My dear brother Donald Duke @Donald_Duke,
Some years ago, you and I travelled along the stretch of the coastline where this road now runs, and I clearly remember your praise for the vision behind it. That is why your recent comments surprised me.
Yes, the Coastal Highway is expensive. We agree on that. But nothing of lasting value in this world is cheap or free. Great nations are built by leaders willing to make bold, costly investments that will serve generations yet unborn.
Mr. President committed to funding this project, and he is keeping that commitment. There is no funding shortfall. The work is progressing, and the quality of construction is second to none.
When Governor Douye Diri commended the road, he was not speaking as a local champion; he was speaking as a statesman who recognises infrastructure of international standard when he sees it. I agree with him completely.
Donald, I understand that you are running for president, and that your statement is political. That is the nature of the season, and I respect your right to make your case to Nigerians. But we must be careful never to undermine a project of national importance, or the President delivering it, simply for political advantage.
When mankind went to the moon, it was neither cheap nor free. But it was necessary. So is this road.
During the Kaduna massacre, a Hausa Muslim man who didn’t know my family took us in and hid us in his house.
When the people hunting Christians came to his house and asked if there were any Christians inside, he told them no. He even swore by Allah, saying “Wallahi,” just to protect us.
He risked his own life to keep people he had never met safe.
I was only a little girl then, but I remember everything.
The following morning, before daybreak, he led us out of his house to where the soldiers were. He gave my father some money.
From there, we left Kaduna with nothing.
Years later, when I was older, my brother and I returned to Kaduna to look for him. Unfortunately, we learnt that he had passed away💔
We did what we could to show his family how much we appreciated what he had done for us.
APC Presidential Campaign Council Inauguration: "...There is no time in the history of Nigeria, to my knowledge, that there is a consensus in the political arena that one man (President Tinubu) deserves to be re-elected in this country...The path you have dared to take might be difficult, but it is necessary to take... We are with you, and we are a partner, and we will remain your partner..." - Chukwuma Soludo, Governor of Anambra State
When the government is ready to stop the circulation of fake drinks & other related items, they will drive everyone out of that Trade Fair complex & return the complex to its original purpose of hosting trade fairs & exhibitions.
Seyi Tinubu addressed young people on the importance of political participation. Drawing from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his Father’s long political career, he called on youths to remember their roots and actively demand opportunities to lead, rather than wait to be invited into decision making spaces.
#SeyiTinubuColloquium
@IamTommivill This will bring them up to be good future leaders. Those who attended missionary schools in those days are still the best behaved managers and leaders we have around today.
I came to Brazil believing that only people from the geographical location now known as the Southern parts of Nigeria were brought here as enslaved people. But being here has quickly educated me and certainly cured my inadvertent ignorance.
I was treated to arroz de Hauçá, Portuguese for Hausa rice. I asked Babatunde, the acarajé vendor in Rio de Janeiro, how they learned about this delicacy and how come the unusual name, and he said enslaved people of Hausa origin brought it to the New World, as Brazil was then known.
That was an eye opener!
Then in São Paulo, I was served a dish known as Abará. After tasting it, I did not know when I spoke in Lukumi Yoruba and said, 'Moinmoin ma le leyi!' Abará is what they call Moinmoin in Brazil.
Never have I seen a place so like Nigeria outside West Africa. Their veneration of Ifá traditional religion fused with Catholicism, intertwines culture and religion in a way that profoundly affects their societal balance. And after Nigeria, this is the happiest country I have ever encountered—such a free and uninhibited place.
I feel so sad to be leaving Brazil after, in a way, connecting and reconnecting with the people I met here. But all good things on Earth must come to an end, including even life.
All I can say, as I leave, is this: May God bless the Federative Republic of Brazil!
Bemigho Reno Omokri