Akinbode's BLOG on Faith, Politics, Science, Engineering, Education and Health

  Nigeria Bans Use of Indigenous Local Languages in Pre-Secondary Education Over the last 20 years, I have written extensively on the subject of loss of self-identity and the inferiority complex that afflicts some of us when it comes to using our indigenous languages in communication. I was intentional about naming my children in my local language, Yoruba , instead of English names. My children have no English names at birth... I have lived in North America for over 21 years, and I still speak Yoruba, my native language, as fluently as if I left Nigeria yesterday. I am intentional about this. I went to public primary and secondary schools. I did not start to speak fluent English until form four, equivalent to SS2 today. We were taught in Yoruba language in my Primary one (grade 1), and I was one of the best students in my class for it... Things changed in Primary 2, and my decline started. I struggled until Primary 3 when I started to pick up again. Teaching in Yoruba, the only l...

Christians have been killed in large numbers in Nigeria for decades - during republican and democratic governments in the U.S. One could call these killings genocide if you evaluate intent and the number of victims... There is a church attack as recent as this week in Kwara State, Nigeria . Nigeria has had serious issues of insecurity for over 15 years now - Boko Haram, banditry, Fulani herdsmen attacks... The West kept quiet so far, just as they have been quiet about the DR Congo crisis , or the Sudan genocide from both sides of the warring parties. Why the interest in Nigeria at this crucial time... I hate conjuring theories or conspiracy... but the motivation of powerful countries is always hard to decipher... They give nothing for free... if they show interest, it means there is something to gain... The same West that is crying genocide in Nigeria denied there is genocide in Gaza, or refused to stand fully behind Ukraine. They have not lifted a finger to help quench the madness in...

The answer to this question is difficult and complex... Let me ask another series of questions: Are Christians being killed in large numbers in some parts of Nigeria? The answer to this question is a resounding YES! Has this been going on for decades? The answer is YES again! Since the 1990s. Where have these killings mostly occurred? It has been in the Northern part of Nigeria. Other questions are: In the last 15 years of escalated insecurity in Nigeria, have more Muslims been killed than Christians? The answer is YES! Where have the killings mostly occurred? In the North-Eastern corridor of Nigeria....Do we have uncurtailed killings across the length and breadth of the nation? Yes, we have. Since Buhari's government dismissed the claim that Fulani herdsmen were killing people and kidnapping them for ransom in 2019.... Nigerians of all colors and hues (Christians, Muslims, traditional worshippers, farmers, artisans, politicians, teachers, children, etc..) have been terrorized by b...

I am reading some are calling for the head of the military officer who confronted Wike and prevented him and his entourage from running over him.... This young military officer stood up to Wike, a sitting minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria... When you drag yourself on the floor, people will step on you. This was the same Wike who humiliated a sitting governor, the Governor of Rivers state, Fubara . From authoritative sources, Gov. Fubara was restored to his elected position after he was compelled to prostrate for Wike, the godfather of Rivers state...Wike humiliated Fubara before our very eye... Wike has been humiliating his political foes since he became the kingmaker in Rivers state.... Wike is not alone in this toxic culture exhibited by those in the seat of power in countries where there is no rule of law . We see what the Senate President, Akpabio , did to Senator Natasha Akpoti ... Complete humiliation for daring to stand up to a bully and a randy so-called leader... S...

If PENGASSAN's issue is with Dangote Refinery, let them go picket in front of its refinery, let them go to arbitration, or take Dangote to court...Instead of punishing the whole country, and causing billions of naira in lost revenue. Most private universities in Nigeria pay what they believe they can. They are for-profit entities. They lay off any staff who join Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). That is why ASUU is non-existent in any private university in Nigeria. It is absurd that PENGASSAN has gone on a national strike to protect the interests of its so-called members in Dangote Refinery. PENGASSAN continues to constitute itself a nuisance labor union that does nothing but destroy the main source of revenue for the country.... ASUU pursues all routes of engagement with the government and negotiates for years before embarking on industrial action. They often start with a warning strike after many failed attempts at negotiation and arbitration.... PENGASSAN, on the othe...

1. The completion of Ajaokuta Steel Rolling Mill. This is critical to jump-start the manufacturing sector in Nigeria. 2. The completion of the dredging of the Rivers Niger and Benue. Logistics is key in the industrialization of any country... Road transportation is not reliable for shipping heavy goods. We need to use our waterways better. 3. The restoration of the textile industry across the length and breadth of Nigeria. 4. The creation of durable economic zones across every state in Nigeria with strong foreign and private sector investment 5. Tackle the perennial power generation and distribution problem 6. Funding of education - competitive scholarship, living wages for university staff, infrastructural development... Free education up to high school level, more vocational training schools, among others. 7. True privatization of the downstream petroleum (refining) sector... More actors that can build refineries will be licensed and provided credits... Sale of all government-owned r...

F or my peeps in Nigeria and the diaspora who are not aware of this new requirement that shuts you out of your bank accounts starting from January 2026, here is the link to obtaining your Nigerian Tax ID if you have a BVN and/ or NIN already: https://tin.jtb.gov.ng/TinIndividualRequestExternal Here is how to obtain your individual TIN: 1. Gather your BVN or NIN. 2. Go to the TIN Registration Portal using the link above. 3. Fill in your information: Your BVN and/or NIN, full name, date of birth, phone number, and address. 4. Submit your application afterward 5. Receive Your TIN: Your TIN will be generated and provided to you, usually within 48 h.

The killing of Charlie Kirk is pure evil and an act of cowardice. Instead of debating with his mouth, the shooter chose the coward act of shooting an innocent man dead from 150 yards. No one deserves to die like that...the question Americans should be asking is, how did we get here...? When those in power use rhetoric that fans an ember of violence, when they turn a blind eye to violence committed by their supporters and open the door of prison for them to re-integrate into our communities. They ignore the state of the people, right and left, while they laugh to the bank as Americans live in penury, fear, and nightmare daily. They tell us we do not matter. They punish dissent with threat of imprisonment and bankruptcy, but friendly voices like those of Charlie Kirk is given the megaphone... when the most powerful seat in the world is used to propagate pure evil and hate... we hear it every day, we wonder why we are seeing this... that same evil and one-sided rhetoric continues in the w...

To my Peeps in Nigeria... I read with bewilderment comments by Taribo West that late Dodo Mayana (Peter Rufai)'s family struggled to raise money to bury him. WHY? Where did all the money he made in Europe disappear to? Did he not invest some of the money? Did he not have a retirement plan? Peter Rufai had an illustrious career as a top goalkeeper in Europe. It was rumored that he even completed a degree while playing professional football. Peter Rufai played in Europe (Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands) for almost 20 years from 1986 until 2003. He even opened a goalkeeper school after retiring from active football in 2003. Where did all his money go? I can understand Taribo's outburst. It was not his first. Perhaps he is angry that they did not get as much as the current set of athletes. Or that what they were promised did not get to them on time or at all, as the current crop of athletes gets compensated in real time. Peter Rufai and Taribo West's era was the g...

The revelation that African MAP has been misrepresented for centuries is beyond disturbing and a further confirmation to Africans, especially their leaders who run after Western leaders for help that no one has them on priority list if they don't prioritize themselves. Africa's land area will swallow continental US, Japan, Russia, mainland China, Europe and other countries... Africa is located between the equator, based on the roundness of the earth, Africa's map should actually look bigger than its actual size not smaller... This is mischievous on the part of those who drew the world map initially and those who have perpetuated this lie for centuries.... If they misrepresented Africa's map, what else has been shrunk to make Africa small?

Not long after the new Alaafin of Oyo was crowned, some jingoists started peddling him as the paramount ruler over all Yoruba, citing the mischievous documents from colonial era where Alaafin and all monarchs in Nigeria were placed under civilian governments in contrast to what you find in England, where the reigning monarch is the head of government. In the same ancient document, Alaafin was mischievously made a first class Oba above any other Oba in Yorubaland, completely ignoring history. This same issue was what created decade-long feud between Oba Adeyemi, the late Alaafin and late Oba Olubokun Sijuade, Ooni of Ife.. That died down when Ojaja Adewusi became Ooni. Oba Adeyemi seemed to have sheathed his sword and embraced Oba Adewusi as equal... I warned when these jingoists started fanning this ember of discord as the new Alaafin was installed, calling him the Alaafin of Yorubaland instead of the Alaafin of Oyo. Alaafin's territory does not extend outside Oyoland. I asked tho...

USAID has saved over 91 million lives during its existence. It is projected that cuts to USAID programming will lead to over 14 million people dying globally in the next 10 years. Those that are going to be mostly impacted are the low and middle-income countries in Africa, Central - South America, and South East Asia. There are a few rich countries that will lose support as well. For every $1 spent on aid globally before this cut, $0.40 (40%) came from the US. This made the US the global leader that has been looked upon by the rest of the world, post WWII. This has been a strong leverage for the US to influence nations without shooting bunker-busting bombs at them. The decision to cut USAID was partly political and in some way, necessary. The latter could have been done in a humane way, not suddenly, but in a way that reduces true waste and duplication of effort and not create shock. The latter is worse - the argument that US is wasting money overseas, and that it is helping the globa...

The world watches while almost two million people are starved to death deliberately, while they are shot like games /animals when they go look for food rationed intentionally... because some people want to displace them forcefully and take what is left of their land...we all know this is no more about 20 hostages left. They could have been released based on the January agreement... but some people want to continue to use the excuse of the war to remain in power to escape justice for their corrupt acts and to prosecute their long-dreamed vision of Riviera... The state solution is dead... There could not have been a better time to perpetuate this evil. Terrorism was created because of bullying. It has been sustained because some nations/ people chose to bully others, forcefully impose themselves on them, take their possession, change their leaders through the back doors, create chaos intentionally to take their rare earth resources, and occupy their lands and make it their own. It has ne...

 Today is "workers' day" in Nigeria. What may not be obvious to many is the level of decline in the purchasing power of this class of people in our country. Nigerian workers have seen a decline in their purchasing power, up to 90% in the last ten years under the current party that promised so much and delivered so little... What N100k will buy in 2015 is worth N1 million today. Check the price of petrol, egg, bread, rice, fish, tomatoes, garri, used car, cement, clothing, coke, beer, flight, etc, they have all gone up by almost 900%. During the same ten-year period, revenue accruing to the purse of the Federal government has increased because of increased IGR, and foreign exports; naira has also been devalued by as much as 90% since then, when you compare an exchange rate of N165 to $1 in 2015 to now N1600. Most Nigerians spend naira, not dollars. If revenue converted to naira has increased by almost 900% for the government, they should at least increase salaries by 200 t...

I just returned from a short visit to my native country, Nigeria. I went to visit my soon-to-be octogenarian mother and to attend to other personal issues. I continue to be amazed by the resilience of Nigerians and the sense of hope people have amid horrible situations. Here are a couple of observations: 1. Poverty has returned to the pre-millennia era. Post the fourth republic that ushered in the presidency of OBJ, the middle class had been decimated in Nigeria. Professors could not afford to buy “Tokunbo” cars let alone new ones, nor could they build a house of their own. I remember some of my professors wore car-tire sandals popular with farmers... The turn of the century ushered in prosperity through pragmatic leadership led by OBJ, despite all his flaws and greed. The last 10 years under the current party have reversed that trend... You can see hunger visible in the faces of the majority of Nigerians, and the middle class is gradually being eroded. People's purchasing power ha...

MAGA destroyed DEI but they want to implement DEI at Harvard... They claim the school is not diverse enough. They have too many liberals, so they need to hire more conservative, whether they meet the hiring requirement or survive the rigor of delivering excellence at Harvard or not. This is what they claim DEI is all about - hiring people based on race, they claim, but they have no issue telling Harvard to hire based on political ideology.... You read the same thing about BLM and Antisemitism. They say BLM reflects poorly on the history of America... Critical race theory is false history... slaves loved being in captivity, they loved their masters and served willingly... there is no more discrimination based on the color of your skin in America - but all the metrics point in the opposite direction... Jewish Lives Matter; Black Lives Matter, and Palestinian Lives Matter... All Lives Matter. A terrorist life should not be equal to 20 innocent Palestinian life... It is okay to forget abou...

  Until Ordinary Nigerians Seize the Power that Belongs to them, There Will Not Be Progress in That Country When I see the shameful drama unfolding in the Senate in Nigeria, I see impunity. When those who are supposedly elected into political offices are abusing the power they hold in trust for the rest of us in daylight, then you know they have no fear of the electorate... The Senate President in Nigeria, Akpabio, forced a motion that obviously failed, down the throat of his colleagues... The motion was to humiliate Senator Natasha and force her to apologize for daring to accuse Akpabio of alleged sexual harassment before she is re-admitted to the senate after serving the unlawful six-month suspension imposed on her. What saddens me the most are the fellow female senators who have either kept quiet or have reprimanded Senator Natasha for speaking out, including the wife of the president, Remi Tinubu, who faced many sexist comments and threats when she was a senator. Remi Tinubu wa...

Budapest Memorandum, 1994. It was a promise of protection against any unprovoked aggressors.. in exchange for what? Nuclear arsenal... once bitten, twice shy...   Who signed the memorandum, Ukraine, Russia, France and United Kingdom. Who gave up nuclear weapon, Ukraine. Who was attacked unprovoked, Ukraine. Who broke agreement, Russia and its Western allies. Russia attacked a sovereign nation with a flimsy excuse, and the West failed to protect Ukraine other than giving them weapon needed too late, they offered nothing...now the West wants to take Ukrainian minerals on top of all their losses. When I say some have lost any form of humanity.... this is an example.    African countries need to learn a lesson or two here... nobody, I mean no nation will save you and look out for your best interest if you don't look out for yourself... not the US, not China, not Russia, not UK or any foreign nation for that matter. When they give you one million in aid, know they are taking 1...

Those who conclude that the left does not have an answer for the chaos going on now are MISTAKEN.... I strongly believe that the silence is a deliberate strategy. How will they have tools and records to fight with if they do not allow the new king to wreck enough havoc? How will they tell fellow citizens that this is what you bargained for and what you are getting? You handed the right all the power from the SCOTUS to Congress and the White House... Now, here are the alternatives (I hope they have some ideas of what to propose - otherwise, they are doomed to the back seat forever)... November 2026 is just around the corner. The mid-term election is not too far away. Some elections in November 2025 will be pointers to what 2026 will bring. The right is not all united. Many people who have been sacked are not from the left... Right and Left have felt the impact of the wrecking ball. Many have lost their means of livelihood - jobs, and some are considering suicide. And those who are yet i...

IBB, with his "Maradona" tendency, is playing Nigerians again with some of the content in his book. I have not read it myself, but excerpts from those who have read it show that he absolved the Ndigbos of directly orchestrating the 1966 coup de'tat... even though an Ibo man of Northern extraction (Kaduna Nzeogwu) led the coup, the then Head of State, Ironsi, an Ibo man, was not killed while several officers from the North were killed including the revered Premier of the Northern Region, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello. There were Yoruba officers among the coup plotters, while several Ibos were killed defending Nigeria.   Maybe and maybe IBB has done Nigeria the greatest favor in his evil and horrific life, with all the bad that he did. This assertion may help Nigeria heal finally, move on from the darkest moment in our history, and re-write the wrongs of the last 6 decades that the Ibos have faced. They have been shut out of the seat of power in Nigeria... If an Ibo man quashed the c...

For far too long, some groups have been shut out and the field has favored one group of people above others. If you doubt, check the metrics... What is the population of female Americans graduating from four-year degree awarding institutions and check that against the percentage of women CEOs in America. You will see the pendulum tilting towards - male-Caucasians. What DEI has done in the last decade is to ensure that women who meet the criteria of becoming a CEO do not hide, and are not shut out of the hiring process. This is what DEI officers do... DEI does not intentionally create quotas to increase the direct hiring of females, Hispanics, or African Americans... It ensures that all are given an opportunity to compete. Now, do we have instances where quota is created, yes. Even at that, you can wonder if it is justified. Where you have an establishment that makes decisions about women's health that is comprised of men - how is that fair? Or in a situation where 20% of the studen...

IBB after 32 years of annulling Chief Abiola's presidential election victory out of cowardice, finally admitted that he was wrong and took full responsibility. Nigerians are quick to forget, and easily forgive. Many IBB's 9 years of evil reign of terror led to the untimely death of many Nigerians and ushered in the worst dictatorship in the history of our country - Abacha's reign. IBB in one sentence, annulled an election that would have made him a hero forever... Posterity will not forget IBB subverted the wishes of ordinary Nigerians because he was a coward. I will not forget though, I may forgive IBB. I voted for the first time in Nigeria in 1993. It was peaceful at my polling boot around Olopomewa Bus Stop, Eleyele Ibadan. The same was reported across the length and breadth of Nigeria... Hope was high, and IBB killed it. Then he ran away, out of fear of Abacha, and left Nigeria to Abacha's torture for another five years, until the divine took Abacha away in a mirac...

  Marriage is a marathon.. it is a journey of discovery. But for it to last, parties must continue to work on themselves, so that their partners can find good when they dig. The foundation and the bricks of marriage should be trust, mutual respect, and empathy... I did not mention love because that seems to be nebulous these days... Love is what we should have towards fellow humans.. it should be natural in a marriage relationship... The other points I raised are the reason why many marriages fall apart and some stand the test of time. If you are doing things that hurt your partner and you conclude that that is how you see things. You do not trust his or her decision. You humiliate him/her publicly for reasons best known to you. You do not listen to any correction bcs you were damaged before you got hooked and see every correction as a criticism of your imperfection - so you fight every time you are corrected... you do not value things that are important to him/he...

It will lead to the direct death of millions across the world and provide an inroad for China to replace America where the U.S. has relinquished leadership… I wrote about a senior friend here in the US who passed on Dec 26, 2024. I called him Baba because he was my father's age. He was 87 years old when he passed. One thing that was unique about Baba was that he came to the US in mid-1960 on a USAID scholarship for his master's degree at the University of Maine, Orono. After that, he completed a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University and went back to Nigeria to work for Shell Corporation until 1999 when he retired. During the many labor unrests of the 1990s in Nigeria, Baba decided to send all his children to school in America. They became pharmacists, engineers, economists, writer, etc. Six of them remain in America, and the oldest one settled in England. They are all gainfully employed. They work for big companies in the U.S., they support the growth o...