DREADLOCK :AN ADDICTION WORSE THAN HEROIN AND COCAINE

 

Just as it is said of Time, as having its different seasons, to everything upon the earth , is attached , its different purposes. It is when one is ignorant of the purpose to which a thing is being put into use that abuse, misuse or even disuse becomes inevitable. Also , to every sense ,  is its own measure does revolve around , but when it is  without moderation , it becomes an addiction. To be addicted to a thing is to be bound or hooked to such thing .

It is a curse of the Cross of dependence and a prick that pierces and stabs.

Yoruba calls it :" eedi" or " eefun" to which spell one is metaphysically and irrevocably tied.

Sociologically and psychologically, it becomes a stub or a stump of equivocation, and upon which gutter, one stumbles or trips and falls into , leaving behind wounds which stigma or scar ,  have become an injury that time have refused to heal up .

It is generally believed that hard drugs are the only  substances which are easily abused and to which people are addicted .When Nassim Nicholas Taleb however wrote that :" Salary is a financial  drug that is as strong as cocaine or heroin " the reactions that yelled at his statement drew tons of distasteful comments from readers. 

I am afraid that I will  definitely attract from my readers and listeners, a more distasteful reactions by my own declaration and conviction, right here,  that dreadlock is a social and religious opium that  is worse than heroin and cocaine put together.

To illustrate the irrevocable ugliness pervading the dreadlock either as a fashion , religious or as an ideological expression, it is worth recalling here the encounter between a woman and Winston Churchill over a matter  revolving around drunkenness and ugliness. A woman had once approached Winston Churchill, ostensibly stepping upon the tail of his cobra, having planned in her mind to embarrass him in public. 

" You are drunk" She said to Churchill , who, was reputed with the knack of an orator ,not known to suffer fools gladly. 

" You are ugly " Churchill charged back,  adding :" Madam, I may be drunk today and be sober tomorrow but yours is irrevocable."

 In drawing similarities between salary and hard drugs,  Taleb argued that both give us " high" as the brain releases same hormone. 

" You hate your job but the next day it's " bam " ! your salary releases dopamine in the brain while you keep the job despite all struggles..."

 For the salary earner , the job is an indispensable part of life , which like drugs, you can't live without as there appears to be no other option for success and sustenance, even as this predicament resembles that of a drug addict.  You are accustomed to earning more money without mental efforts , receiving than giving; more on consuming than producing; no incentive for invention ; no application of mind to solve challenges and in a state of numbing creativity, courage and determination. So much addiction for salary and for the salary earner,  but worse addiction for the dreadlocked whose addiction is irrevocably weaved around the neck of ugliness, even on  his or her hairdo like a rattlesnake. The word , ugly, going by its dictionary definition, means" unpleasing to the sight".   It derives from old Norwegian language, " uggligr; to be feared, and from the word:" ugga " meaning " to fear , to dread ".

Just as the word ugly is an appearance that causes dread or horror, dreadlock is a word that  connotes fear . It is a number of ugly and dreadful looking strands of hair , curled or hanging  together with ferocity.

 But wait for it :  there are dreadlocks and there are dreadlocks. There are dreadlocks which exquisite beauty, pervading and permeating them, are under the lock and key of gods, having fashioned them after vows of chastity and dignity. 

These are the dreadlocks naturally worn by Nazirites. It is when the hairs upon which crowns, their heads are dignified,  suffer abuse (as a result of ignorance bufuddling the vision , purpose and mission by which  they were created ) that they become an addiction, worse than heroin and cocaine put together.  There are ofcourse , dreadlocks which are worn and cultivated  artificially as mere statements of expression  of ideological and sociological  leanings, but which rules  of engagements, are riding roughshod over the spirituality from which  depths , the strands are curled into threads of dreads and locks. 

For instance, when  Nigerian music lovers, particularly youths , sing with ferocious hilarity, jumping and shouting as they dance to the golden music of Adekunle Gold that:" Dangote and Otedola " ko lori meji ( Dangote and Otedola, each of them does not have two heads) what message are they trying to convey about "Ori " ( head ) being the concrete part of the body personifying luck, fate and destiny  ?  

Was it by mere coincidence that the Ooni of ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi and Nigerian billionaire business woman, Evangelist Folorunso Alakija, in separate interviews granted both of them by different media , gave a pride of place to Ori ( Yoruba word for head) being part of the body to which is associated the idea of primacy , chieftaincy, headship and captaincy  ?

 It's however a matter of regret today how too many of our youths are paying lip service to Ori( head ) through the way they are desecrating the sanctity of their heads , attaching to their hairs , the braids and brainwaves of toxicity and oddicity.

Why do many of our African women find it very impossible to appreciate their God-endowed complexion  and hairdos ? 

Does the act of  fastening to our hairs , the yoke of different colours of imported wigs, peculiar to the white , not portray us as a people of low esteem ? 

What of the odious manner in which the African woman bleaches  her natural skin of ivory and olive oil? 

I do not look further, any longer , for any reason, why mere Affirmative action driven outside of the mindset of the African woman, would not liberate the African woman from inferiority complex . No wonder why she is not readily  embracing her rightful position as an amazon, either in political or economic or sociological phase.

However , there are enough case studies about women, who with their natural dreadlocks , have led men , nations and kingdoms to victory , both in moments of crises and at critical periods.

These are women around whose dreadlocks are woven vows of commitment to chastity and spirit of liberation. 

Call them Rastafarians , the Dadas , the Dodondawas or the Nazirites, their Rastafarianism, individually , takes root 

  from " Ras- Tafari" the " Ras" being  " head " sharing same root with Arabic " ra'" while " Tafari" signifies dread fullness. 

An ode to the woman of valour, dignified in her natural dreadlocks, should here suffice. 

" Although I am not in any way effeminately helpless by my bodily construction ,the strands on my head are under the lock and key of gods .

It was this uncultivated  but consecrated land of virginity that raised the metaphor  of "Mariama", "Mary" and "Moremi "in their commitments to their vows of naziriteship.

They were able to devout their offsprings to the gods in order to free their people from the bondage of slavery and menace of satanic forces.  Like the proverbial goose reputed to bring good luck to her family, we are the rare female equivalence of the Biblical Deborah, the woman who is manly in everything she does.

 " I  am not only manly in my physique as a woman but in my behaviour , constituting the opposite side of what people do, even in taste, in my attire and in  my utterances." 

Talk of “nazir" in Hebrew  and “Nadiyr” in Arabic and you are finding my equivalence in the "Ndira" cognate which is referring to a woman behaving like a man-: That's the Ndira Gandhi of India. As the vocabulary dictating my hairdo moved to Greek, my Dada   metamorphosed into "Andrrizonai "which is a personification of one who is not effeminate , but manly enough to confront danger head-long. 

This is why the Ndira of India wears the same robotic android-loaded energy of the Andrew and the android culture in the English expressions.

Ruminating on the dreadlocks of artificiality, and the half-obedience to the rules of Naziriteship ,even , the criminality which  partiality constitutes an addiction, like hard drugs, the phenomenon of which has become worse than heroin and cocaine put together, I am reminded of Nazirites that have come and gone , leaving behind "so-so" sorrow.  Knights are no longer knights but Knaves. Nazirites have ceased to be nice, Notoriety is now the stock in trade of Nazirites, even as all manner of Dadas are feigning dreadlocks and painting the picture of stupidity. 

" We now wear dreadlocks that are as fascinating as they are incriminating.

" I am Dada Ogbegun in Yoruba land, the Dodondawa in Hausaland. 

With my hairdo, I break into the garden of fantasy, recruiting into fashion every fad of fallacy .

what an array of youths whose vision and mission are as blurred and as dead as dodo.

Fake prophets in their artificiality, Sorcery and sophistry are all at street corners disciplining the riff- raffs in their hundreds. Reckless house wives keep filling the ilks  with insanity of the highest order.

I am  now the Dada Ogbegun, I am recalcitrant, a truant, dropping out of schools like a teddy boy.

 I dared the forest of ten thousand demons with the midas touch of my terrific hair do.

 Even against sense, reasoning and Commonsense.

I smoke weeds of different cannabis in the wee hours of the night. 

You would find me at the proverbial lya fatality's joint , smoking like hell, snuffing weeds, Sweet grass like a teddy grass.

I am still myself, the David of the Hebrew generation. 

The only Dawodu whose David is without the sceptre of honour.

I exercise power without responsibility as I am Lemuel who has rubbished the sanctity of my mother's vow. 

Poor contemptible Bobby who has continually disgraced his father's Corrections.

I shunned my mother's pruning as a wild cannabis which twines have twinged her heart a thousand times. 

I am not like the obedient Sammel who stood rooted to his mother's post at Shiloh.

I have been placed on the narcotics of the sacred herb, ganja, goaded with the fantasy that it was capable of erasing other scriptures that do not believe in the truth of our Rastafari.

Amid this rebound of an echo of character, would it not amount to fighting Belzebub with belzebub ? Would this dreadlock of unending narcotic not going to end in a deadlock of insanity?

I am Dada Ogbegun , or simply call me Dada Dodon Dawa.

I am the brother of Ojo the proverbial Troublemaker who is fond of brewing defiance from the bridge of his two nostrils.

I have desecrated every rule of Nazirite, dragged in the mud of temerity, the name of Moses Orimolade, the first Dada of honour in Yorubaland.

I am the Samson , heavily dread-locked in my mission to break the jinx that had haunted long my people of Israel.

 Alas  I endedup being broken between the two laps of Delilah who made me foul my nazirite ship.

OLALERE FAGBOLA

( Dedicated to commemorate International Day Against Drug Abuse .

Delivered at Osogbo Window on America. 

Sponsored through collaborative efforts of Imole foundation and Trauma of the Dreadlocked Publishers .

Monday, June, 26, 2023 .

Photo Credit : Pixabay

TITILOLA CALLS FOR GOVERNMENT, PARENTS SYNERGY

The wife of Osun State Governor, Chief ( Mrs) Titilola has called on the people of the state to form a robust synergy with the administration of her husband, Senator Ademola Jackson Adeleke in his efforts at giving the youths a brighter future while improving the standard of living of the people of the state.

Titilola Adeleke who stated that the youths occupied a pivotal place in the agenda of Governor Adeleke, believed that Nigeria would be rapidly transformed if all stakeholders inculcated in their children moral values towards re-orientating their consciousness and sense of responsibility.

She further charged  parents and other stakeholders to reawaken their sense of responsibility towards building their minds,  being the only sustainable measure to safeguard them against numerous predicaments, such as child abuse, underage marriage, female gender mutilation, examination, school dropout  ,malpractices and internet fraud among other vices for which Osun state government has zero tolerance.

She gave this charge in her address at Ataoja School of Science , Osogbo, last Friday during this year's Day of the African Child at which occasion , the Imole Foundation, convening the programme presented an award of Excellence to the wife of the governor for being an icon whose life has been dedicated to the upliftment of the youths.

 She stressed that as Osun state is joining the Organisation of African Unity ( OAU ) to commemorate and honour the African Child , mothers particularly should look into various challenges confronting our children with a view to engaging them in dialogues and actions that would ensure a better world for them.

The wife of the Governor was presented with a plaque in recognition of her iconoduly in offering hope for the Girl child and the youths in general while she unveiled a new book written by the Chief Executive  Officer  C.E.O. of Imole Foundation, Oluwaferanmi Babatunde titled:" Wounds that Time won't heal ."

In her lecture titled  " Maintaining Zero tolerance Against  abuse of the Osun state Child, the Head of the Legal Unit of the university of Osun teaching hospital, Osogbo, Barrister Olopade Abimbola noted with delight that Adeleke-led administration, since assumption of office, has supported the creative energies of women affairs ministry in stamping out the menace of every form of abuse , neglect or exploitation of the child in the state.

She noted that government and its relevant agencies have constantly raided streets to rid them of children hawkers, embarked upon regular sensitisation of traditional and religious leaders on the evils associated with child trafficking and organ harvesting while government's school feeding programme as well as its " Omoluabi culture " have been energizing the girl child to resist abuse of her dignity.

Earlier in his welcome address, Babatunde Kehinde, the Chairman of Spectacular International Magazine under which auspices the Imole foundation organised the event , commended the remarkable achievements of the wife of the Governor, Chief Titilola Adeleke whom he described as a beacon of inspiration, guiding light and symbol of Hope for the children of Osun state .

IMOLE FOUNDATION HONOURS THE WIFE OF THE OSUN STATE GOVERNOR : SOLUDERO

 As part of this year's celebration of the Day of the African Child, The Imole Foundation under the auspices of the Spectacular International Magazine , would on Friday, June ,16, 2023, 10am,  honour the Wife of the Osun State Governor Chief Titilola Adeleke at Ataoja School of Science Osogbo. 

At a three- In-one  occasion in which the Orangun of Oke-ila, Oba ,( Dr) Adedokun Abolarin would  be the Royal Father of the Day , the International magazine would officially launch its non governmental  organisation, Imole Foundation , present to the public its first book titled " Wounds That Time Won't Heal "authored by Hembadoon Oluwaferanmi Babatunde while holding an interactive session that promises to create networking opportunities for all stakeholders in the   promotion of the good welfare of the African Child .

A statement signed by the Publisher of the international organisation,  Babatunde Hembadoon , affirmed that the celebration of this year's Day of the African Child is fashioned at honouring the wife of Governor Ademola Adeleke , Chief Titilola Adeleke whom she described as an Icon of hope and a Mother whose unwavering commitment and tireless efforts in championing the cause of the children's rights is unequalled and commendable.

 The Head of the Legal Unit of the University of Osun Teaching hospital, Osogbo, Barrister Abimbola Olopade is going to deliver a paper on " Maintaining Zero Tolerance Against Any Form of Abuse , Neglect or Exploitation of Osun State Child "  at the occasion to which the cream of the society would be identifying with the Child as a day of showing gratitude to caring leaders worldwide.

 The international Day of the African child being celebrated since 1991,  originally was in remembrance of hundreds of protesting youths massacred in the Soweto uprising of 1976 where-in they were demanding their rights to quality education . 

In identifying with the spirit behind the protest and towards ensuring the realisation of the rights Of the African child  , leaders as well as non governmental organisations around the world have been commemorating the day to draw the attention to the many plights of the African children towards  enlisting the support of caring stakeholders to promote the welfare being of the child .

" We adopt the African Union themes and campaign from the Sustainable development goals (SDG) relating to the welfare and progress of the Nigerian Child.

Accordingly, we have joined the states in the African Union,  Unicef, WHO, the Civil society organizations, the international and private sectors to highlight issues that are germane to the contemporary Nigerian child, especially on access to health care, including child and maternal health ;education, including gender equality ,eradication of violence and safety ,and quality of life."

  The African Union theme of the 2023 day of the African child event is " Eliminating Harmful Practices Affecting Children: Progress on Policy and Practice since 2013.

Hembadoon Oluwaferanmi Babatunde

Publisher/ Convener

DR.FEMI ADESINA: A LESSON IN LOYALTY

There is no doubt that the level of thinking concentration required by nations  in Africa to enable  us compete squarely with developed nations should be more .

But it appears that we are tending towards fool hardiness in which we ( as dumping ground for all manner of imported goods ) believe that we are giants  of Africa and are equal partners with our competitors.

The over-weening self importance of our university system in the hands of our academics, is preventing the system from bursting out of their cocoons towards thinking outside the box, in order to take the bull of development by its two  horns. 

Amid the crisis of overtopicalisation and over-centralisation plaguing the university system, our lecturers have, for instance, been unable to identify and examine the principles behind the creation  of , for instance, the African Instituted churches to see the need for freeing our economy from the apron strings of over dependent on foreign goods .

In a chat with Mr Modupe Oduyoye, the philologist of our time , it was his contention that today's churches should be able to think outside their cocoons for an economic roadmap if African Instituted churches could survive during the world wars which saw white missionaries fleeing this land . Also, institutes of African studies should be committed to the Mbari culture in which African writers series of the days of yore continue to dwell on higher grounds .

Ofcourse, this could only be achieved whenever our university system think outside the box , allowing statesmanship within the four walls of the university to collaborate or co-respond with statesmanship outside of the ivory tower of the university walls. 

As God doesn't put all wisdom in the basket of the university , but put some in the heads of the lowly who are intellectually minded , so also the university should not pretend to have monopoly of knowledge. 

It is in the realisation of this fact which necessitates the university system to give medals or honorary doctorate degrees to geniuses and statesmen outside of the universities. 

Indeed universities do not have all the lines of knowledge and are not the exclusive custodians of first class materials. 

There are first class-honour products outside of the walls of university who level well with university dons. 

In one of the Havard university's journals: "Dialogue " ,  a golden thought on the  way forward  from " Five crises of the World's universities " remarked thus :" Statemanship of the highest order, both in and out of the universities, will be necessary if they are to fulfill their historic mission in our new world." 

This brings us to the point of right statemanship within and without university walls co-responding together. 

Barely few weeks to the time Dr. Femi Adesina  bowed out of office honourably as the Special Adviser  to President Muhammadu Buhari, he had begun to be vindicated. 

Judging from comments now referring to the patriotic way in which he handled his immediate  constituency ( the Press ) with fairness, not stifling press freedom in any way, even in spite of all vitriolic attacks on his Principal,  it is certain that history has begun to absolve him.

 In an open letter written to Bayo Onanuga by Richard Akinnola, he stated that it was remarkable that , Femi Adesina, as Special Adviser, Media and publicity to the President,  did not petition against any media throughout his tenure. 

As if to cap this view with a feather to his cap , Femi Adesina was honoured with a Doctorate degree in Strategic Management and Leadership Development by a United Kingdom based Institution of higher learning .

According to the Learn To Live Business School, United Kingdom, the Doctorate degree was conferred on him ( wait for it ) in recognition of his selfless service to Nigeria and his UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY ( emphasis in capital, mine ) and Commitment to President Muhammadu Buhari as well as his administration 2015/ 2023

But Farooq Kperogi  does not think that Femi Adesina deserves being conferred with the doctorate degree. 

If Femi Adesina, even before becoming the Special Adviser to the president, was the Managing Director/ Editor-in-chief of a successful newspaper, and former President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors , is now being so honoured, it smacks of bad belle for anybody to think that he does not merit it .

If Femi's Professionally towering ( elephant) stature is being ( proverbially) described as a negligible creature who dashes across in the flash of lightning, then some motive outside of good intention must be accountable for such cynicism.

Also Segun Adams in his response to Femi Adesina's: parting valediction:"The Good in Goodbye " described him as the worst thing  that ever happened to Nigeria's journalism , arguing that Femi was a disaster of monumental proportion.

But Brother Isaac's response to this was that he was yet to find a spokesman

 for past Presidents who,while walking the tight rope, controverted the actions of his principal while in office.

I am also yet to find any past President without admirers, including most  vilified Abacha and IBB.

So,Femi Adesina cannot definitely be the worst of the past spokesmen.

And as professionals, can we at least agree that there are two sides to every story?He posed. 

 As a veteran journalist and writing Prophetologist, it is not an empty boast for me to affirm here that I have since 1979 till date ,  correctly predicted the emergence of no fewer than ten  Nigerian Heads of state/ Presidents before they were elected and sworn in. 

In 2015 when the contest was between President Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, my trance experience, based on the principles of jubilee of the period,  gave electoral victory to Goodluck Jonathan. 

I obliged Femi Adesina who was the the Managing Director of the Sun newspaper, a copy of the 2015 Yearly Revelation for consideration  for publication. The revelation fell flat for the first time in many years .

 Barely a year in office, I had reason to book for an appointment to interview the Special  Adviser to the President  at Aso Rock and rather than turning down my request, he   obliged me and it was during the session that I knew his motive for leaving his lucrative job to serve the Buhari's administration.

" What is the driving force and motive behind your movement from newspapering to the Presidency and doesn't it prick your conscience, leaving the frontline, even at a time like this when you are most needed to prod the conscience of leaders to act for the good of the society  ?" I asked him.

" There is just one  basic thing that motivated me into leaving my job for public service. If it was not Muhammadu Buhari, I would never have served in the public service.  I had said it before and I keep saying it .Nobody else would have brought me to serve  in the public service except Muhammadu Buhari. In 2007, I remember a friend had asked me ; can you ever serve in government? I said never , I didn't give it a second thought. I said , never, I would never serve in government. Then I thought about it again for a few minutes and I added a proviso that, except if that government is headed by Muhammadu Buhari. 

So the simple and singular reason that brought me into public service is the person of the President. I have always believed in him , I still believe in him and I would continue to believe in him. " Femi Adesina answered.

Conversely , one of the first lessons I went through in Journalism class in the 70s was that the Word is the number one Tool of the journalist . Probably because the coins around the period were potent means of financial transaction everywhere, my instructor used to say that the words like coins must continue to jingle in the pockets of the ideal journalist because he would need them for the construction of  ideas, facts and opinions in every form. 

Even with the effrontery by which we have replaced handling of coins in favour of crisp currency notes in our own part of the world, the word in the pocket dictionary of the journalist must still, for ever, be loaded while it  must  be effectively transferable from his diction of  account , now that the marriage between the media and technology has shrunk distance into a global market of a world without walls.

For me now ,  that was a time  when I was still a child  . I did speak like a  child, running with the idea that knowing everything grammatical  about the word was all I needed to drive home my ideas . But as I continue to grow up gradually into the world of the veteran however, it is dawning on me that in the mastery of the art , knowing the Word is not enough but understanding the history, rudiments, radicality and rooted ness of the word, lest one ends up being superficial , with one's word falling down like a fence of toothpicks.  What I am saying in essence is that the journalist cannot afford to treat the Word ( with temerity) like any other professional would want to treat it , even off-handedly .

In driving home my point on the need for our own  society of Pen fraternity to avoid arbitrariness in the use of words , I have fallen  in love with the thought of Confucius to the extent that I have had too many occasions in which I tend to have over quoted this Chinese Philosopher, Confucius, who said that one of the first things he would do if given the opportunity to rule the world would be to correct language.

 " If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, what ought to be done would remain undone; and if what ought to be done remains undone , morals and arts would deteriorate, if morals and Arts deteriorate, justice will go astray ;  if justice goes astray, the people would stand in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in whatever is said.This matters above everything. " He had remarked.

 What does it mean to be loyal ?

What does it entail for Femi Adesina who did not disguise his belief in Muhammadu Buhari to be honoured with a doctoral degree, even in recognition of his selfless service and particularly his UNCONDITIONAL LOYALTY and commitment to President Muhammadu Buhari  ?

In Nigeria where the average Nigerian electorate does not know the significance of the word VOTE, with public office holders not understanding the implications of oath of office while clerics dont understand the sacredness of testimony, the likes of Farooq could continue to look askance at the rationale behind Adesina's honorary award for his loyalty.

 It was the living legend and sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo who once said :" If you dont trust him , don't engage him but if you engage him, don't doubt him ."

 It would not be right for those who jumped into the trusted  boat of Muhammadu  Buhari in 2015, and who have now become wailers in 2023 (because they did so impetuosly) to look down  on Femi Adesina who trusted and believed in Buhari out of conviction, and who till the time of leaving office  understands  what loyalty means  .

It is a good horse that never stumbles and a good wife that never grumbles. 

But against whom should be the laughter of the intellect ? Against the  wailers or against the faithfuls? 

With no doctorate to his name then , he understood what the word loyalty meant and  till the time he left office, he didn't betray that loyalty. Dr Femi Adesina's loyalty is not an easy catch. 

 There is a whole lot of world of words which share same cognate family with the word :" loyalty " and which confers on it the picture of a vow of commitment that is binding .

Ordinarily, to be loyal is to be true and faithful to a cause or a person or government.  A loyalist is faithful and true to a ruler and government especially during a revolt. 

But faithfulness in loyalty is not seasonal as it is an obligation which is paid at all times because it wears the toga of law that is binding both at peace and crisis period.  This obligatory feature of loyalty derives from its French root of legalis while its legality stems from the latin legalis.  Where it becomes binding at all times shows in its form of a League, being a union for mutual help but which pursuit of common interest is like a band tying the cord of association together.  

It is from this bound of unity in togetherness that the word takes its Latin root Legare ( which is to bind )

By this legacy from which the word loyalty Is bequeathed by will, ( taking the Latin root legare : a bequest,) it becomes an obligation which nature is like a vow ; a duty and a thraldom being a state of enthralment.  

All of these make loyalty an oath or vow which share same cognate union with vote as both have the Latin root called votum. 

It is this testament of faithfulness by which features, Femi Adesina becomes a testimony of a loyalist par excellence. 

Testimony is a statement under oath or an affirmation. The word is formed from the Latin " testimonium; from testis; witness ; testis itself being a testicle. 

Beyond this, testimony is therefore that which makes a man a witness to and in which ultimately ones spectatorship finally becomes the spectacle.  As the change agent , one becomes the change one wants or expects in others ."

Let the golden words of 

Fidel Castro, in his historic speech," HISTORY WILL ABSOLVE ME" serve Femi Adesina. 

" To those who would call me a dreamer , I quote the words of Marti:

 " A true man does not seek the path where advantage lies,but rather, the path where duty lies, and this is the only practical man, whose dream of today will be the law of tomorrow, because he who has looked back on the upheavals of history and has seen civilisation going up in flames, crying out in bloody struggle, throughout the centuries, knows the future well-being of man ,without exception, lies on the side of duty ."

Either you call him Doctor or not , Femi Adesina is one of the rare solid professional journalists you can wish for anywhere . Without being a university Professor, his testificatory standing is a veritable jus ubique docendi with the right to teach anywhere.  

OLALERE FAGBOLA