Ayo Sogunro

Doctor of Laws | Human Rights Lawyer | 🏳‍🌈 SOGIESC Researcher | Book Author | Stressed Nigerian

[aether @bluewdrift]

the figs will rot if you don’t eat them. the jasmine blooms for three weeks and then it’s over. your body at twenty-five will never come back, and neither will your body at forty-five. everything you’re saving for later spoils in the waiting. 1/6

[Ayo Sogunro @ayosogunro]

Christianity in Africa started as a tool of colonialism. Christianity in Africa will continue to be a tool of colonialism. The same goes for Islam.

We are the only people whose major deities are not made in our own image and skin colour.

[Right Wing Watch @RightWingWatch]

Preaching that God has assigned black people to "a civilizational station of subordination and dependence" due to the Curse of Ham, Christian nationalist pastor Dale Partridge calls for a "return to European Christian colonization of African nations." https://t.co/fmXimncly7

[Ayo Sogunro @ayosogunro]

More importantly, in the end MKO stood on democratic principle. He was offered compromising deals that he rejected and he died for it.

We have seen many Nigerians start as activists and end as oppressors. It is rare to see a Nigerian start with power and choose to end in jail.

[Dele Farotimi. A victim of Nigeria @DeleFarotimi]

The truth is not that cut and dried, it is far more nuanced. I have deliberately avoided responding to sentiments similar to yours, but you have the capacity to understand.

MKO was NOT a saint, but WE VOTED for him, and that is why he was killed. 1993 was repeated in 2023..

[Dramaniela @Dramanielaf]

Si el fracaso colectivo de Latinoamérica en este mundial sirve para que despierten frente a la manipulación de las iglesias evangélicas para montar gobiernos de ultraderecha y arruinar nuestra cultura, el futbol, nuestros procesos comunitarios y nuestra política, valió la pena

[Ayo Sogunro @ayosogunro]

@elnathan_john Valid point.

[Ayo Sogunro @ayosogunro]

I am so tempted to say that as long as El Rufai was granted bail, the rest is his problem.

But this is a prime example of how the political elite in Nigeria can use the law to deal with bad actors when they choose to do so.

They just never choose to do so for our common good.

[ARISE NEWS @ARISEtv]

Mallam El-Rufai Was Granted Bail With Terms That Are Not Viable - El-Rufai

A bail term with 2 sureties, N200 million each, and properties worth N200 million in GRA Kaduna, with attestation from the traditional council of Kaduna State. Efforts to get these became impossible.

Asiya El-Rufai, El-Rufai’s Wife

[Ayo Sogunro @ayosogunro]

Wait, this oga is still in detention? Bruh…

[TheCable @thecableng]

Please free our husband... we campaigned for you, el-Rufai's wives beg Tinubu

The wives of Nasir el-Rufai, ex-Kaduna governor, have appealed to President Bola Tinubu to end their “family’s ordeal”.

Asiya, one of el-Rufai’s wives, spoke on the family’s behalf on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to the arrest of Bello Abubakar, the ex-minister’s personal physician, by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).
https://t.co/L7TznEDG55

[Ayo Sogunro @ayosogunro]

When I moved to North America, I discovered that several shows I watched on YouTube freely in Africa were accessible only by subscription here and a lot of the middle class ignorance on socio-political issues instantly made sense.

[Sean Padraig McCarthy @SeanMcCarthyCom]

Probably the most disturbing thing you regularly encounter in America is how many people have been socialized to worship the profit motive as some sort of God that holds higher value than things like children being able to play sports

[Ayo Sogunro @ayosogunro]

Rich people in Nigeria target themselves like this casually during in-fighting because they all don’t actually produce anything for the money they invest in these assets.

So there is no conception of value except to the extent that it can be measured in individual egos.

[NTANetwork @NTANewsNow]

NEWS FLASH!

Federal Housing Authority has demolished an estate investment worth billions of naira in Abuja.

It says the property was illegally built on land allocated to ambassadors.

[Baal Swizz ⛈️ @BaalJolani]

After finally doing some research, there is some truth to this. The neo Pentecostal players are extremely retarded and superstitious. Endrick, one of the players who missed a sitter against Norway, refuses to see a sports psychologist, and says he just talks to God. After the Norway game, he said that he talked to God instead of taking responsibility. Another player, Estevao, claims his pastor healed his torn ligament. On top of that, these players' fan bases are extremely toxic, accusing anyone who criticizes them of "hating God." Imagine being a logical person in the locker room with these nuts.

[Jo @JoJoFromJerz]

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
George Orwell, 1984

[papi chulo @Oddiri_]

@ayosogunro not crude correlation, exact and direct correlation. everything that happens in all phases of life in Nigeria has to be Gods will. team didn’t win AFCON, Gods will. tanker falls and kills everyone on your street but you - God favours me. Like what the actual fuck ????

[este • 🇧🇷 @estesemporium]

@ayosogunro If you get down to the nitty gritty it’s also anti black and anti indigenous which is the whole reason (imo) why so many people in brasil are being stripped of their culture in the name of “God” I was raised in this shit my dad is a pastor and like it is really that deep

[Ayo Sogunro @ayosogunro]

One lesson you finally learn about being Nigerian in South Africa is that a xenophobic person can't be pleased. You may wine and dine them, show concern for their issues, and generally be kind to them. But the first chance they get to malign you or your intents, they will. 🤷🏾‍♂️

[Ayo Sogunro @ayosogunro]

In my experience in South Africa, xenophobia is so normalised that both educated and uneducated people engage in it, politicians and religious leaders take advantage of it, and govt policies and private business practices embed it.

The kind of statements South Africans make about people on the basis of nationality, they will never tolerate from others if it was made *against them* on the basis of race, class, religion, sexuality, gender, health status or even body type. They will protest or even riot to uphold their human dignity.

But they refuse to recognise this inherent dignity in other black Africans. It’s like the majority of South African society has agreed that anyone who is not white, brown or historically South African is a subhuman and can be spoken about with the same type of tone we reserve for annoying bugs.

And there is no shame or sense of apartheid in how they do this. They do xenophobia freely and openly and there is no social sanction for this. No one loses their job, gets reprimanded, or gets socially cancelled for being xenophobic. It is just chillingly normal.

Even in African countries where tribalism exists, ethnic bigots often do it behind closed doors and anonymous internet accounts. It is generally understood that you cannot be *openly* bigoted at work, in govt service, in public spaces. Not so in South Africa, openly displaying bigotry towards non-South Africans is a national pastime in public and private spaces. It is actively encouraged. People win and lose elections based on how much more or less bigoted they are towards humans from other countries.

Again, what South Africans dish out to black non-South Africans, they cannot accept a fraction of it from racists. They rightfully shame racists everyday but do not see that, in the final analysis, they are not just xenophobic - but they also are specifically racially xenophobic, targetting the most vulnerable immigrants in the world - black Africans.

I don’t know if their society will ever develop a conscience in this respect or if more conscientious persons will arise in South Africa to object to this trend of talking about their fellow humans like pests, but I know that a society that doesn’t see and protect the humanity of others is a society that will soon turn on itself and self-sabotage.

[lena dunham’s third plastic surgeon @intentionalisms]

This isn’t just about wishy washy soul stuff. Neopentecostalism in Brazil *is* legitimately eating into the pipeline that used to produce great players from disadvantaged backgrounds. Families from the Deep Brasiliana increasingly encourage their children to interact only with other evangelicals, to avoid the kind of street culture that produced Brazil’s most iconic players (because it also incentivizes a lot of bad behavior), sometimes even to avoid team sport altogether. The changes to the social fabric that have happened as a consequence of neopentecostalism’s spread among Brazil’s most destitute have been massive. We are losing the “Deep Brasiliana” to it.

[Ayo Sogunro @ayosogunro]

@AloyUzoekwe Agreed.

[Ayo Sogunro @ayosogunro]

Crude correlation to the decline of Nigeria on the global football stage too.

Pentecostalism is inherently anti-fun.

[Paul Olind @OlindPaul]

I thought Brazilians were joking at first, but while the rest of us blame their decline on the disappearance of favela-style footballers, many Brazilians themselves are pointing the finger at neopentecostalism. That's an intriguing POV...

[Ayo Sogunro @ayosogunro]

@nenyeaku_ Linked to the growth of individual prosperity gospel and the rise of individual thinking over systemic/collective good.

[Ayo Sogunro @ayosogunro]

@TheLotaChukwu @tinffcanada Congratulations!