The Trumpet Newspaper Issue 617 (February 21 - March 5 2024)

TheTrumpet 

Africans now have a voice... Founded in 1995 

V O L 30 N O 617 F E B R U A R Y 21 - MARCH 5 2024 

Monitor your 

health with 

the NHS App 

Tyla wins Grammy Award 

(Photo - Tyla on Instagram) 

Grammy Awards: 

Africa finally 

has its own 

category 

– but at what cost? 

By Eric Charry , Professor of Music, Wesleyan University 

Continued on Page 2> 

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Continued on Page 4

Page2 TheTrumpet FEBRUARY 21 - MARCH 5 2024 

News 


Africa finally has its own category 


Continued from Page 1< 

For the first time in its 65-year history, the 

Grammy Awards in the US has 

introduced an African category, Best 

African Music Performance, which recognises 

the song of the year. 

The Grammys is the most prestigious 

award in the largest music industry in the world. 

Its focus has always been US music styles in 

categories like pop, R&B, rap, country, jazz and 

classical. 

As musical styles from abroad (or in 

Spanish) have moved into the US commercial 

market, the Grammy Foundation has tried to 

recognise them – beyond the generic “folk 

music” category it first used to put them in. So 

categories were established like Latin, 

Mexican, reggae, world music and global 

music. 

Now Africa has its own best song category, 

the first continent with this distinction. This is 

clearly a nod to the growing popularity of 

African music in the US – notably Afrobeats 

from Nigeria. 

Few African artists received Grammy 

nominations until 1992, when the Best World 

Music Album category was added. A diverse 

range of African music came to dominate this 

category. But “world music” was criticised for 

being outmoded. The award was renamed Best 

Global Music Album in 2021. The reasons 

given included: 

The change symbolises a departure from 

the connotations of colonialism, folk and ‘non- 

American’. 

The new name came with a shift in which 

music received nominations. “World music” 

tended to recognise regional music styles 

released on small independent labels. “Global 

music” was seemingly more focused on more 

commercial music that was also reaching the 

US charts. It tended to reward Afrobeats and 

other popular electronic dance music that took 

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How music represents and expresses 

identity and cultural authenticity has been a key 

issue in my research as an ethnomusicologist. 

Certainly, generational shifts happen and 

interests in some deeply rooted traditions may 

fade in favour of new global currents. But still, 

I have mixed reactions to the new award. The 

economic boon that the Grammys brings to the 

African music industry could be significant. But 

at what cost to its diversity of offerings? 

The Grammys claims to recognise 

excellence. But it also celebrates US cultural 

imperialism and commercial success – a track 

record evident in its history. 

This first batch of best performance 

nominees provides further clues that US record 

conglomerates are strongly shaping Grammy 

recognition. 

Tyla Seethal (Photo - Tyla on Facebook) 

Africa at the Grammys 

The first Grammy Awards ceremony was in 

1959, the same year South African star Miriam 

Makeba first toured the US. 

In 1960 the Best Folk Performance 

category was added. This was the key. In 1961, 

Makeba received three nominations (new artist, 

female vocalist and folk). She was the first 

African artist nominated and it happened again 

in 1964 and 1965. Folk was the only category 

that could accommodate singing like hers – in 

South African languages with acoustic string 

instruments and hand percussion. 

In 1966 Makeba won her only Grammy. It 

was in the folk category. She had two albums in 

the running: Makeba Sings and the winner, An 

Evening with Belafonte/Makeba. 

Harry Belafonte was a well-established US 

singer and film star. His early sponsorship was 

essential. This would be a recurring theme, 

from Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black 

Mambazo to Peter Gabriel and Youssou 

N’Dour to Drake and Wizkid to Beyoncé and 

the predominantly Nigerian artists on her 2019 

Lion King album. Burna Boy, who appeared on 

it, received his first Grammy nomination the 

following year. 

On the charts 

Makeba was also the first African artist to 

break into the upper reaches of the US 

Billboard charts (Pata Pata reached number 12 

in 1967). She was followed by South African 

Hugh Masekela’s Grazing in the Grass (first 

spot in 1968) and Cameroonian Manu 

Dibango’s Soul Makossa (35th in 1973). Then 

a long drought. 

Masekela’s feat has yet to be duplicated by 

an African born-and-raised solo artist. Sade, 

Seal, Akon and Chamillionaire, children of 

immigrants from Nigeria or Senegal in the US 

and the UK, all hit number one. Sade and Seal 

won Grammys. 

Nigeria’s Wizkid hit top spot as a guest of 

Drake (2016) and Tems when sampled by 

Future (2022). 

From folk music to world music 

The term “world music” was used by 

global heritage body UNESCO as early as 

1948 to create a music catalogue and later 

sponsor a library of albums from over 70 

countries. Ethnomusicologists expanded the 

term to “incorporate the total range of music”, 

an early attempt to decolonise musical 

institutions. 

In 1987 some British independent record 

label execs adopted “world music” as a 

marketing category for retailers to give 

visibility to albums that didn’t have a place 

on the shelf. The Grammys first awarded the 

Best World Music Album in 1992. It split into 

“traditional” and “contemporary” in 2004 but 

merged again in 2012. 

The new category provided a huge boost 

for African artists. In seven of the eight years 

of the traditional award the winners were 

South African choral groups and Malian kora 

players. Angelique Kidjo from Benin alone 

won four times before the name change. 

Cameroon, Cape Verde, Democratic Republic 

of Congo, Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, 

Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda also 

received nominations. 

But objections to “world music” persisted 

for being a catch-all category that 

marginalised artists and their cultures. 

From world music to global music 

So the Grammys announced in 2020 that 

“world music” was being replaced by “global 

music”, offering “a fresh perspective fuelled 

by authenticity, diversity and direct 

inclusion”. 

An article at entertainment website 

UPROXX earlier in 2020 argued that Burna 

Boy’s loss at his first Grammys highlighted 

the problems with the world music category. 

UPROXX is a Warner Music Group 

independent subsidiary; Burna Boy is signed 

to Warner. Perhaps they caught the ear of the 

Grammy Foundation. He won the debut Best 

Global Music Album award in 2021. A new 

category for songs – Best Global Music 

Performance – was added the following year. 

Nigeria has been the only country with 

nominees each year of the global album 

category. The two new global music 

categories have particularly benefited 

Afrobeats artists with major label support, 

like Wizkid (RCA), Burna Boy (Warner) and 

Davido (Columbia/Sony). Authenticity for the 

Grammys, it appears, is shaped by what the 

largest numbers of people are listening to. 

The role of Afrobeats 

Afrobeats, a hybrid genre with roots in 

Continued on Page 3

News 

FEBRUARY 21 - MARCH 5 2024 



Africa finally has its own category 


Page3 


Nigeria and Ghana and named in the UK in the 

early 2010s, is so big in the US it even has its 

own Billboard chart. 

Currently driving the scene is Burna Boy. 

In 2024 he has four Grammy nominations 

(African performance, global album, global 

performance and melodic rap). 

Burna Boy himself offers a critique of 

Afrobeats, a label he shuns: 

There’s no substance, like nobody is talking 

about anything. It’s just a great time, it’s an 

amazing time … But at the end of the day, life 

is not an amazing time. 

Five of the seven nominees in the new African 

category are Nigerian. (Asake, Burna Boy, 

Davido, Olamide and Ayra Starr; Musa Keys and 

Tyla are South African.) Afrobeats is big business. 

Indeed, the new African category was created after 

the head of the Grammys travelled to Africa to 

speak with music industry leaders. 

African artists have now been offered a seat 

at the table. And the stakes for the 

representation of African culture have just been 

raised. 

Samson Uchenna Eze contributed to the 

Afrobeats portion of this article. He’s 

completing a Master’s thesis on Afrobeats 

Feminism at Wesleyan University. 

Eric Charry is a Professor of Music at 

Wesleyan University. 

This article is republished from The 

Conversation under a Creative Commons 

license. Read the original article.

Page4 


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FEBRUARY 21 - MARCH 5 2024 TheTrumpet 

Page5


PRODUCED IN ASSOCIATION WITH UK GOVERNMENT 

ADVERTORIAL 

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Page7 

Produced in association with HM Government 

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Opinion 

Sanwo-Olu and the pursuit of a social 

market economy (3) 

Once upon a time, growing up 

in Lagos was akin to living in 

El-Dorado. Life in Igbosere 

Road and Lafiaji was tolerable, with 

good social amenities and 

infrastructure for the common good. 

On a rather sad note however was the 

degeneration that became its lot due 

to rural-urban migration; and there 

was no town planning, which was 

more rigorous in the 1950s and the 

1960s. These put immense pressure 

on public facilities and infrastructure 

to a breaking point, more or less 

turning the State into a looming 

disaster. 

Well, this situation could have 

been foreseen by those in government 

but partially so as the effect caught 

one government after another 

unaware. Moving forward to the 

present status and style of 

governance, that Lagos State has done 

well despite population explosion and 

its attendant debilitating 

consequences, the least of which are 

security issues, is no longer news. Be 

that as it may, one of the issues that 

led to the ‘Lagos is no man’s land’ 

slogan was that #EndSARS, which 

once turned the State into a contested 

space for mass demonstrations and 

vociferous violence, was not 

addressed. Tragically, this central 

issue hasn’t been properly addressed, 

still. Therefore, Sanwo-Olu needs to 

rejig the people’s confidence and 

rebuild their trust. He needs to do 

more in securing the State through 

continuous employment, training and 

retraining of security personnel in 

technology-based crime fighting 

techniques and frontline operations 

anchored on actionable intelligence. 

Lagos under Sanwo-Olu must 

continue to identify, isolate and bring 

to book any criminal fraternity 

kingpins with a view forestalling their 

growth and expansion. 

There were governors and there 

have been governors in Lagos State. 

On a day like this, Nigerians 

remember Mobolaji Johnson (1967- 

1975), Lateef Jakande (1979-1983), 

Buba Marwa (1996-1999), Bola 

Tinubu (1999-2007), Babatunde 

Fashola (2007-2015) and Akinwumi 

Ambode (2015-2019) for the quality 

of their social market interventions. 

But who remembers Raji Rasaki 

(1988-1991)? Who remembers 

Michael Otedola (1992-1993) beyond 

the melodious interpretation of his 

surname and the ranking of Femi, his 

son, as Africa’s 20 th richest person by 

Forbes? So, Sanwo-Olu will be doing 

his tenure a great deal of good if he 

takes the noises of the marketplace for 

what they are: hustlers, even as he 

seeks more proactive ways of tackling 

the menace of Okada (motorcycle 

taxi) business owing to the danger it 

portends. For this class of Nigerians, 

things are almost getting to the 

boiling point and one can only hope 

that the governor would help change 

the narrative. Sanwo-Olu also needs 

to engage with the youths, for any 

BY ABIODUN 

KOMOLAFE 

policy that does not address youth 

restiveness in a democratic setting is 

not likely to fly in a cosmopolitan city 

like Lagos. 

Still on the ‘Area Boys’, it is on 

record that Fashola tried to handle this 

menace and there was relative peace 

in the State but, not unexpectedly, 

whatever achievement that was 

recorded at the time went away with 

his government. Since our major 

challenge as a country and people is 

Continued on Page 9

Opinion 



Sanwo-Olu and the pursuit of a social 

market economy (3) 

Page9 


continuity, the government that took 

over from ‘Èkó ò níí bàjé’ had its own 

plans and that’s how Lagos missed a 

vital opportunity. Sanwo-Olu is now 

in the saddle; and, since it’s about 

legacy trust, a very rewarding option 

will be to up the ante, not slow the 

flow. 

Let Sanwo-Olu be deeply alerted 

to the current security challenges in 

the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), 

for Lagos may most certainly be the 

target, ultimately. Though COVID-19 

ravaged the entire country, Lagos was 

a special case. #EndSARS was also 

supposed to be a nationwide thing, 

but we all knew what happened in 

Lagos. So, let the governor 

revolutionize security matters by 

investing hugely in scientific and 

integrated technology crime detection 

and prevention; and ditto for a 

combat-ready force, to the extent that 

criminals will not have a place to 

hide. Installation of hoods and 

prevention of traffic bottlenecks will 

also go a long way in securing lives 

and immovable assets in the State. 

Although there are challenges even in 

the advanced nations of the world, 

hardly will a criminal escape without 

being caught, and this is not 

unconnected with what they have put 

in place. 

Lest we forget, there’s an urgent 

need for a review of the operations of 

government agencies like the Lagos 

State Traffic Management Authority 

(LASTMA) and Kick Against 

Indiscipline (KAI) with a view to 

bringing the best out of their 

operatives. From the look of things, it 

is as if there’s a disconnect between 

what some of these agencies represent 

and the real needs of Lagosians. 

Presently, Nigeria stinks “in the 

face of hunger, deprivation and ‘no 

gree for anybody” and the handlers of 

Lagos State cannot claim that all is 

well with the State. So, it’s time the 

Sanwo-Olus of Nigeria were alive to 

their responsibilities. In practical 

terms, it’s time they handled 

“political, economic and 

humanitarian bickering with care”, 

especially now that the ovation is still 

ascending. 

For Lagos, building a social 

market economy starts with an 

improvement in public education and 

health systems. Thusly, preparing for 

the future must start with coding so 

that Nigerians can start getting 

computer literate at, say, age 5. This 

will make them competitive in, say, 

20 years to come. Currently, public 

schools in Lagos are not up-to-speed 

even as it is sad to note that the State 

is gradually becoming a disaster zone 

in terms of health, education and 

allied social infrastructure. So, there 

is an urgent need for revampment. 

There must also be an 

improvement in staff training and 

conditions of service in line with 

international best practices. In this 

mould is the creation of technology 

parks and large-scale industrial hubs, 

like the ones in Bangladesh, so that 

spaces can be allotted for light 

manufacturing and all sorts. 

Fortunately, the Internally Generated 

Revenue (IGR) of the State is rock 

solid enough to shoulder these 

expectations; only that it needs 

judicious spending. Take, for 

instance, if, in addition to other 

sources of IGR, there are 600,000 

Babajide Sanwo-Olu 6 (Photo - @JideSanwoolu on X) 

enumerated houses in Lagos, and if 

the State is collecting an aggregated 

average of N40,000.00 per house as 

Land Use Charge per annum, should 

Lagos not be like Singapore? If the 

signage fee also stands at 

N115,000.00 per board per annum, 

what stops Sanwo-Olu from 

replicating another Dubai in Lagos? 

Lagos State has to develop an 

indigenous, long-term financing 

system like the defunct Western 

Region Finance Corporation, which 

was reputed for giving long-term 

loans and equity capital to small-scale 

industries because, in the true sense 

of it, Nigerian banks are not known to 

be financial intermediators. It’s time 

the governor reflected deeply on these 

possibilities. After all, no man can get 

up walking all at once; a few attempts 

will have to be made. 

Lastly, Lagos, more than 

anywhere else, must take advantage 

of the electricity being out of the 

exclusive legislative list to the 

concurrent list. Let the State look for 

private sector capital for the purpose 

of developing electricity. Give kudos 

to Tinubu! Had he not been stymied 

by former President Olusegun 

Obasanjo’s shortsightedness, only 

God knows what would have come 

out of the Enron experiment! But 

again, it is not too late! Let Sanwo- 

Olu update the original plan and put 

it into fierce urgency. Over and above 

all, the governor should try and invest 

hugely in scientific and technological 

advancements that will make him 

unforgettable in Nigeria’s politics to 

the extent that even the national 

government will make Lagos State a 

reference point. Thank God he still 

has the sentiments of time on his side! 

‘Ìgbéga Ìpínlè Èkó, àjùmòse 

gbogbo wa ni!’ 

May the Lamb of God, who takes 

away the sin of the world, grant us 

peace in Nigeria! 

Concluded. 

Komolafe wrote in from Ijebu- 

Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria 

(ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk)


Opinion 

AFCON 2023: A Review 

Big, loud and hearty 

congratulations to the people 

and government of the Republic 

of Ivory Coast for hosting and 

organizing what has been considered 

one of the best editions of the 

Confederation of African Football 

(CAF) tournaments. The last time the 

African Cup of Nations was hosted in 

West Africa was in 2022, delayed from 

2021, and that was in Cameroon 

between January 9 and February 6, 

2022. Originally scheduled to be held in 

June/July 2021, AFCON 2021 as it was 

otherwise known, had to be shifted for 

sponsorship reasons and COVID. By 

then participating teams in the African 

soccer fiesta had been increased from 16 

to 24 teams, and the Cameroonians 

hosted the tournament in five cities and 

six stadia. But this was against the 

background of security threats in 

Cameroon, majorly from separatist 

groups, and as it turned out, the violence 

that eventually occurred was at the 

Olembe Stadium in Yaounde. Access to 

the stadium was the problem, during a 

last-16 match between hosts Cameroon 

and Comoros, resulting in a stampede 

and the unfortunate death of eight 

persons. 

This cast a shadow on the hosting of 

AFCON at the time. Ivory Coast 

deserves plaudits therefore for 

organizing and delivering a largely 

hitch-free tournament. There were 

minor incidents of course: the Gambian 

team had to return to Banjul after their 

chartered flight, en route Abidjan, 

suddenly lost oxygen nine minutes after 

take-off; also, violence erupted after 

AFCON hosts, Cote D’Ivoire were 

beaten 4-0 by Equatorial Guinea in the 

final match of Group A. Aggrieved 

Ivorian fans vandalized vehicles and 

smashed the windows of buses. When 

Ghana’s Black Stars drew against 

Mozambique 2-2, in a final group game, 

and faced a sure exit, angry Ghanaian 

journalists barricaded the team’s bus and 

demanded to speak to the Black Stars’ 

players and manager. Fans also 

reportedly went after Ghana coach, 

Chris Houghton when the team lost to 

Cape Verde, 2- 1 in their opening Group 

B match. In the semi-final match 

between Democratic Republic of Congo 

and Ivory Coast, the DRC squad 

decided to make a political statement by 

protesting about the crisis in Eastern 

Congo while singing their country’s 

national anthem. More notably, over 50 

journalists who went to Yamoussoukro, 

to cover Senegal vs Gambia (Group C) 

and Angola vs Burkina Faso (Group D) 

matches reportedly had an accident at 

about 2.30 am, Ivory Coast time, on 

their return to Abidjan. Some of them 

sustained injuries. 

Nonetheless, on the whole, these 

became minor issues. The Ivorian 

Football Federation delivered a 

successful tournament with no deaths 

recorded as a result of errors of 

organization or internal conflicts. The 

people of Ivory Coast also went a step 

further by winning the trophy on the 

back of what seemed like an imminent 

relegation. The Elephants of Ivory Coast 

qualified for the knock-out stage by 

sheer luck, as one of the best of the 

worst four, but from the moment they 

crossed that line, luck, destiny and 

strategy worked in their favour backed 

by extra-ordinary nationalistic fervour. 

Last Sunday, they beat the Super Eagles, 

Nigeria’s better-ranked team, 2-1 to lift 

the AFCON trophy for a record third 

time, thus matching Nigeria’s record in 

the tournament. It was a glorious 

moment for Cote D’Ivoire, the first 

country to host the tournament and 

win it since Egypt last did same as 

host-country in 2006. We saw true 

nationalism on display. The 60,000- 

capacity Allasane Ouattara Stadium 

in Abidjan was filled to the brim, and 

the Orange-clad Ivorians stayed till 

the trophy was handed over. The 

crowd obviously put Nigeria’s Super 

Eagles under pressure. But both the 

crowd and the people of Ivory Coast 

obviously wanted the trophy more 

than the Nigerians. They had to sack 

their coach, Jean Louis-Gasset, and 

appoint Emerse Fae, who by default 

took them to the finals. They also 

made history through Sebastien Haller, a 

come-back kid, who despite 

recuperation from testicular cancer and 

a knee injury sealed Nigeria’s fate with 

an 81 st minute goal. 

CAF and its President Patrice 

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Motsepe and the entire Board of CAF 

equally deserve to be applauded. The 

organization was superb. The quality of 

play was excellent with many of the 

players from the 24 teams that 

participated now certainly looking 

forward to better recruitments 

internationally. The money was good 

too. Motsepe and co before the 

tournament announced that the prize 

money would go up by 40% as follows: 

$7million for winning, $4million for the 

runners up, the two losing semi-finalists 

got $2.5m each, losing quarter finalists - 

$1.3m, and the eight teams that got 

knocked out in the round of 16 - 

$800,000 each, the teams that ranked 

third but failed to make the round of 16 

- $700,000, the fourth teams in each of 

the six groups - $500,000. So, in a sense, 

most of the teams would go home with 

some cash. But this was not a 

tournament driven by cash per se but 

history, ironies and revelations. And 

except for one or two informal 

complaints, by Ghana and Nigeria, the 

officiating was generally considered 

satisfactory, and perhaps that would 

attract the attention of FIFA to make the 

refereeing of global football more 

inclusive with the participation at the 

highest levels of African male and 

female referees. It was also agreed that 

the pitches were much better and that 

the entertainment value was top-notch. 

In fact, one married, Ivorian man in the 

stands got so carried away he 

propositioned a Senegalese woman next 

to him. His moment of distraction was 

fully captured on camera and televised. 

He had to apologize to his wife and 

family afterwards! 

Opta, the AI supercomputer got 

many of the predictions wrong as did the 

bookmakers too. Opta, working with 

BBC, crunching the numbers based on 

recent and historical performances, 

identified Senegal as the country with 

the most likely chance to win with a 

12.8% chance, followed by Ivory Coast 

with 12.1%, and Morocco with 11.1%. 

By the quarter-finals, the same Opta was 

already projecting Nigeria’s Super 

Eagles as strong favourites. Opta’s AI 

was wrong. Ivory Coast took the trophy. 

This was a tournament of surprises and 

vanishing stars. Sebastien Haller, the 

Ivorian winning goal scorer, from 

Continued on Page 11

Opinion 



Page11 


Borussia Dortmund, whose face was 

also all over billboards in Abidjan in fact 

looked like he was not going to play at 

all, but destiny brought him into 

reckoning. Mohammed Salah of Egypt 

whom everyone thought would make a 

difference for his country, left the 

tournament early due to injury. Egypt 

did not even make it to the knock-out 

stage. Liverpool that had been worried 

sick about Salah being in AFCON 2023 

had nothing to worry about at the end of 

the day. Riyad Mahrez, had to drop from 

his country, Algeria’s first XI after two 

false starts. Mahrez is Algeria’s star, but 

he was out of action literally in AFCON 

2023. Yves Bissouma of Mali and 

Dango Quattara of Burkina Faso were 

afflicted by injury. Andre Onana, 

Manchester United’s goalkeeper was 

also in Abidjan, but he played only one 

match for his country Cameroon, out of 

three. New stars emerged. Senegal may 

have dropped out, but they gave us the 

20-year-old gifted Lamine Camara, who 

helped his country to top Group C with 

a 100% record. Soon after, Senegal 

crashed out, losing 5-4 to Ivory Coast on 

penalties in the knock-out stage. 

It was also a tournament in which 

coaches lost out. Algeria sacked their 

coach Djamel Belmadi after the twotime 

winners’ shock loss to Mauritania. 

Ivory Coast also sacked their coach after 

an embarrassing loss to Equatorial 

Guinea. Ghana fired Chris Houghton. 

Rui Vittoria, the Egyptian coach was 

also sacked. Jalel Kadri, the Tunisian 

coach did not wait to be sacked. He 

resigned. Tunisia left Ivory Coast 

without a single win to their name. They 

only just managed to score one goal in a 

1-1 draw with Mali, and came last in 

Group E. Algeria was knocked out by 

Mauritania. Ghana was sent out by 

Mozambique, Morocco, the same 

Morocco that did well at the World Cup 

was defeated by South Africa. Egypt did 

not go beyond the last 16. Cameroon did 

not get to the quarter finals. Instead, the 

big revelations were Democratic 

Republic of Congo whose team made it 

to the final play-off against South 

Africa. Cape Verde and Equatorial 

Guinea surprised even themselves. 

There were no minnows. 

Which is why, I think that the Super 

Eagles deserve some praise for making 

it to the finals and winning the Silver 

medal. Silver is not gold, yes. But it is 

still something. Nigeria won the trophy 

three times in the past: 1980, 1994, and 

2013. Nigeria have been runners-up in 

1984, 1988, 1990, 2000, and now 2023. 

If we must be honest with ourselves, it 

was clear that we were not ready to win 

this time around. Our preparation for the 

tournament was shoddy. We simply got 

there by chance, prompting Brown 

Ideye, who was part of the 2013 South 

AFCON 2023: A Review 

African winning squad to say ahead of 

the tournament that the Super Eagles 

lacked the hunger and discipline to win 

a fourth trophy. “We have good players 

but we don’t have a team to win the 

AFCON now,” he said. Ideye was 

absolutely right, as evident on Sunday 

when the Super Eagles put up their 

worst performance in the tournament. 

The statistics clearly confirmed the 

outcome: the Elephants of Cote D’Ivoire 

had better ball possession – over 60%, 

and better shots on goal – 8. Nigeria 

trailed behind, playing a highly 

defensive game that made no sense. We 

scored the only shot at goal. Our 

midfield was non-existent. People have 

been trying to blame Alex Iwobi in the 

midfield – but what can one man do? 

Others have said Osimhen could have 

played better. What do you want him to 

do? He is who he is because he plays for 

Napoli - a team that is structured 

differently. In Napoli, other players give 

him the ball. With the Super Eagles, he 

had to look for the ball himself and try to 

create chances for others. One man 

doing the work of three men! Osimhen 

was completely marked out by the 

Angolans and the South Africans and in 

the finals, the Ivorians were determined 

to break his legs. Nigeria’s game plan 

looked stupid. The players were flatfooted. 

There was no creativity in the 

midfield. Patriotism took the better side 

of me when we qualified for the finals. 

We all have an obligation to support our 

country. I certainly agree with those who 

believe that this is not the end of the 

road for the Super Eagles given the 

circumstances. Win some, lose some. 

That is life. 

But what next? Morocco is the next 

venue of AFCON. The qualifiers will 

start in March 2024. We may have lost 

at AFCON 2023, but now is the time to 

begin to prepare for the next challenge. 

Serious-minded nations start preparing 

for the next tournament the morning 

after. They don’t wait till the last minute 

AFCON 2023 Final Draw 

as we do in Nigeria. In AFCON 2023, 

South Africa fielded ten local league 

players from one home-based club – the 

Mamelodi Sundowns and they went 

away with the Bronze Medal, their very 

first medal in 24 years. We were lucky 

they didn’t beat us during the semifinals. 

They outplayed Nigeria, and that 

is the truth, the same way Cote D’Ivoire 

outplayed us on Sunday. Nigeria must 

have learnt one big lesson and it is this: 

luck is not enough in international 

competitions. There is something extra 

teams bring to the table and we saw this 

with Cote D’Ivoire. Nigeria must begin 

to find that extra by working to build a 

team of the future. Jose Peseiro, the 

current manager, cannot help us in that 

regard. I don’t see the point in renewing 

his contract. His contract has expired by 

the way. It had to be extended to cover 

the AFCON 2023, and now that we 

made it to just the finals, can we aim 

higher? It is even a shame that Nigeria 

over the years has not been able to 

develop enough local expertise to 

compete with the rest of the world, and 

yet the country has to make do with 

absentee, tourist foreign coaches. 

Whatever it was however, it must be 

possible for us to agree that success of 

any kind tends to bring out the best in 

all of us. When Nigeria does well, the 

people bond together, because we all 

want the same thing. As the Super 

Eagles advanced in AFCON 2023, they 

provided us all with useful distraction 

from the problems at home. Whenever 

we scored and won, nobody talked 

about the religion or the ethnicity of the 

player. Nobody cared where Victor 

Osimhen, Troost-Ekong, Lookman 

Afolabi or Moses Simon or Stanley 

Nwabali came from. At one viewing 

centre in Lagos, Governor Babajide 

Sanwoolu was shown leading a chorus 

of celebration when Nigeria beat Angola 

to get to the semi-finals. Some of the 

people at the viewing centre must have 

voted for Labour Party and the People’s 

Democratic Party (PDP) in the last 

election, but party affiliations were 

suspended for the objective of national 

glory. Nigeria needs to build on 

opportunities for such cohesion. And 

kudos to all the private sector units who 

helped along the way to bolster the 

excitement of the country’s 

participation: TotalEnergies, sponsored 

the tournament, MTN Nigeria too, 

Nigeria Breweries set up viewing 

centres across the country with its Life, 

Zagg Malt and Goldberg brands, the 

Lagos State Government had 29 

viewing centres across Lagos State, and 

Glo/Otunba Mike Adenuga publicly 

identified with and supported the 

national aspiration to win the trophy, 

and of course thank you, all Nigerians 

who suspended disbelief to cheer on 

your country. Five persons died in the 

process out of patriotic excitement. May 

their souls rest in peace. Now that the 

battle has been won and lost, we must 

now all return to the reality of our urgent 

dilemma: hyperinflation, poverty in the 

land, and the continuing search for good 

governance. The game is over, the 

struggle continues…


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FEBRUARY 21 - MARCH 5 2024 TheTrumpet 

Page13


Opinion 

Ekiti: Time to silence the guns (1) 

By Abiodun Komolafe 

Thank God Ekiti school children 

and their teachers who were 

kidnapped on Monday, January 

29, 2024, have now been released and 

reunited with their families. May the 

‘Land of Honour’ never witness such a 

horrible experience again! 

Yours sincerely also join other wellmeaning 

Nigerians to commiserate with 

those who lost loved ones to the two 

tragedies. May God repose the souls of 

the faithful departed and grant the 

bereaved families the courage to process 

their losses and the strength to face 

whatever lies ahead! 

Most of all, Governor Biodun 

Abayomi Oyebanji, aka BAO, deserves 

a pat on the back for taking steps that 

demonstrated the true essence of public 

service. No doubt about it, he, like any 

other Governor in Nigeria, is under 

immense pressure and recent events in 

the country have not helped matters. But 

then, here’s a man who did not delegate 

responsibilities or send his deputy on an 

assessment tour of the terrible tragedies 

that had just rocked the State. Oyebanji 

did not attempt to insult God by asking 

Him to help put rice on fire after He had 

done His part of the provision. No, the 

Governor did not resort to episodic 

strategies and dead laws that’d have 

further left the victims battered and 

bruised. Instead, he took charge! He led 

from the front! 

Oyebanji took steps that clearly 

showed the remarkable empathy in his 

public persona, which mattered to the 

people. He gave a comforting ‘State of 

the State’ broadcast, visited the affected 

communities and representatives of the 

traditional rulers to reassure them of his 

administration’s strong resolve to deal 

neatly, meticulously and decisively with 

the scent of frustration, confusion and a 

piece of complex puzzle trying to 

overwhelm the State. He met with 

Nigeria’s military chiefs and the 

Inspector General of Police on the 

security situation in the State, and this led 

to a promise to assist Ekiti security-wise. 

The Governor did even more, and the 

results showed! 

Bold steps! Encouraging results! 

From what Nigerians have seen in the 

past few days, Oyebanji is a Governor 

any State worth its purpose will want to 

have! But again, how did we get to this 

sorry pass and what next? 

The current dilemma again reminds 

one of a time in Nigeria’s recent history 

when the social media platforms were 

flooded with videos of young men who, 

in their thousands, were reportedly 

undergoing paramilitary training in 

insurgency in selected camps. 

Unfortunately, the principalities and 

powers at the time watched helplessly as 

some witches and wizards acted 

recklessly. With the Indigenous People of 

Biafra (IPOB) and the Eastern Security 

Network (ESN) as the culprits, Nigerians 

are now living with the consequences. 

When Gani Adams cried out that 

Fulani herdsmen’s invasion of the forest 

reserves in Yorubaland was a taboo and 

an embarrassment that should not be 

tolerated, our leaders and elders either 

didn’t have the nerve to speak truth to 

power or made political fortunes out of 

the bad situation. Now, the chickens have 

come home to roost and here we are, 

crying over spilled milk! 

When Sunday Adeyemo, alias 

Sunday Igboho, attempted to lead a 

response to the criminal herdsmen who 

had invaded Yorubaland, some Nigerians 

gave him a bad name. The feeling then 

was that Igboho was just an impenitent 

irritant in the hunt for undue attention. 

With the help of some powerful forces, 

the activist was thrown out of the country 

and was detained in a foreign land. Safe 

for providence, the story would have 

been pathetically different. Now, here we 

are, licking our wounds! 

Truly, the upsurge in the killings and 

abductions is not new; and it’s not that the 

tendencies also assumed office with the 

Bola Tinubu-led government. However, 

it is no longer news that things are taking 

turns for the worse in Nigeria. 

Kidnappings for ransom are fast 

becoming an industry to the level of the 

hunter becoming the hunted. In the days 

of old, whenever anything was stolen, the 

oracle would be consulted to help catch 

the thieves. Now, thieves have stolen the 

oracle. So, who are we going to consult? 

Here, everything seems to be failing and 

falling. Abuja, Nigeria’s administrative 

and political capital is no longer safe 

while Lagos, Nigeria’s economic hub is 

fast becoming a dangerous terrain for 

commerce to thrive. Even police and 

military formations are no longer secure, 

and one begins to ask if the proverbial 

security dogs have not begun eating up 

their owners’ children. 

When former President Muhammadu 

Buhari came, Nigerians were deceived 

into believing that he’s got body 

language. Of course, that horrid legacy 

worked for some time, until Nigerians 

woke up from their slumber only to 

discover that body language as a pill has 

an expiry date. One major challenge with 

the present government is that it doesn’t 

even seem to have a body language; and 

that’s unfortunate. 

During his time as British Prime 

Minister, a wall collapsed at a secondary 

Ekiti's Governor Oyebanji meets Service Chiefs on insecurity in the State 

school in Manchester while Tony Blair 

was attending a Tax Conference in 

Brussels. Even with no recorded fatality, 

Blair handed the affairs of the British 

government at the Conference over to his 

Foreign Secretary and flew back to 

Manchester to side with the victims of the 

wall collapse. In 2016, following 

multiple police shootings in Dallas, 

former President Barack Obama not only 

visited the families of the five deceased 

officers but also attended an inter-faith 

memorial service in their honour. Well, I 

hope to come back to that later. 

Going back in time, previous 

governments would have tamed the 

insecurity monster if only they had the 

sincerity of purpose and the will to go to 

its root causes as most professionally and 

honestly as possible. But that never 

happened, due to what only the handlers 

of Nigeria could explain. In terms of 

security, no one knows where Nigeria is 

presently headed. In our very eyes, 

kidnapping has become a major business 

in the country but unfortunately, the 

system has failed in the most elementary 

detective form to follow the money paid 

as ransom. 

The fear and the authority of a 

policeman command social order. The 

fear and the command of a soldier brings 

more powerful social control on the 

society, simply because he represents not 

just the government but also confirms the 

authoritative use of force being exclusive 

to the State. Nevertheless, insecurity has 

a way of getting a life of its own. For 

instance, nobody can have a pattern at 

Budapest in Hungary and Bukkuyum in 

Zamfara State. So, we need to do a study 

of an environment vis-à-vis its historical 

environmental antecedents in order to 

initiate security measures. 

Why have successive governments’ 

investments in security not been justified 

by tangible results and reduction in the 

violent criminal waves? Yes, previous 

governments shied away from going the 

full hog because of political, 

humanitarian and regional considerations 

but where has that left us as a country and 

people? Why do Nigerians seem to have 

lost confidence in almost all the 

institutions: police, army, academics, 

banking, judiciary, tradition, religion, just 

name it? Why have they been clamouring 

for restructuring or a return to the 1963 

Constitution which gave room for each 

region to stand alone and develop at its 

own pace but bring something to the 

centre? 

Why are those in charge at the top not 

making use of intelligence adequately 

and why are the masses running the race 

by being forgotten? Why are security 

agencies failing in infiltration tactics, 

intelligence gathering, proactive sting 

operations and covert operational 

planning which could help in destroying 

terrorist camps from within? Sincerely, 

doesn’t the present situation call for a 

revisit to the widely anticipated reorganization 

of the first responder law 

enforcement agency in Nigeria - the 

Nigeria Police? 

*To be continued.

Opinion 



Of monstrous cathedrals and 

hungry congregants 

By Abiodun Komolafe 

Page15 

Sometime in 1989, a friend told a 

story of how he was in dire need of 

sponsorship for his university 

education. When all things proved 

difficult, he approached one of the 

presbyters in a church in Ibadan, Oyo 

State who eventually advised that his 

impressive General Certificate of 

Education Ordinary Level (GCE O- 

Level) results be announced to the 

congregation during a Sunday service 

with a view to wooing Good Samaritans. 

Though that was done, help did not 

come! The presbyter’s wife pleaded with 

his husband to rerun the announcement. 

‘Who knows, help might come!’ But ‘Iya 

Yard’ (preacher’s wife) was shouted 

down. ‘We have more important things to 

do in the church’, he was quoted as 

saying. Then he turned to the help-seeker: 

“young man, go back to your village and 

start farming. By the time you do that for 

three to four years, you’ll have saved 

enough money to fund your university 

education.” 

Well, my friend’s experience brought 

to the fore a statement credited to Pastor 

W. F. Kumuyi, the Founder and General 

Superintendent of the Deeper Christian 

Life Ministry, recently. Kumuyi 

reportedly urged the Church to stop 

devoting all its money to church building 

but start committing parts to feeding the 

poor and clothing the naked. According 

to him, “all the offerings are not just for 

the Church. There are poor people 

around. It makes no sense to give to a 

church building when the people inside 

are hungry.” 

It is interesting to note that good 

things are coming from Nazareth even as 

there might be priests who didn’t share 

Kumuyi’s lines of thought and are likely 

to take him up on this. Meanwhile, 

looking around, one sees many beautiful 

edifices, built with the people’s 

contributions, with the pastors cruising 

around in exotic cars and private jets. 

They live in opulence while the 

contributors suffer hunger and 

deprivation. These days, the common 

trend within the House of God can only 

be referred to as Building Competition: 

‘if you build a 50,000-seater Auditorium, 

I will surprise you with a 120,000-seater 

Basilica, complete with infrastructural 

and cultural significance and hi-tech 

facilities’, not even minding whether or 

not “those who do not have anything to 

feed” are there, dying. 

To state the obvious, the new trend in 

the Church calls for concern. ‘Prophetic 

utterances’ a la miracles and prosperity 

are now gushing out like erosion while 

nobody cares about the Balanced 

Theology any longer. Apostle James said 

in the Holy Book that, if someone comes 

unto you without food and all you have 

to tell him or her is ‘go in peace’, what 

kind of peace would that be without first 

giving him what the body needs? Same 

goes for the Sheikhood system where the 

Sheikh lives large only for the followers 

to go home poor and hungry. 

In an article, ‘Of miracle workers, 

receivers and critics’, (published on 

September 8, 2002), yours sincerely 

commented on how the now-late Prophet 

T.B. Joshua went about, feeding the poor 

and clothing the unclothed, yet, what was 

of paramount interest to his colleagues in 

the faith was his having ‘evil spirit’ 

without doing something spectacular 

with their ‘holy spirit.’ Now that Joshua is 

dead, the world is free to accuse him of 

whatever it feels befits him but the truth 

is: those souls ‘Emmanuel’ fed while 

alive would not forget his good deeds in 

a hurry. 

Take it or leave it, the Church of 

Christ in the hands of men is practically 

stinking. From Lagos to Abuja, and from 

Adamawa to Owerri, the present-day 

Church is filled with various forms of 

sinful and shameful acts of many shades 

and shapes being perpetrated by its 

leaders, better referred to as merchants on 

the altar of God. There is no distinction, 

be they mainline or the known privatelyowned 

churches. The mainline churches 

are out of their conscience and are in 

business mainly for the interest of their 

Bishops, Archbishops and Primates. This 

is why one cannot find any of their 

children or loved ones in the country and 

their target among other things is to buy 

property abroad and dot every choice 

location locally with choice cars. No 

wonder the Holy Book says: “For the 

Pastor W. F. Kumuyi - The 

Church must start feeding 

the poor and clothing the 

naked 2 

time is come that judgment must begin at 

the house of God: and if it first begins at 

us, what shall the end be of them that 

obey not the gospel of God?” 

The Church in Nigeria is bleeding 

from the wound of financial impropriety 

inflicted on it by its leaders. Accounts are 

not being well-kept and promotions and 

preferments are being stylishly sold under 

different names and guises. Emergency 

jobs are being created for the boys in the 

Departments, Areas, Zones, Dioceses and 

Provinces. Monies are being collected 

arbitrarily and parishes are being taxed 

just to satisfy the taste of the leaders. Is it 

any wonder then that we have more 

‘healers’ than the healed and more 

‘perfect masters’ on earth than the One 

who has the ultimate power to give and 

take away? Indeed, that’s why the North- 

South dichotomy has only succeeded in 

dividing us instead of uniting us and why 

the cankerworms of religious ethnicism 

and doctrinal fanaticism have eaten deep 

into our fabric. It is also the reason our 

society comprises liars whose tokens are 

frustrated and wise diviners whose 

knowledge are made foolish. 

As it is in the Church, so it is in the 

political-cum-secular world. Things and 

times have become so troubling that, if a 

politician decides to build his house on a 

river, our religious leaders will build a 

canoe to the place. If they can’t build it, 

they will go as far as contracting experts 

from Ilaje in Ondo State to help construct 

a road to get there. As it is, there are 

millions of Nigerians who will follow 

their religious leaders into the lagoon. 

Anyway, that’s a topic for another day! 

The political class who use our 

commonwealth to sponsor would-be 

pilgrims to Mecca and Jerusalem is not 

helping matters. Of course, that’s why so 

many people have kowtowed, because, 

when a man makes it a point of duty to 

slash a tenth of his hard-earned salary and 

decides to give it to the Church, what’s 

wrong with such a soul is that he is still 

believing in the religious institution or the 

commandment of God that he should do 

so with his money. However, the 

unfortunate part of it is that other 

corresponding acts are observed in the 

breach by the Church. 

During his time, former President 

Goodluck Jonathan established schools, 

complete with incentives, for the 

Almajiris. Jonathan knew that, without 

these in place, Nigeria was sitting on a 

keg of gunpowder and that it was only a 

matter of time before it’d explode. 

Unfortunately, March 28, 2015 came and 

the election Tsunami swept Jonathan 

back to Otuoke. What happened 

afterwards was nothing compared to 

forgotten ideas! 

Let’s make this perfectly clear, the 

Church carries with it the totality of the 

responsibility of man. In the early days, 

the Church was supposed to be getting its 

directive directly from God. If its 

directives were from God, then, no one 

could query the Church. But, is the 

definition of religion sacrosanct and 

where lies the space of God in the hearts 

of men or his place in the affairs of his 

elect? Why have religious institutions in 

Nigeria become mere commercial 

organizations, toying with the people’s 

emotions and destinies through selfish 

prayers and very weird ideas of blessings 

and healing? Over and above all, why 

have institutional silliness, deliberate 

blindness and fake confidence robbed us 

of all the benefits of those prayers that 

have already been answered? 

Why? For God’s sake, why? 

May the Lamb of God, who takes 

away the sin of the world, grant us peace 

in Nigeria! 

Komolafe wrote in from Ijebu-Jesa, 

Osun State, Nigeria 

(ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk)

GAB Awards 

Faces at the 25th Annual GAB Awards 


TheTrumpet is published in London fortnightly by Trumpet 

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The Trumpet Newspaper Issue 617 (February 21 - March 5 2024)

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