulgated the highly objectionable Decree 34 which rendered Nigeria’s federalism unitarist. The North had earlier visited midless pogrom on eastern Nigeria. I got a whiff of the heartlessness of the bloodletting from a live play of Yoruba Apala music lord, Ayinla Omowura, recently. He sang, “wón ńpa yíbò bí eni p’eran alápatà…” – they butchered Igbo people as though killing cows in a meat shop.

In June, Northern politicians began coalescing around Muhammadu Buhari. They advertised this in a visit which anyone familiar with the colour, tone and tenor of historical serpentine regrouping of the north would know was the beginning of a call to put spanner in the works. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and Aminu Tambuwal, Sokoto state’s ex-governor, kicked off the visit. It was to Buhari in his Daura hometown. Within 24 hours, el-Rufai followed suit. Photograph of the former governor’s legendary stoops to shake hands, similar to Iscariot’s kiss of Jesus, a notorious signature tune heralding betrayal, was amply advertised. Packaged as “Sallah homage,” political watchers claim the visits were the beginning of a packaged northern tempest against the Yarbawa who the north was wedded to in a matrimony that has now gone sour. Shehu Sani, Afro-haired ex-senator said this much in a release and attributed it to an attempt to build a strong northern alliance using Buhari as a rallying point to challenge and evict Tinubu in 2027. On the comedic scene, a Bello Galandachi satirizes the rot in the Tinubu government almost weekly.

The #EndBadGovernance protest was the strongest alibi for Northern Nigeria to ventilate its 15-month accumulated angst. It has been said that the protest, which kicked off on August 1, was a reflection of the geographical and ethnic politics that Nigeria had practiced from pre-colonial times. While the southeast, in a bid to stamp its disavowal with its typecast as a bellicose race, signed off from the protest, the southwest, which goes on protests, whether it is convenient for it or otherwise, marched out, while the north, often pacifist in matters that doesn’t personally concern it, was at the height of its hostility. The social reality of protest against the status quo in Nigeria is that, outside of university campuses, protests are a rarity on the streets of the Muslim North. For the eight years of Buhari’s non-governance, the north was as constantly docile as the northern star. But in this protest against bad governance, not only did northern protesters go to the Hobbesian state of nature, inflicting nasty, brutish jabs on sanity, some protesters even waved Russian flags, shouting “Putin!”

There is no denying the fact that the current Tinubu government has made life very excruciating for the people of Nigeria - perhaps, like no other government in recent history. The pain is such that, as the elders will say, it is only a child who has not beheld the sight of a lion’s devoured carcass in the forest who will pray to be killed by a leopard (Bí omodé ò rí àjekù kìnìhún nínú igbó, á ní kí eran bí ekùn ó pa òhun).The truth is also that, the government has democratized sufferings across board in Nigeria. Tinubu dishes out pains, death, escalating food inflation and hopelessness to Nigerians without any ethnic, religious or social discrimination. As the poor of Kaura-Namoda feels the cluelessness of Aso Rock, the poor of Nchatancha and Telemu equally feel it. But the way the North has taken the lead in escalating the protest this murderously, the question that begs for answer is, what exactly is that region beefing Tinubu about? Hunger? Certainly not. Since we have agreed that no part of Nigeria is spared Tinubu’s merciless, slavish Bretton Woods economic policies, why then is the north crying so vociferously as if it is the only bereaved?

After his announcement as winner of the 2023 presidential election, one of the victorious thoughts that must have crossed Tinubu’s mind was that the ground Obafemi Awolowo wobbled while treading, he gallantly stomped on it. Awolowo’s famous 1959 election campaign round the north, which roused Ahmadu Bello from his slumber, culminating in a Sardauna embarking on a political campaign which got his royal face caked with dusts in the process, opened Awolowo’s eyes to the myth of a monolithic north. Awolowo then came to the conclusion that an alliance of Southern Nigeria with the Middle Belt and Christian North holds the key to a southerner’s presidency of Nigeria. An alliance of his AG with NCNC to form UPGA had Michael Okpara, Eastern Premier, campaigning on the streets of Ibadan. This model still didn’t work during the Second Republic. Citing S. L. Akintola in his book, House of War (2003) Dare Babarinsa said Akintola, Western Nigeria Premier, rationalized his romance with the feudal north in that, the economic, educational and commercial aggressiveness of the Igbo was a greater danger to the Yoruba than the political hegemony of the Hausa/Fulani. An alliance with the NPC, he believed, was the surest way of rescuing the Yoruba from political annihilation. MKO Abiola lapped up the Akintola power model. From his alliance with Muhammadu Buhari in 2014, Tinubu also dusted the Akintola and Abiola handbook hook, line and sinker. On a superficial level, the trio of Akintola, Abiola and Tinubu would seem to be right and Awolowo wrong, right?

The above, however, cannot elicit a QED (quod erat demonstrandum) answer. The northern establishment’s political pedigree hoists it as a typical African witch. Of the many symbols and attributes of the witch, she holds tightly to her ferocious mystic power, using it as bait. She is also reputed with the upside-down symbolism. Among the Akan tribe of Ghana, the witch is literally "inverted." Hans Werner Debrunner, in his Witchcraft in Ghana: A Study on the Belief in Destructive Witches and Its Effect on the Akan Tribes (1961) said of witches, “Before they leave the body, they turn themselves upside… They walk with their feet in the air, that is, with the head down, and have their eyes at the back of the ankle joints.” The Ewe in same Ghana also believe that witches walk backwards and, in walking upright, have their feet turned backwards. The witch is represented by such animals like snakes, owls, hyenas, and leopards, characteristically nocturnal animals.

As it romances political power like the witch, the Northern establishment has an inverted thinking as well. Awolowo’s welfarist philosophy futuristically foretold that a feudal north not weaned of its weaponization of the large population of its Talakawa and roam-about Almajiri children would pose huge danger to the rest of Nigeria. That prophecy has made him a Nostradamus today. In a 1978 presidential speech, Awolowo had said, “For the North, I have three things, Education, Education and Education.” He also maintained that, “The children of the poor you failed to train will never let your children have peace”. The bulk of Nigeria’s social malaises today – insecurity, bloated population, renteer system of overdependence on the lean purse of the federal – come from the north. This has bred multidimensional poverty, misery and anger in the region. Governor Uba Sani recently said the region has over 70% out-of-school children and same number living in grueling poverty. You cannot solely blame Tinubu for all these as the north’s vulture has been suffering the merciless trouncing of rainfall strokes for more than a century. From Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Mohammed, Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, Abdulsalami Abubakar to Musa Yar’Adua, as well as their northern accomplices, successive northern leaders share huge slices of the hopelessness that the north is today. Not minding the multidimensional poverty, the northern establishment still frantically shuts the door against education of this crop of persons, lest they be liberated from its chokehold.

At the turn of Lagere to narrate the root cause of the tiff, the elders were aghast. Rather than him being an ingrate, the python is almost the equivalent of Omolokun, he said. Omolokun is a Yoruba Ifa deity scholar and practitioner, Araba Ifáyẹmi Ọ̀ṣúndàgbonù Elebuibon’s drama series that ran on western Nigerian television in the 1980s. A couple, suffering decades of bareness, besought a deity for a child it named Omolokun. A spoilt brat who demanded the impossible at every point, when Omolokun one day demanded a human being to be propitiated to him, it dawned on the couple that it had a misbegotten ghormid in its household. Lagere reminded the elders that but for him, their son, Buhari, could not have won the presidency. Like Omolokun’s parents, the Lagere in Aso Rock has bent over backwards to please his Python, allocating consequential federal ministries to the North and in many cases, devoting junior and senior ministries to it. Recently, Lagere even established a Federal Ministry of Maalu as sacrifice to Omolokun. Yet, the northern establishment is steeped in roiling anger and cannot be pacified.

Lagere compared the excesses of his Northern wife to an excessive liquour that intoxicates; excessive sun that runs a child mad; excessive stronghold that begets madness and a spinach vegetable which, if it grows in excess by the stream, is rendered a common weed (Bí otí bá kúnnú, otí á p’omo; bí òòrùn bá pò l’ápòjù, á s’omo di wèrè; bí a bá l’óba l’ánìíjù, á sínni n'íwin; bí tètè ègún bá pò á di òleri). Lagere concluded that he had reverenced the cow enough and even went overboard to call it “Brother.”

The target of the Northern Witch is to stop Lagere’s reign. By now, Tinubu must have realized that the Awolowo who divined education and welfare as antidote to the tyranny of the Northern Witch was no fool. The Witch cannot be appeased. It is insatiable. Like Omolokun, this Witch will demand flesh and blood. Suffusing Nigeria with plenty and Northern Talakawa with education is the only route to rescue Lagere from the chokehold of his Python captor.