Seyi9ja

It is settled law that the question of who is a candidate of any political party for any election remains the exclusive preserve of the political party. This time tested principle is recognition of the fact that a Political Party is supreme over its membership. This is the clearest indication of the concept of the supremacy of a Political Party at play. It is well settled that a political party is a voluntary association and any member that joins a political party agrees to subscribe to the ideology of that political party, its ethos, rules, regulations and constitution. If you join a political party you have invariably or unwittingly agreed to subsume your rights under that political party and such you are bound to obey its rules, regulations and constitution. So if at any time a member of a political party thinks that he or she is not obligated or is not willing to obey any rule or regulation or directive or any provision in that party’s Constitution laid down by ...

Sanate President Bukola Saraki, who stoned yesterday with rocks and water sachets by an irate mob at the Eid Prayer Grounds in Ilorin, Kwara State, has accused Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed of leaving him vulnerable and open to attack, an aide of the governor has told SaharaReporters. Our source added that Governor Ahmed confided in aides and the traditional ruler of Ilorin that the Senate President made himself the target of furious crowd because he failed to listen to security reports and advice urging him to stay away from Ilorin during the Sallah holiday. A security source corroborated the governor’s sentiment. According to him, security agencies in the state had been aware of public anger against the governor and Mr. Saraki, especially as information circulated among residents about the size of the senator’s assets and personal wealth. He added that many people in the state, among them unemployed youth and workers who are owed arrears of salaries, felt that the Sar...

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Chief Olu Falae, who was freed after spending four days in captivity, yesterday recounted his ordeal. Falae, who reunited with his family in Akure and was welcomed home by a crowd, said he slept on the bare floor for four days. The septuagenarian added that he trekked more than 30 kilometres from his Ilado farm in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State, where he was abducted, to a place in Owo Local Government Area where he was kept during his captivity. The former SGF was kidnapped on Monday by suspected Fulani herdsmen who stormed his farm in Ilado. But yesterday, Falae returned to his home in Akure, the state capital, in company with the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, who led the rescue team. Arase and the family said no ransom was paid to the kidnappers before Falae was released. However, Falae, who was visibly worried, said he did not sleep in one location during the four day...

I was alarmed this morning when I received a message from whatsapp from one my numerous contacts suggesting that the current travails of the Senate President, Dr Abubukar Bukola Saraki is being masterminded by President Muhammadu Buhari because his father, late Dr. Olusola Saraki as Senate Leader in the 1980s headed a Committee that allegedly indicted the then General Muhammadu Buhari! Nothing can be farther from the truth. I know I am not the Spokesman of President Buhari but as a conscientious citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I am duty bound to refute with all my mighty such  devilish efforts to peddle falsehood and plain lies against the person of  President Buhari by some faceless hirelings on the pay roll of some corrupt mandarins who have deservedly found themselves at the wrong side of the law to ?pull wood over the eyes of gullible Nigerians who were not born in the 1980s. At least I was in Secondary School when the brohaha over the alle...

Today, the Muslim Ummah celebrated. Today, in Ilorin, the Eid organisers disappointed and displayed colossal incompetence. Today, Mr. Saraki was humiliated. All around the world, Muslims celebrated and gathered at several Eid grounds to worship. It was no different in Ilorin, home to great Islamic scholars. What was different however, was that for the first time in recent history, the organisation was so bad that many people left without praying. People far off from the Imam could not link up to him as a result of bad/insufficient speakers. The disappointment I felt is the same the man beside me must have felt when shortly before the prayers he was lamenting: “First, they said, we were uneducated, so we went to school. Now that we’ve gone to school, there are no jobs for us. The few that have jobs have not been paid for monthsShortly after the prayers, I noticed commotion. There were water sachets and stones flying in the air – all directed at the direction whe...

THE Islamic calendar turns another leaf with today’s celebration of the festival of Rams, also known as Eid-el-Kabir or Eid-el-Adha. It is a bit discomforting that most Nigerians, even Muslims who should know better, tend to perceive Eid-el-kabir as an occasion mainly for merriment and feasting, more so as the rams slaughtered are to be consumed with friends and neighbours. Nothing can be farther from the truth, as a reflection of the history of the festival reveals. Firstly, this occasion had its origin in the days of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) who, as both the Holy Quran and the Holy Bible record was called upon by God to sacrifice Ishmael, his only son at the time, for the Almighty. The request came in frequent visions and dreams, and Ibrahim (may Allah’s peace be upon him), being God-fearing, decided to fulfill the demand. Surely, that decision, along with the surrounding circumstances, is anything but cheery. And the apprehension was further underlined by the fact...

On Thursday, October 2, 2014, I was in the ancient town of Ile-Ife to attend the wake keep of Olori Beatrice Omosigho Adedapo Aderemi, the wife of late Prince Adedapo Morounfolu Aderemi, the first son of the late Ooni of Ife, the revered Sir Adesoji Aderemi. Prince Adedapo died in October 1963 at the young age of 39. After the wake keep which held at the Aderemi’s family house,  popularly known as Glass House  in Ile-Ife, I drove to Oja Ife (Ife Market or Oba Market) located some walking distance from the palace of the Ooni of Ife. I went there just to fraternise with Bunmi Adegoke, my childhood friend and old school mate, who retired from Union Bank as a Manager some years back and now into a distribution business. Few years ago, he bagged the traditional title of Sooko, which literally stands for the head of a branch of a ruling house in Ife. Sooko Bunmi Adegoke is from the Lafogido Ruling House in Ife. Altogether, there are more than 40 Sookos in Ife.