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Its Okay For Men To Cry, Chimezie Imo Speaks On Mental Health

Actor and model, Chimezie Imo, in commemoration of the Men’s Mental Health Awareness Month, has spoken up on the burdens and pressures men, especially actors, face in society. Speaking in an interview with Sunday Scoop, the actor said, “In this part of the world, men don’t express themselves because there are so many expectations. “Sometimes, we tend to be angry when we can’t help financially. But, I’ve learnt that if I could, I would, but when I can’t, it’s also fine and it was conversations around Men’s Mental Health Awareness that helped me with this shift in perspective. It made me take time to realise myself more mentally. It taught me that yes, there’s a lot I want to do as a man, but it’s okay if I can’t do everything. “There’s no such thing as ‘manning up’ for me. It’s okay for a man to cry. Men have feelings. We are humans first with emotions, before being men. It’s okay to go through a breakup and cry and call somebody to tell them how you feel. Sometimes when I see how overwhelmed I am, I just go home, rest, think about the problem and try to find a solution. And if I can’t find one, I just let it be, without beating myself up.” He added that as an actor, he had always needed to protect his mental health. He said, “Your mental health is very important. Nobody will call you for a job if you go crazy. If you bottle up too much inside you, you can have a major outburst on set, and people will start saying ‘Oh, this is how he is,’ not knowing what you’ve been through.” The actor also advised that therapy should be encouraged for actors, especially because some of them leave the set with the characters they’ve played, and which “messes” with their mental health.

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North Biggest Beneficiary Of Tinubus Govt APC Vice Chair, Salihu

The National Vice Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (North-East Zone), Mustapha Salihu, speaks with ISMAEEL UTHMAN on the endorsement of President Bola Tinubu for a second term and the reported move to drop Vice President Kashim Shettima in 2027. Why did you omit Vice President Kashim Shettima’s name during the endorsement of President Bola Tinubu for a second term at the July 15 North-East APC Stakeholders’ meeting? That report is mischievous because nobody comes into a primary election with a running mate in any party. Everybody contests individually. After securing the ticket, the candidate then picks his running mate. In line with that, the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress, at its last national summit in Abuja, passed a resolution to adopt President Bola Tinubu as the sole candidate of the party. So, as the North-East zone chairman and a member of the NWC, I only reaffirmed and adopted the endorsement earlier made by the NWC on Tinubu. There was no harm intended. The procedure was followed, but people quoted it out of context because some of them lack knowledge of party procedures. The violence that erupted at the meeting was unnecessary. An individual who brought thugs into the arena caused the problem. That action did not represent the position of any state, including Borno. It was the act of one person who has benefitted from thuggery throughout his political career and still seeks to benefit from it. We thank God that all the stakeholders understood the situation, and nobody has credited that thuggish act. The Vice President is not in support of such conduct. If you consider his personality and that of the Governor of Borno State, they are too educated and refined to support such archaic politics. Who was that individual responsible for the violence? He is a political actor who is traditionally a thug and was given a position of power but has refused to refine or develop himself. He remains stuck in thuggery, thinking he is helping while, in fact, damaging the reputation and leadership of the state. Nobody wants to be associated with violence in politics. In a democracy, everyone has the right to express their opinions without hindrance. If people with opposing views are afraid to speak out for fear of being attacked, then there is no freedom of opinion, association, or speech. That is not what we practice. What he did was highly counterproductive. He believed he was protecting the interests of his bosses, but we regret any inconvenience his conduct may have caused the public. That is not what the APC stands for. It was an isolated incident, and we are working to ensure that everyone involved is brought to book. It will not happen again. Are you aware of reports suggesting that President Tinubu may drop vice president Shettima in 2027, and that some people are already positioning themselves to replace him? That is above my pay grade. I don’t know anything about that. But I want to refer to historical events. Since 1999, no administration has been free from speculation that the president wants to drop his deputy. It happened during the Obasanjo-Atiku era. You know what occurred during the brief Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan period. The same rumours surfaced during the Buhari-Osinbajo administration. So, the speculation about Tinubu dropping Shettima isn’t new. But there is no evidence or any empirical sign of a rift between Tinubu and Shettima. That said, it is the prerogative of the President to… let’s leave it at that. The North-Central has been agitating for the Vice Presidency to be zoned to their region. Would you be willing to relinquish the VP slot? We will not. Emphatically and categorically, we will not. This is a federation. Every region, every federating unit—has the right to aspire and pursue what it believes is due to it. But we believe we are the rightful beneficiaries of the Vice Presidency, and we intend to hold on to it. We will do everything within legal and political bounds to retain this seat through political consensus. We are going to sit with the North-Central and explain why they should support us in retaining the VP slot. We operate through free and fair political consultation, and through elite and stakeholder consensus. That is how we achieve our goals because we cannot operate in isolation as a zone. We need other zones. You earlier wanted to say it’s the President’s prerogative to choose his running mate. What will be the reaction of North-East APC if Tinubu decides not to pick his VP from your zone in 2027? Most of what you are asking me falls above my pay grade. What I can assure you is that our support for the President is unconditional. I have said it countless times: we never, and will never, endorse the President with conditions attached. We are grateful that the President picked our son as Vice President. We are also grateful that he appointed the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, from our region. We appreciate the ministries allocated to us—Agriculture, Health, Humanitarian Affairs, and so on. These are major ministries, and there are other political offices too. We are thankful for all of this and for the confidence the President has shown in our people. That is why our stakeholders decided to endorse the President unconditionally, not because he needs it or because it will make much difference politically, but because even God, when He gives you something, expects appreciation. So, we are simply appreciating the President and giving him a moral boost. How do you respond to claims that the North is being marginalised under Tinubu’s administration? This is a democracy; everyone is entitled to an opinion. But I am a scientist; I base my analysis on data, not rumours. Let’s put the numbers on the table. The North has the lion’s share from this government. From the most critical source of income in this country which is the NNPCL, to the least, the North is well represented. The person heading the NNPCL is a northerner. The entire security architecture of this country, which has the largest budget allocation, is in the hands of a northerner. Ministries such as Agriculture and Food Security, Livestock, Health, Regional Development, and Humanitarian Affairs are among the largest in terms of budget and project implementation, and they are headed by northerners. We even have a Minister of State for Works, under whose supervision parastatals like the Federal Road Maintenance Agency operate. Both the substantive Minister and Minister of State for Defence are northerners. The National Security Adviser is also from the North. So, we have a lot. However, we will not silence the opposition or suppress criticism. We advise that people should be constructive. Nigeria is the only country we have. Yes, criticise, but let it be in a way that allows the government to adjust. Spreading lies only creates discord; it doesn’t help development. A northerner was president for eight years and left just over two years ago. Did he also marginalise the North? Our problems in the North are systemic and endemic. Let’s not shy away from discussing them. Let’s bring them to the table so the government can design tailor-made solutions. That is my candid advice to my elders and brothers who are making noise without any good thing to show. The anti-Tinubu coalition cites economic hardship as a major reason for demanding a change in government. Do you think that’s a valid reason? Most of those currently opposing Tinubu have benefitted from him at one point or another. Tinubu provided platforms for some of them when their own parties rejected them. He has helped many of them at various stages of their careers. So, this is a case of biting the hand that fed you. Many of them have no genuine interest in Nigeria. They are serial contestants, pursuing only the interests of their allies and immediate families. They don’t care what happens to the country. They will always be in opposition to whoever is in power, so long as they are not the one. It is true they are trying to form a coalition, but the APC is ready. We are not sleeping. We must return to the grassroots and sensitise our people because these are the lies that the opposition is feeding them. I want to encourage political appointees to go to the grassroots and ensure proper orientation for the people. Let the people understand the gimmicks being played. Nigeria is one country. Anything good for the North is also good for the South. The South supported us to become president. We ruled for eight years. Now it is their turn. Let’s also support them. Let them complete their eight years. We must be fair. What about equity? You had your turn in peace, allow others to have theirs in peace too. The anti-Tinubu coalition has been citing hardship as a major reason for change of government. Do you think that is enough reason? Nigeria is not isolated; we are part of a global system. Anyone who has travelled abroad knows that inflation is everywhere. Let’s use the dollar as a yardstick. Take $100 and see what it can buy in Nigeria in terms of foodstuff. Then take that same $100 to Ghana and see if it will buy even 30 percent of what it buys in Nigeria. Inflation is not as bad as people are projecting. Yes, it exists and it is global. But we are doing our best to maintain a standard of living. The N70,000 minimum wage is part of the effort to ease hardship. There is no reform without unintended consequences. That’s why social scientists say social change is ubiquitous. It is ambivalent; it comes with both good and bad outcomes. People just need to be patient. The benefits will come, and they will be enormous. As human beings, we are often impatient and quick to forget. We’ve forgotten the days when states couldn’t pay salaries, when ministries went for months without salaries, and when oil production was down to 800,000 barrels per day. We don’t want to compare then and now. It will just be amplifying the small mishaps that we have now, which are as a result of bold policies that will save this country. Assuming we are still maintaining the fuel subsidy regime, where are we going to be now? We are going to be insolvent. But today, we have saved money, we are paying our foreign debts, thereby making us investment friendly and also showing that we are now a credit worthy country. If we go to anywhere again to look for credit for infrastructure, we will get it. Before, if you knew someone at the Central Bank, you could walk in and get $1m. Within 30 minutes, you could earn N60–70m in profit. That’s how people became millionaires off the nation’s commonwealth. Nobody talks about how this administration has stopped that. They only talk about isolated issues. Yes, there is hardship, and yes, there is room for improvement. But the reforms are saving Nigeria. After the July 15 APC North-East meeting, have you reached out to the aggrieved members? Yes. In fact, immediately after that meeting, the first thing we did was to review the outcome. We later realised that what happened at the meeting was premeditated, it was not a crowd reaction. Even if I had just greeted people and left, there were people already sponsored to attack me and cause a scene. This was the personal interest of one individual among all the stakeholders in the zone. Investigations are still ongoing. Other stakeholders have called me and apologised on behalf of their people. I have also put it behind me. There was an attempted assault on me, though they didn’t succeed in touching me, as I was able to find my way out. That is the price of leadership, and I cannot hold grudges to the point that it would damage our zone. Has there been any arrest? No. We consider this a family affair. We don’t want to begin with arrests or legal proceedings. We want to explore the party’s internal mechanisms first to resolve the issue. If that succeeds, no one will hear of the matter again. If it fails, then we may consider arrests and legal action. God has actually curtailed the situation. It was a mob action, and someone could have been killed or seriously injured. But, by God’s grace, that didn’t happen. They didn’t even get the chance to lay a finger on me. They missed the headline they were hoping for—“Five injured, one killed at North-East APC meeting.” The North-East Development Commission has been criticised for making slow progress. What steps are being taken to ensure it delivers on its mandate? We don’t know what they are doing. There is no synergy between the commission and the party. I’m being categorical about it. We are preparing a position paper to the President on the matter. They are not aligning with the Renewed Hope Agenda, nor are they aligning with the party’s manifesto. As the National Vice Chairman of the party in the North-East, I don’t know what they are doing. I don’t even know where their office is.

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Neighbouring Community Killed Four Villagers, Destroyed My Fathers Grave Osun Monarch

The Olojudo of Ido-Ayegunle, Osun State, Oba Timileyin Ajayi, shares with GRACE EDEMA chilling details of the recurring attacks on his community and calls for urgent government intervention and justice What happened on Thursday, June 19, when about four members of your community were reportedly killed? On Thursday (June 19), I received information early in the morning from one of my community members that some Esa-Oke people were planning to invade our community and cause destruction. Immediately, I picked up my phone and called the Esa-Oke security head, Mr. Samuel Ojo. He told me he was aware of the situation and that they were already trying to reach the Owamiran of Esa-Oke (Oba Adeyemi Adediran). Ojo said he had informed him that there should be no attack on the Ido-Ayegunle people and that a truce had been reached. I have the chat with me as evidence. He even forwarded the conversation to me when the conflict started. He (Ojo) also mentioned that the attackers were at Owamiran’s palace, holding a meeting to plan the invasion of Ido-Ayegunle. That was around 10 am. Unfortunately, Owamiran did not respond. He didn’t answer his calls, even after several attempts. By exactly 12 p.m., I got the report that Esa-Oke had attacked my community. I called Mr Ojo again, and he said he would deploy police officers immediately. He explained that they were currently engaged with the new Commissioner of Police, who had just assumed office on June 19. Mr Erujo contacted the Commissioner of Police, who then reached out to both the Swift Response Unit and the Divisional Police Officer of Esa-Oke responsible for overseeing security in Ido-Ayegunle. What were the security officers told? They were instructed to deploy officers to the scene. But before the police could arrive, the attackers had already butchered the victims, and we had been receiving these threats even before the incident, ever since Owamiran came into prominence. Yet, the government has done nothing. Youths in his community have been saying they will rise and fight. Before the attack on June 19, there had already been numerous assaults on our people by individuals from Esa-Oke. They would invade our community, destroy our property, steal our belongings, and flee. My people have been attacked more than four times, something I have documented with evidence. Even on the second day after I was officially announced as Oba, they came again to destroy things in our community. What steps did you take to curb or end these acts from the neighbouring community? We’ve written several petitions and made the government fully aware of what has been happening. Now, it has escalated to outright killings. They murdered four of our people, cut off their wrists, their legs, and removed their hearts and heads. Then they packed the bodies, dumped them in a well, and covered them with sand. When the police eventually arrived, they said they could hear a faint voice coming from the well; one of the victims was still alive. But by the time they retrieved them, all four had been pronounced dead. What’s the root of the conflict? The issue started after my father, the late king of Ido-Ayegunle, passed away. He ruled for 26 years and obtained Part II chieftaincy recognition in 2014. When he died in 2020, Owamiran came in and installed a Baale (a local chief) in our community. At the time of my father’s passing, the entire community was in mourning. No one was thinking about chieftaincy matters. We were focused on burying our king. But Owamiran insisted that we couldn’t bury my father on the land, even though the land had already been officially recognised under Part II, approved by Governor Rauf Aregbesola in 2014. We questioned this decision, asking, ‘Why would we not be allowed t o bury our king, who had ruled for over 25 years, in his own domain?’ We took the case to the then Commissioner of Police. I can’t quite recall his name. The then CP summoned Owamiran and told him that his actions were wrong. He asked him, ‘Why would you stop them from burying their king on his land?’ With police intervention, we were eventually allowed to bury my father there. His remains are still there to this day, although the burial site was destroyed on June 19 during the latest attack. They went there and vandalised everything. I have all the pictures as proof. In fact, the Commissioner of Police attended the burial back then. To cut the long story short, once they saw that there was no king at the time, they assumed they had taken over the land. They began selling off portions of it, thinking no one would challenge them and that no new king would emerge. What happened after the burial of the late king? Fast forward to January this year, after the entire process and community consultation, we decided to install a new king. The government asked for documentation, and we submitted everything, including the consent letter from the Owa Obokun. He (the Owa Obokun) is the paramount ruler and the prescribing authority over Ijeshaland. We submitted all the required documents, and injured several people. Fortunately, no life was lost in that particular attack. Such attacks have been ongoing. Even during my kingship selection and installation process, they attacked our elders; the remaining three elders who served with my late father were also targeted. For how long have these attacks been going on? This is the third major attack I’ve experienced since I became involved. Actually, not just this year—this has been going on since last year. I have plenty of pictures and evidence. They’ve been attacking us before this year, but this year was when they crossed the line and killed people. As for the four people they killed, it was a gruesome, brutal murder. The attackers were many when they arrived. Some of them pulled off their clothes, and some carried bags. It was chaotic. Everyone ran for their lives. The four victims they managed to catch were the ones they killed in that horrific manner. Among them was a 65-year-old man, an investor who came to our community to start a poultry farm. He had planned to acquire about three or four acres of land for the business. They killed him in cold blood. Another was a bricklayer working for me. I’m currently building a community project, and he was one of the workers. Because I’m the new king, I felt the need to start some new projects in the community—meaningful things for my people. But they killed the bricklayer working on the project. They also killed the tiler. Most of the people they murdered were workers—my people, who all came simply to work. They (invaders) also built a house in that village. But when the government got involved, they picked one man and remanded him for some time. He was served a court injunction forbidding him from coming to that area again. I have all the documents here. Yet when the attackers returned, they burnt down every other house in the community, except that man’s house. His building was left untouched. Again, they desecrated my father’s burial site. How are your people feeling now? Everyone is devastated. I haven’t been able to address my people yet. I’m just about to start doing that now. For the past few days, I haven’t been myself. I’ve been in a bad state. I never imagined something so cruel could happen to us. When I became king, I even installed CCTV cameras for the sake of peace, since we share a boundary with them. The idea was to maintain calm so that everyone could go about their business peacefully. But they came and destroyed the CCTV system just so they could carry out their evil acts unnoticed. They’ve been troubling us for a long time. Now, aside from the destruction and killings, they also stole our solar panels. They just came in, caused havoc, and looted. They’ve been disturbing and frustrating us constantly—just because they believe they are more than us in number. Is the Baale they installed originally from Ayegun? No, he’s from Ekiti State. It is Ekiti, in the present-day Ondo axis. The person they installed is not even an indigene. These people just want to use power and force to take over our land. Okay, maybe they want the land, but they should let my people breathe. We also have vulnerable people, including the elderly and persons with disabilities. Let everyone live together in peace and harmony. But no—they want to wipe us out and drive everyone into exile. What do you want the government to do? That’s why I’m calling on the government, especially the Federal Government and our President, to urgently take up this matter. We are asking for justice for those who were murdered. We want a permanent and lasting solution to this crisis. No one has been held accountable. This man continues to issue threats, even to officials in the Osun State local government. He threatened to destroy their office. He is not just issuing threats; he has acted. He killed four people. It was cold-blooded murder.  Now, we have five people missing. We don’t know if one of them is dead or alive. What actions has your state government taken? The Osun State Government has not made any arrest. All of them were informed, but up till this moment, no arrests have been made. That’s why we’re calling on the world to intervene and help us. We need the international community, the media—everyone—to hear our cry. Justice must prevail; justice must be served. I cannot sit back and watch my people die like this. That’s why I’m speaking out and calling for help from the media and the global community. The four victims were a plumber, a tiler, an investor, and a bricklayer. The investor came with some of his workers—possibly with his tools or materials—to begin the project. One of the workers he brought along was also killed. Yes, they beheaded him. All these people were just ordinary people—innocent, peaceful. Some were indigenes of Ayegunle, others came to work and earn a living. They were all killed in cold blood. What would you like to say to your people? Yes, I want to share my heartfelt condolences with everyone affected. I want my people to know that I stand with them in this difficult time. I deeply sympathise with my community and with all those affected by this terrible, senseless attack. I want to assure my people that, by God’s grace, peace will be restored. Life will return to normal. We are still calling for justice, and we will not stop until justice is served. Please, I’m appealing to everyone—anyone who can help—please join us in demanding justice for the innocent lives lost. Their death must not be in vain. But sadly, the Osun State Government under Governor Adeleke has yet to take any meaningful action. The police have also failed to act. This is why we are speaking out. We need the world to hear us. We need justice. I don’t want the Esa-Oke people to continue killing us. We have every right to live on our ancestral land. We have proof that this land belongs to us. Even the Osun State Government set up a panel of inquiry on this matter. We submitted all the necessary legal documents, even historical ones—including records from the archives, dating back to when Osun State had not yet been carved out, back to when it was Oyo, Ondo, and Osun together. We gave them everything, yet we’ve heard nothing. They need to act. They can’t remain silent.

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LIVE: Israel Kills 49 Palestinians In Gaza In 24 Hours

US president meets Israeli prime minister as Israeli and Hamas negotiators meet in Qatar for indirect talks. Doctors alarmed at rising meningitis cases in Gaza's children Follow Al Jazeera English:...