Sometimes, one wonders why those in positions of power and influence don’t see it when their government takes consistent leaps in the wrong direction. In fact, in most cases when this happens, they take these leaps in a direction quite unknown to both the electorate and the manifesto that drove them to power. And when concerned observers express their worry, or voice their concern about the crude deviation from promises, the affected government will readily lump it amongst the polemics reserved for “the haters of our government.” Spokespersons of such governments under question have a ready template for classing those who openly call out their government. They readily class critics and their criticism as the whimper of those they had not accommodated in their government; or as the lamentations of the man who was not invited to ‘come and chop’.
Apart from volunteers, the official spokespersons often also recruit or arrange some unofficial Voltrons who would join them in the fray. These seemingly distant, unofficial spokespersons take up the job of defending the government vigorously by both deflecting the arguments and, sometimes engaging in argumentum ad hominem. Many Nigerians know and have come to see, that Reno Omokri belongs in this class of people. Omokri began his steps in this ignoble job innocuously, but he forgot the past and went full blast when he was done with the initial coyness and shame. Most of the time these defenders of unpopular governments, who also suffer the same consequences of poor governance for which the government is being called out as nearly everybody else, do so only on the grounds of dragging the personalities of their critics.
The government also shows power and barefaced arrogance while giving their explanations—if they eventually get to do that. It is understood that spokespersons might have no choice than to simply respond to the prompt of their masters. Yet we expect some level of decorum in the discharge of this tedious responsibility. We had so much of this arrogance during Muhammadu Buhari. We have it now with Bola Ahmed Tinubu, especially with regards to this latest trip of our president to France and (now) England. There was nothing unusual when President Tinubu announced his trip to France on 2nd of April, 2025. There were no airs really, except the usual wariness by concerned Nigerians on the real intentions of the France trip by the president.
Mr. Onanuga’s statement announcing the first leg of the trip – to Paris, said the president would be back in the country “in about a fortnight.” Indeed, the president is still within the time frame of the vague “about a fortnight”; but Nigerians were unaware of the England leg to the trip. We might be asking for too much by seeking to know our president’s whereabouts. Shouldn’t we have known that “his absence remains temporary and in line with the communicated time frame of approximately two weeks”?
While our president is away in Europe, citizens who are already half-buried in economic mire, are being decimated in Benue, Plateau, Niger, Ondo, Enugu Borno and some other states. The blood of the Esan people of Uromi in Edo State is still dripping just like that of the victims of their repercursory anger. There is tension all over the land. The outcry against unrestrained killings became so loud that Mr. Onanuga, had to issue a statement, not really about the killings but about the current location of our president. In it he literally told us to just stop the noise and also desist from disturbing and disrupting the president, because he ruling from where he is. After the president left Paris for London “at the weekend”, we are told that he has “maintained constant communication with key government officials, overseeing critical national matters, including directives to security chiefs to address emerging threats in some parts of the country.” So, questions about the president’s whereabouts are irrelevant and unwarranted—according to Mr. Onanuga. We should just mechie onu till Baba oyoyo…!
Meanwhile, the real issues are still raging. What triggered the presidential spokesman’s reactive statement was the growing insecurity. The statement has not told us that the president is addressing the concern of Nigerians. It also said nothing about measures that could reassure Nigerians and the watching world that steps to bring succour are being taken. According to Onanuga, the president has done something. What he has done while in Europe is also “including directives to security chiefs to address emerging threats in some parts of the country.”
Yet, the gaping questions are still there. Why is the president not addressing the insecurity directly? What action plans have been wrought by the president and governors of the affected states? How do the guns they use in their operations get to them? There have been accusations of planned, coordinated attacks in the affected communities, why are these not frontally addressed? Is Professor Babagana Zulum of Borno State wrong by his uproar that Boko Haram had regained territories in his state? What we have in public domain gives the distant observer the impression that there is a sinister conspiracy among those saddled with the responsibility of tackling this problem.
Nigerians expect the president to address these and more. Brother Bayo Onanuga, has not done well enough. The man whose house is on fire does not pursue rats, but our president is away in Europe while Nigerians are running helter-skelter from killers. We also have not heard from the vice president, the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. They are all quiet while the country is being ravaged.
Soon, their Easter messages would take over the airwaves with the same messages: Emulate Jesus Christ. Live in peace and harmony. Love one another. Be patriotic and pray for your leaders. Many of our political leaders, including the president would be sending their Easter messages from abroad. They are safer there whereas our country should our safe haven and be the home of our president. I think he should be in Nigeria to take charge of the issues that are affecting Nigeria. It is not too much to ask to be safe wherever we find ourselves in Nigeria.
Portable and Saheed Osupa: Man pass man!
“Man pass man no be wayo” was the mantra of a once popular hawker somewhere in Diobu, Port Harcourt. He hawked soap and toothpaste and would sing that his products were better than anything else in that category of products. They were not products of popular multinational companies, yet his confidence was over the top. His assertive carriage and hype of his products made him popular around the Railway Line at Mile One. What everyone wanted to hear him chant was ‘Man pass man.’
Man pass man came to mind when Saheed Osupa and Portable were the issue recently. Portable Omo Olalomi is known for his loud and often loquacious nature. He is very much at home with controversy and he has always been swimming in troubled waters. The interesting angle to Portable’s life of “One Week One Trouble” is that he often attracts it.
Portable recently used a song by Saheed Osupa, the Fuji musician whose only recent controversy was the Colleague mi (My Colleague) episode that involved him, Pasuma Wonder and Taye Currency. Saheed Osupa is one Fuji musician with some physical and musical verve. He has been more removed from controversies that he could be said to have been involved in them.
However, this does not mean that he runs when he should stand. He does his thing and stands his ground well—both musically and culturally.
Portable courted his trouble with the Osupa’s song he sampled. Rather than play fair with the copyright infringement, Portable, as is his trademark, went to his live videos to disparage Osupa and dragged his name through the mud. And he was doing this to someone whose work you brazenly stole! His excuse? “Stars use other stars’ songs without consequences and that was all I did.”
Osupa, rather than join Portable in the mud, reported to the relevant authorities and engineered his arrest from one gauche police command – Kwara State. When the game runs awkwardly, it is only normal that the hunter will shoot awkwardly at it.
The police arraigned him, gave him a bail with some tough conditions. Of course, Portable could not meet the bail conditions and he was remanded in a custodial centre. The bail was not about the money but some of the other difficult conditions. He was, among other things, asked to produce a surety who owns a landed property in GRA, Ilorin. Portable was taken from shrine-like abode in Ota, Ogun State!
The point isn’t the propriety or otherwise of what transpired among the trio of Portable, Saheed Osupa and the Police but the fact that Portable could be silenced and weaned from his loudness and loquaciousness.
He has been off radar since Osupa withdrew the case against him, a leeway for him to explore and get off the hook. Portable has been shown that ‘man pass man’ and that noise might not achieve much. Let’s hope he has learnt his lessons, especially after his hair was scrapped. Death which took your cap only gave a warning.
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