Metro
Tourism and Culture: The Molue Crowd
By Frank Meke
Cookies they say easily crumble, yet I wonder why some people love and relish cookies. And since Ms. Hilda Baci broke the world records for longest cooking hours, a crown she lost before the cookies could again crumble.
Trust Nigerians and our copy, copy Taiwanese mentality (some say we copy like the Chinese and there’s nothing wrong with good copying), everyone simply woke up to family cooking competitions even government agencies now go festive, cooking for hungry Nigerians, even when they know that they don’t have any business cooking food for over two hundred million Nigerians, many who poke, deride and nose up these new deceptive and clinically wasteful adventure.
So what exactly is wrong with us? While smart people, the oyinbos in our midst, will cook food and invite you to the table, these same guys will cleverly tie the eating to charity issues and get you to pay for it for the sake of helping the less privileged but to our wasteful father xmas government appointees who cook for their pockets in the name of feeding our hungry poor.
Now, I don’t have issues with feeding our poor, but I just wonder what the National Emergency Management Agency and Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs does with their budget. Abeg ooo, this does not mean that I am calling for the auditing of these agencies, but I am just wondering why food matters, cooking and distribution of food to select poor Nigerians is now the new game in town?
Now, if states governments budget and spend billions of naira on entertainment (buying tea, biscuits, sweets, and kolanuts), it should not be strange to know that prospecting for contracts and a possible manifestation of misappropriation and misapplication of funds through entertainment window, would gain ground.
One comedian poked at our new Culture and Entertainment economy for being at the head of this fanciful entertainment spending profligacy since Nigerians love fake lives, fake hair, fake plastic nose and sneeze out nonsensical and banal extravagant lifestyles.
Now, let me tell you my molue story. Hmmm, growing and indeed being born in Lagos, Nigeria is not an easy matter, particularly if your parents were patriotic and Catholic about being faithful to keeping their hands off the national purse. Please, don’t ask me if my father was once the Accountant General of the Federation ooo.
All I know is that my late father, like others in his generation, was accountable during his time out at the Nigeria Ports Authority, where he held his duty post without fear or favour and for thirty five years, only came home at each end of the month with his well deserved pay, which couldn’t get me and my siblings to ride in posh cars to school.
Now to the Papa song, a welcome lullaby often the exclusive musical preserve of kids (not for this Gen z ones ooo), I only had Evening Times, a publication of Daily Times as my reward, no sweet, meat pie, or chicken and fried rice.
My dad taught me to read, every day, and through the influence of reading the newspapers, it became fashionable for me to welcome you to my house with newspapers well laid out before being entertained and that is if the contents and headlines don’t get you provoked on issue(s) that may annoyingly frustrate you, leading to your premature walk out.
Indeed, don’t ever read our national dailies at breakfast table if actually you don’t want to go out on empty stomach for the rest of the day. There is so much rubbish going on across the country in the name of national development and political achievements.
Okay, sorry for the digression. I don’t know how to describe the molue, but simply to say, it is one of the earliest homegrown public transportation systems in lagos, affordable to the masses, and could move passengers in numbers.
To the best of my knowledge, the molue crowd was very obedient to instruction and would shift from one point to another depending on where one would disembark during the very slow, laborious ride.
There were no car stereos in the molue then, but every driver and I must confess accidents were rare then, must be a lover of the music of late Ayinla Omowura, the apala music genre exponent.
As a young and unassuming primary school student, I will board the molue from Otun Oba, Mushin Road, and would take count of the number of passengers who would “shiftingly” and like a lamb disembark before me and honestly I do wonder why they don’t complain at task of making way for others even when it’s not necessary or convenient to do so.
So, at my Ishaga bus stop and location of my primary school, Christian Primary school, Ishaga, (now I hear it has been converted to moslem primary school), I would simply jump down, yes that is the right word as the molue itself has a high board attached to the body for the purpose of disembarkation.
So, the board or step, call it whatever, became a practice ground for my mischievousness. So all those who claimed to be Lagos boys or born, please come share your molue experience or forever remain silent.
Again, there’s one molue crowd trait unknown to many people. Since it was mandatorily compulsory for each passenger to have the right amount of fare as it’s sacrilegious to go against the molue’s “universal rules,” one may be at mercy of poisonous tongues of the molue crowd.
As a cultural community, though of our transportation genre then, the molue family was a kind of university or college its own. As students, we sometimes get assistance in various forms from elders we hardly know and when we err, trust the molue crowd to tongue lash you, sometimes with some, particularly mothers volunteering to visit our schools to report our misdemeanours for further disciplinary action or, where a student reportedly took ill during the ride, they would take it upon themselves to ensure that the school did the needful.
I recall a day that the molue broke down. It was a day the crowd decended on the driver and conductor without mercy. Molue drivers were like airline pilots hardly seen except for the privileged two passengers sharing the front seats with them, but the molue conductor was the king.
Most molue conductors were street boys, toughies, and potential kick boxers, and so were reverred and feared by all, but this day, power changed hands.
The conductor, who in total disregarded of the molue operational ecosystem, cleverly selected passengers in two or three as a group for refund, and hell was let loose.
As students, we saw the once high moral dispensing molue crowd literally beat hell out of the driver and conductor and instigated incendiary rebuke to molue drivers and conductors who felt the world belong only to their ilk.
Now, the same crowd seems to populate our tourism and culture space. It’s almost six months, and we gladly stand in the gap to excuse escapasism, laziness, and lack of direction to our industry since the coming of this administration.
Our two ministers, as molue drivers, simply exposed us to ridicule, divisiveness, and shame. Mrs Ayeni Lola Ade-John is sick, and we have prayed for her recovery, but must the ministry be grounded to ignominy and inefficiency?
It’s sad that almost six months into this government, we shiver around like lost sheeps, rudderless and prone to mockery because we have a ministry peopled by most undeserving work force.
Now I ask retrospectively that even if we have an incapacitated minister as political head of the ministry of tourism, do we also excuse the failed permanent secretary as the accounting task master of the ministry of tourism?
I just kind of wonder at this development and why the presidency is watching this critical sector go up in smoke and directionless.
If Mrs Ade-John on proper account of her best of health, is not fully fit to drive an active and result oriented ministry, Nigeria as a show of gratitude should pick her hospital bills, relieve her of the burden of leadership of ministry and find a replacement, not just political jobbers.
Unfortunately, Mrs Ayeni Lola Ade-John has the wrong molue crowd watching her back in the identified and focal agencies watching her back. It is human to break down, but it’s an unexplainable hazard to have subordinates who can not confidently take up the steering wheel in the event of a breakdown.
This country is bleeding despite huge resources at our doorstep, but we gladly tolerate deceptive characters, failures, and the worst of low bellies as seen in our tourism space.
Just take a look at the so called Nigerian Tourism Development Authority and you will poke at how a once vibrant and result oriented tourism promotion and marketing agency was brought to a place of tourism abbaitor and skined to the bones in less than six years.
Please juxtapose what is going on at our airports, immigration and other high flying agencies under this government in less than four months to the emetic failings and shame on-going at NTDA.
In the culture sector, Hannatu Musa Musawa is simply just confused and shouldn’t have been so perplexed by huge expectations in the sector. I have patiently waited for her to come to grips with the fast Pacing deliveries expected by the president and Nigerians on the culture economy but it’s seems to me that Hannatu isn’t sure of what to do and it’s sad.
Why am I worried? Hannatu has some of the most accomplished agencies leaders, men that could be described as culture strikers, and from evidence of verifiable deliveries on their mandates, should help Hannatu come to terms with her call to duty.
Let me boldly state here that the National Council for Arts and Culture under Segun Runsewe remains the key driver of that ministry mission agenda. Indeed, and I won’t debate with nay sayers because in Nigeria, we hate and envy those who are outstanding in public service and choose failures as our pals. Otunba Segun Runsewe is the godfather of Nigerian cultural rebirth, and as he did in tourism, he is aggressively pushing culture to its economic growth and potential metrics to national and international attention, birthing a new exclusive ministry by the President.
Ado Yahuza of National Institute For Cultural Orientation ( NICO) is another great go-getter in the Hannatu team, yet she is groping around in darkness. Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed, another cultural developmental specialist with deep knowledge of global expectations on culture and so progressively wooled, picked up the National Troupe of Nigeria from the gutters, cleaned it up and brought young and committed artistic influencers to flourish our dance Troupe, bringing global honours with vista to make huge foreign exchange from global and local engagements.
Today, the Nigerian dance troupe is in high demand outside our shores but needs a ministerial political head that could break grounds running and market our dances to a waiting world.
Four months ago and during the last international arts and culture expo, specifically dedicated to marketing Nigeria arts and crafts to the world, a gathering which with brand attraction to the international community in Nigeria, China and Turkey even Cuba promised to provide and assist in the training of the Nigerian youths and young persons with skills in the craft ecosystem.
Last week, Segun Runsewe unveiled the Nigerian crafts and arts village, a vision with desirable melting pot for marketing our huge and diverse arts and crafts works, showcasing our fashion, food and dances.
The mini theatre in the place, manifestly painted in our national colours, brings excitement to our creative economy and to add, affordable for culture entrepreneurs and startups.
I just kind of wonder how Hannatu Musa Musawa could just pretend that these realities do not exist and choose to waste time grandstanding at the villa before the vice president instead of going out to the streets to create jobs.
January would soon be here, and possibly time to assess leadership deliveries as expected by the president and Nigerians, so what these two sectors ought to have brought to the table should not be left to imagination.
I can see Hadiza Bala Usman, waiting with a sledge hammer, and let no one cry women not helping women. Hannatu has the best team in the system, but what she wants to do with them determines whether she would score culture goals or go down as an opportunity waster.
The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Olatunji Disu, has charged officers to take the fight directly to criminals, stating: “It is far better to strike first and stay on the offensive than to remain only reactive.”
The IGP, who spoke on Wednesday in Kano during a strategic meeting with officers of the Kano State Command, noted that “when bandits know we fire back decisively, they will think twice. Keep pushing hard, stay sharp, and sustain this momentum”.
Represented by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of the North-West region, Suleiman Abdul, the IGP announced the establishment of six core administrative pillars designed to strengthen the internal security framework.
Notable among the pillars is the operationalisation of “Handshake Patrols” between contiguous states to deny criminals jurisdictional escape routes.
IGP Disu also announced a renewed commitment to intelligence-led and technology-driven security management, adding that the police are moving away from purely conventional, reactive methods towards evidence-based law enforcement powered by data analytics, digital forensics and a centralised information framework.
The IGP further committed to restructuring elite tactical units, with operations governed by strict rules of engagement and civilian oversight.
He stressed that modern urban policing cannot be achieved through physical presence alone; it must be powered by timely, accurate and actionable information.
“Kano Command must fully leverage data analytics, digital forensics and centralised information frameworks to map out urban crime hotspots and track illicit financial flows that sustain gang activities,” he stated.
“Compliance with the Suspects’ Information Capturing Process within the Nigeria Police Force Incidents and Crime Database (NPF-ICD) must be enforced across all divisions and tactical offices without exception,” he said.
“This will enable you to build comprehensive criminal histories, trace syndicates and systematically isolate repeat offenders,” he added.
“The administration demands absolute professional discipline and has zero tolerance for personnel high-handedness, corruption or extortion, which alienates the public,” he said.
By Ayo Oyoze Baje
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do” – Pelé
I love the football game, with an abiding passion, and it has been so since my primary school days back in the early ’60s.It teaches us so much about life and how to become a success in whatever we do while here on Planet Earth. Now that the 2026 World Cup is on, one cannot but reflect on the striking similarities between the two. Even though Nigeria’a Super Eagles did not qualify for this year’s edition the nation was well represented by superstar artistes such as Burna Boy, Davido and Rema whose hit songs and dance displays marked them out as our worthy ambassadors on the global stage. That is the attraction of the football game beyond all the blitz and the bravado, the thrills and frills, the losses and the victories.
To begin with, to succeed in life it is a team game. You cannot do it all alone, neither is it a two- man battle such as a boxing or wrestling match. No! There are teachers to learn from, similar to the parents, older siblings, elders in the community and of course, the school teachers to glean from.
In fact, to maximally benefit from each and everyone of them it takes humility, hardwork, honesty of purpose, with passion. It also encapsulates character, courage, and commitment to the rules and regulations just as the footballers listen to and practice from the hands of their coaches as well as their assistants.
It is through such regular trainings and obedience to the tactics adopted and corrected mistakes that you get to identify and hone your talents; to bring out the best that is deposited deep within you. These are more like the precious gold, the pearls and the diamonds in the earth. Eventually, you get to know who you really are; as an engineer, medical doctor, architect, journalist, economist, entertainer or a teacher.
That is again similar to the footballers on the pitch ,who through their astute coaches become solid rock defenders like Gabriel Magalhaes or Harry Maguire, pace-setting
midfielders such as Declan Rice or iconic Rodri, master dribblers such as Jay Jay Okocha or Lionel Messi, wave -making wingers such as Bukayo Saka, Lamine Yamal and Vinicius Junior, top goal scorers such as Christine Sinclair, Cristiano Ronaldo and Erling Haland, or shot – stoppers such as David Raya or Thibaut Courtois
As it is with life, so it plays out in the field of football; practicing and preparing for it with one game at a time. It is not a 100- metre dash but a 90-minute or more display of what you have learnt. They are usually exhibited as your skills with the team ambition of scoring the vital, game -changing goals. But there are challenges to expect and be prepared to overcome.
For instance, who are the players that others from the opposing team attack? They are those with the ball. That is exactly how life evolves for you. And who are those who get booked with the yellow or red card? Those who, like criminals attack others with premeditated brutal and brazen boots instead of going for the ball The referees, like the law enforcement agents are there to penalize the offenders, including those who cross the lines or cruelly close in on others within the 18- yard box to give the other side a penalty kick. So, as you sweat it out in life m,learn to obey the rules and regulations.
Definitely, out there at the stadium there are the spectators to support their favorite teams. From them come the cheers and the jeers but any player who gets distracted by them misses the essence of the game at hand and eventually the vital goals.
And when it comes to the unfailing factor of focus one outstanding player that exemplifies that is Cristiano Ronaldo. So committed he is to football that he arrives the training ground long before other team mates as well as always being the last to leave. Little wonder that at the age of 41 years he is not only regarded as the highest goal scorer in the history of the football game, but for the teams he has played for , his country,Portugal and is also reckoned with as an all-round soccer superstar scoring with the head, and both legs.
His passion for football is so profound that his connection to the game goes far beyond physical play. In fact, he views it as a true form of self-expression and his relentless ambition is exhibited everywhere he plays.
Describing football as an art he stated that: “I see football as an art and all players are artists. If you are a top artist, the last thing you would do is paint a picture somebody else has already painted.
He says that: “Without football, my life is worth nothing”. “It gives me the happiest feeling in the world. I just love scoring… It’s bad to have addictions. But it’s good to get addicted to progress.” But can we as individuals say that about our professions? Do we enjoy what we do virtually on daily basis? The answer is ours to give.
One other aspect that connects football and life is betting. Hours before the players sweat it out there in the field of play hundreds of thousands of fans across the world go out to bet, guessing the potential winners and losers. But yours truly stays out of football betting even if it rakes in millions of naira for the those who guessed right.But why, you may ask? It is all because as it is with life, so it is with football, there is always the Unknown Factor-X. Only God knows the end from the beginning.
My love for football is also anchored on the factors and features of fusion it brings to the fore. While the game is on the avid spectators are bound by the spirit of togetherness, hardly influenced by their differences in ethnicity, religion or politics. So it should be amongst us, because whether we like it not, we should focus more on what binds us together instead of widening the cracks of sentiments that separate us.
For us to be celebrated like the World Cup winning goal, we must identify our God-given talents , listen to our life-coaches to hone them and be good team player. We should expect and be prepared for challenges, obey me rules, make sacrifices as Pele highlighted and keep being consistent. All because, as it with football and life, to succeed there has to be constancy of purpose.
The Court of Appeal in Abuja has ordered a stay of execution of the judgment that directed the Independent National Electoral Commission to deregister the African Democratic Congress and four other political parties.
In a unanimous decision on Tuesday, a three-member panel led by Justice A. B. Mohammed condemned Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja for flouting a May 22 order that directed him to suspend proceedings before him, describing his conduct as the gravest form of judicial misconduct.
“The decision of the lower court to proceed with the judgment despite the express order of this court is a brazen violation of the hierarchy of the court and the 1999 Constitution,” the panel held.
The appellate court went further, invoking a Supreme Court precedent to characterise Justice Lifu’s conduct in the harshest terms available to it.
The court said it had a duty to assert its supervisory authority over lower courts and protect the integrity of the judicial hierarchy.
“Courts are enjoined to protect their integrity. This court has supervisory authority over the trial court. This court has the duty to invoke its powers in ensuring that its orders are obeyed. The application for stay of execution is hereby granted. The enforcement of the judgment is stayed,” the panel ruled.
