Adamu Tilde

Allah Ya bada nasara.

A Distant War, a Nearby Fire Even as a country overwhelmed by a domestic security crisis, I think it is delusional to police those who see the connection between conflicts in the Middle East and what we experience here. They have every reason to be wary. It is not only because faith-based allegiances at home can be mobilised in sympathy with parties to those conflicts, with one bloc instinctively reading events through an Iranian lens and another through an Israeli one. It is also because every distant war arrives here as a local argument, repackaged for ideological recruitment and grievance. The dominant framing of what is happening in the Middle East can be exploited by those nursing ambitions of religious war, and it can accelerate arms proliferation in an already volatile world. We have seen this film before. The collapse of Libya did not remain a Libyan tragedy; it became a regional armoury, with weapons and fighters dispersing across fragile borders, feeding insurgencies and organised violence in the Sahel, and strengthening the ecosystem in which groups like Boko Haram thrive. When great powers trade blows, as they are doing in the Middle East now, the shrapnel travels without visas. This is even more so because Nigeria, too, is on the menu of great-power politics. Our size, strategic location, resources, and diplomatic weight make us attractive terrain for proxy games and influence operations. Nothing is easier to weaponise than identity. The cynical inflation of “Christian genocide” claims, circulated as political ammunition rather than as a call to justice, is one of the most combustible tools in that arsenal: it is designed to harden camps, delegitimise the state, and set communities against one another until the country feels ungovernable. The point is that we do not live in isolation, and we are not immune to the ripple effects of a world sliding into confrontation. If sense does not take charge of those with thumbs on nuclear buttons, the warning shots will keep echoing in places like ours, where the ground is already dry for a fire we do not have the capacity to stop.

Hello @MobilePunch, How do you do? Warmest regards.

It don tey! Do you remember when you joined X? I do! #MyXAnniversary

Ustaz @gimbakakanda I no dey bill you very well fa. Get ready for ambush when next I am in town. 😂

@gimbakakanda Ustaz @gimbakakanda I no dey bill you very well fa. Get ready for ambush when next I am in town. 😂

No easing on the clock.

BismilLah. 😊

@MA_Iliasu @MobiChristophe6 It is complicated. Upbringing shapes a lot of things including what people consider as the most appropriate margin one should get. Otherwise, whatever they wrote is true.

@MobiChristophe6 Malam @Adamtilde do you agree?

True talk, everybody knows Hausa guy go sell cheaper. But the real reason: Him no dey pay shop rent, NEPA bill, security levy, LAWMA, generator fuel, or school fees for city. Him dey sleep for batcher 2k/month, chop small, send money village. Almost pure profit. We wey dey pay 200k bill before we sell one satchet Milo, how we wan sell same price? Na survival, not wickedness. That’s all.

My Speech at the 25th Year Reunion of Offa Grammar School Class of 2000. La Mango Restaurant, Ikeja, Lagos on November 29, 2025 Dear brothers and sisters, good evening. I am genuinely grateful to be here today. It has been a quarter of a century since I saw many of you. I am thankful for the opportunity to reunite. I have been asked to speak on Nation Building and to do this, allow me to open with the words of Confucius: The illustrious ancients, when they wished to make clear and to propagate the highest virtues in the world, put their states in proper order. Before putting their states in proper order, they regulated their families. Before regulating their families, they cultivated their own selves. Before cultivating their own selves, they perfected their souls. Before perfecting their souls, they tried to be sincere in their thoughts. Before trying to be sincere in their thoughts, they extended to the utmost their knowledge. Such investigation of knowledge lay in the investigation of things, and in seeing them as they really were. When things were thus investigated, knowledge became complete. When knowledge was complete, their thoughts became sincere. When their thoughts were sincere, their souls became perfect. When their souls were perfect, their own selves became cultivated. When their selves were cultivated, their families became regulated. When their families were regulated, their states came to be put into proper order. When their states were in proper order, then the whole world became peaceful and happy. In this short but profound text, he teaches that the road to a just and peaceful nation begins with the individual. Before a state can be properly ordered, the family must be regulated. Before the family can be regulated, the individual must be cultivated. Before the individual can be cultivated, the heart must be made sincere. And sincerity begins with honest thought, grounded in true knowledge. That ancient ladder - from knowledge to thought, to character, to family, to nation - captures the central message I want to share tonight: nation building starts with me. With you. With each of us. We look around Nigeria today and we see failure in leadership, failures in institutions, and failures in systems. It is easy, very easy, to blame government officials, politicians, and people in authority. But the uncomfortable truth is this: We have corrupt leaders because we are a corrupt people. We tolerate what we should reject. We excuse what we should confront. We accept what we should challenge. In quality management, we are taught three simple rules: Do not accept defect. Do not create defect. Do not pass defect along. If we applied these three principles to citizenship, Nigeria would be a different nation entirely. Imagine a society where no one accepts wrong, no one creates wrong, and no one inflicts wrong on another. Imagine a society where personal integrity is non-negotiable. That is what Confucius meant. That is what nation building demands. Because the truth is this: every time we cut corners, pay a bribe, inflate an invoice, cheat the system, or even look away when wrongdoing happens, we contribute - quietly but powerfully - to the decay of our own country. We talk about bad leaders. But as political scientists often say, nations rarely rise above the moral standard of their citizens. In other words, we get the leaders we deserve. Let me remind you of our final year at OGS when Suraj was omitted when the list of prefects were announced, despite clearly being one of the best students around. This omission reflected a policy of selecting only science students for leadership roles. At barely seventeen, Suraj refused to accept this wrong. The next day he returned to school with a ten‑page rebuttal, pasted it on the notice board, and challenged the authorities. It sparked a conversation that would not be silenced. Inspired by him, I later led a protest demanding that our WAEC fees be refunded after we heard on the radio that the state was returning the money but our school had taken no action. Over the following years the policy changed; non‑science students began to hold leadership positions — an assistant head girl in 2001, an assistant senior prefect in 2002, and a head girl in the 2003/2004 set. One person’s refusal to tolerate injustice made a lasting difference. We gather tonight as people who have been blessed with education, opportunities, networks, and a measure of influence. Twenty-five years ago, we sat in the same classrooms dreaming of a better future. Today, we are no longer dreamers - we are the adults in the room. We are the ones responsible for shaping the future our children will inherit. So the question is no longer, “What is wrong with Nigeria?” The question is, “What is wrong with me? What am I contributing? And what can I fix?” Nation building is not a speech. It is not an election cycle. It is not about whichever administration is in power. Nation building is a personal discipline. A daily decision. A moral commitment. It is stopping at traffic lights even when nobody is watching. It is refusing to pay bribes even when it inconveniences you. It is choosing honesty in business even when fraud seems easier. It is treating people with dignity even when you have power over them. It is raising children who know integrity not as theory, but as lifestyle. Because as Confucius reminds us: If we regulate ourselves, our families will be strong. If families are strong, communities will be stable. If communities are stable, the nation will thrive. The next 25 years of our lives will be even more influential than the past 25. We must not waste them. Let us commit tonight to becoming the kind of citizens Nigeria needs - citizens who are disciplined, principled, courageous, and uncompromising in the face of wrongdoing. Let us commit to nation building as a personal responsibility. Let us leave this reunion determined that when history records the story of Nigeria, it will say: “They handed over a better country than the one they met.” And if anyone asks how we did it, we can point back to Confucius and say….We started by fixing ourselves. Thank you, and God bless you all. God bless our families. And God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Topic: Entrepreneurship in a challenging economy: Mindset, Strategy and Discipline. Be our guest!

@el_bonga Big man. Your boys are loyal.

@idrisayobello @OAUniversity Ameen.

It is at moments like this that I miss my late Dad the most. He would have printed out the draft of my @OAUniversity lecture, sat with it quietly, and gone through every line — page by page — leaving thoughtful comments in the margins. Later that night, he would call for one of our long, deliberate conversations. We would walk through each key point together, and he would suggest corrections, highlight blind spots, and somehow still find the errors I had overlooked. He was the epitome of excellence — the very first in our family to attend university, and a proud graduate of the University of Ife (now OAU) in 1971. He would question my choice of one word over another, then drift into memories of one of his own lectures from decades ago, delivered in his days as a young academic and pioneer librarian. His last attendance at one of my major lectures was in November 2017, when I delivered the University of Ibadan ARCIS Annual Lecture at Trenchard Hall. He sat in the audience with my mum and my sister — listening intently, smiling proudly, and offering his gentle critiques afterwards. And, as always, he would end by telling me how proud he was. May Allah be pleased with him and grant him endless mercy.

@MA_Iliasu Lol. Yarinta dadi. Zaka chanza amsa nan da shekara uku. In the meantime, mai tambaya ya rike budurwar shi da kyau. Ya riqe ta hannu biyu biyu.

My understanding of wife is much more nuanced than intellectual compatibility. For not every Will will meet an Ariel. Not being able to communicate is usually due to lack of familiarity. Try getting closer and see. Remember, the basics are kindness, decency & pleasing.

Whoever tells you that he or she understands how Nigeria works is a liar.

@el_bonga Quitting paid job.

What life-changing decision(s) have you ever taken that proved to be very successful and impactful in your life later?

History is full of similar warnings. The decline of America’s once-thriving Rust Belt offers a sobering lesson: no city or region retains its commercial dominance when it grows complacent and fails to adapt. Kano must not repeat that mistake. 8/8 The End.

Unfortunately, by the time the consequences of this attitude become clear, it may already be too late. 7/

Kano's Fading Edge The manifestations of social decay often become visible only decades after their onset—perhaps fifty years later. The erosion of values and the slow degeneration of society are usually perceptible only to a few exceptionally gifted thinkers. 1/