Today’s babalawos are toothless
I was very surprised when I saw this “call” by babalawos. Aiyesoro, you mean the police, CID, EFCC and ICPC can conduct an investigation more than your own members can? I mean, in the olden days of real babalawos, even CID officers, when their bosses assign to them a tough case, they seek the help […]
I was very surprised when I saw this “call” by babalawos. Aiyesoro, you mean the police, CID, EFCC and ICPC can conduct an investigation more than your own members can? I mean, in the olden days of real babalawos, even CID officers, when their bosses assign to them a tough case, they seek the help of a babalawo to unravel it. We all grew up believing in their unlimited power to do nearly everything under the sun. A babalawo can stop rain; he can make a barren woman to conceive; he can bend the heart of kingmakers and force them to make his client the king; he can bend the hand of a WAEC examiner and force him to award more marks to his client. In fact, what is it that a babalawo cannot do?
Even the biggest of big men used to believe in their powers. Remember that at the height of apartheid rule in South Africa, General Olusegun Obasanjo said there was no need for the Organisation of African Unity [OAU] to waste its time raising a continental army to battle the Boers. All we needed to do, he said, was to brief one powerful babalawo who will bring the head of P. W. Botha in a calabash of fresh palm wine. That’s all! But today’s babalawos cannot even look into a calabash and determine whether Sheriff and Ihejirika indeed financed Boko Haram. What a shame.
Indeed, why are today’s babalawos calling for the investigation of Sheriff and Ihejirika? Aiyesoro’s statement said it is because between 2011 and now, 48 babalawos have been killed by the sect. What? What is there in a Boko Haram IED that can kill a babalawo? You mean you cannot spit saliva on an IED and stop it from going off? I am sorry; there are no correct babalawos in Nigeria anymore. All the women who are selling off their wares and taking the money to babalawos to look for one thing or another, please stop wasting your time and your money.
Shema, who told you to save money?
At the swearing in of newly elected local government chairmen in Katsina on Monday, the state governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema disclosed that he has so far saved N33 billion in the State-Local Government Joint Account. This money accumulated because there were no elected local government councils in the state. State governments all over the country have a habit of withholding funds due to local governments when caretaker committees are in charge, which is, most of the time.
Shema, do you know that it is this kind of “saving” by your old colleague Ali Modu Sheriff that caused the Boko Haram problem in Borno State? When he was leaving the Government House three years ago, Sheriff announced that he had “saved” billions of naira in the Joint Account, the same way that you did. It was precisely the failure to utilise those monies for what they were meant for that created a large army of helpless youth from which the Boko Haram sect found ready recruits. Here you are, repeating the same mistake. You are now disbursing all these monies to the new councils and telling them to use the funds judiciously. On the eve of a general election.