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Agony of a widow

Madam Ajarat, the evicted widow
A harsh experience of a widow of over five decades of marriage that culminated in undue disgrace and dishonor by her husband’s older children suspected of attempting to sell their father’s house that their father’s widow lives in.
Excerpts of interview of Madam Ajarat from Okenne, Kogi State,  married to Late Pa Ogunbajo of Ijebu-Igbo in Ogun State.
She spoke with OWOLOLA ADEBOLA
 What is your maiden name?
My maiden name is Ajarat Subair from Okenne in Kogi State.
 How did you meet your late husband, Pa B.L. Ogunbajo?
 He was a produce trader that used to buy and sell cocoa and other cash crops. He came to our family farm at Abeku by J4 in Ogun State. I accompanied my late aunt who was a farmer to visit him. That is how we met. He showed interest to marry me. He was an interesting man. I was 25 years old then. He was a fatherly figure.
 Do you remember the year that you married him?
 It was sometime in the 1960s. I had the first child for him but died of measles. My second surviving child for him was crawling when he died in 1973.
 After his death, how has life been with you?
 Upon my husband’s death, I was bequeathed to his junior sister, my late sister-in-law according to the prevalent Yoruba custom. She in turn bequeathed me to her son called “Olowo.”
I had two daughters for Olowo. The first was a handicapped daughter without lower limbs. The second, a girl too but now a woman. Both are married with children.
The first daughter for Olowo is called Lubuda. That’s physically challenged.  God blesses her with two children. I look after her and her children. The rest are on their own.
The President of Customary court, Ijebu Igbo
 What is your position amongst late Pa Ogunbajo’s wives?
 I’m the fifth and last wife. There were only two aged wives ahead of me. The rest two had died before I met him. I was well-accepted into the family. My immediate and extended family members love me. His mother ensured I was the closest person to her. All the children of the extended family would always come around to play in our big house then. There was enough space for them to run around.  I would cook for them all before they returned home.
 Did you marry outside Pa Ogunbajo’s family after Olowo’s death?
 Yes I did. I had health challenges then. Fibroid threats. I was advised to marry again to reduce and possibly eliminate the threats. I had two children with my last husband. I returned to my first husband’s house to look after all my children. I stayed in the two-rooms apartment given to my first daughter as her inheritance in her father’s house.
I stayed in the same two-rooms apartment in my husband’s house while my marriage to Olowo lasted until he died.
 What led to the dispute between you and your first husband’s older children, lately?
No specific reason for the dispute. I’m not a stranger to them. I’ve known them for over five decades. My suspicion is that they want to sell the house. The surviving children of Pa Ogunbajo are advanced in age. None of them is less than 80 years old. They alleged unspeakable nonsense against me and my children. They call us all sorts of names to intimidate me and my children. In the end, they summoned me to Customary Court.  They alleged so many untrue allegations.  I defended myself in truth as I could. In the end, they pronounced me guilty.
The widow’s belonging thrown outside
How did they find you guilty?
The Court president and others did not take into account to I
nvestigate all the allegations or call for witnesses or evidence to affirm the truth of the allegations. I debunked all the allegations but they didn’t believe me.
The Court pronounced me guilty. The Court granted me only 14 days to vacate the house and relocate elsewhere. The Court says I could appeal the judgment within 30 days.
 Did you comply with the Court’s ruling?
 I was advised to comply and I wanted to. Some extended family members heard of the Court’s ruling and were astounded.  They asked me to stay in the house while they would resolve the differences in the family.
I listened to them. The family members assured me they had contacted the Court president to stay the judgment execution. They assured me to continue living in the house.
 Given the assurance by the family members. What transpired next.?
 It was a rude shock to me that I was evicted on the 23rd day after the Court’s ruling. The Court president neither honoured his words to the family members to stay the judgment execution nor wait till the due 30 days granted me to appeal the judgment. The Court bailiff and plainclothes policemen came to the house.
They hired men of the Hausa tribe brandishing cutlasses and cudgel. They ordered the Hausa men to force the door open. They threw my belongings outside. They disgraced me and my children.
 When exactly did the trial take place and what day were you evicted?
 The trial took place on 23rd of January 2023 at Customary Court Holden at Ijebu-Igbo, Ijebu-North Local Government Area, Ogun State.
I was evicted on the 15th of February 2023. The third week after the ruling.
 Did you attempt to protest the eviction to the Court president?
 I don’t think it is necessary. There were rumours that the Court president had been contracted to sell the house if he could succeed in evicting me and my children. The Court president is a popular estate agent around Ijebu-Igbo.
What efforts are you making to seek redress in a law court?
 The legal fee to challenge the ruling and the oppression is exorbitant. It is unaffordable to me and my children in this difficult time around the country. I look up to God to redress the situation for me.
I may seek legal aid from the Ogun State government to help restore my right to live in my daughter’s inherited two-rooms apartment in her father’s house. If they would sell the house, they should seek my daughter’s consent as one of my husband’s children.
 Where do you stay at the moment?
 A good neighbour offered me and my children a room to stay for a while. I will move on to seek redress when I overcome the resultant trauma and the depression that becloud me daily. It is not a good way for me to end my life after five decades of marriage.
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Analyses

The invisible toll gates:Why National Single Window is Nigeria’s ultimate economic battleground

Monday Discourse with  Ibrahim Nasiru
Walk into any market in Nigeria today, from the commercial hubs of Lagos to the roadside stalls in Yola, and ask why a bag of rice or an imported spare part costs three times what it did last year.
The typical public commentator will blame global inflation, floating currencies, or macro-economic shocks.
But those who understand logistics know the real truth lies buried under layers of paper, manual stamps, and artificial delays at our seaports.
Nigeria’s international trade is suffocating not from a lack of deep water, but from a deliberate design of convenience.
The recent operational rollout of the National Single Window (NSW) has triggered behind-the-scenes panic among Port cartels, and for good reason.
For decades, keeping our clearing processes fragmented, manual, and dependent on desk-to-desk human interaction was the perfect business model for syndicates.
When cargo dwell times drag on for 21 days, those delays are money in the pockets of the gatekeepers and a death sentence for local businesses.
Let us look at the raw field realities. The push by the Nigeria Customs Service to aggressively crash clearance times down to global 48-hour standards is meeting fierce internal resistance.
Why? Because a unified digital ecosystem means you cannot easily manipulate documentation, hide illicit cargo, or demand “mobilization fees” before signing off a container.
The outcry and protests from certain freight-forwarding syndicates aren’t about technical glitches; they are about the sudden closure of invisible toll gates.
This is exactly why governance at our national gateways can no longer be left to the mercy of transactional bureaucratic habits.
Building deep-sea infrastructure like Lekki Port is a massive physical achievement, but concrete and cranes are useless if the administrative processes at the gate remain backward.
 Real structural reform requires turning our Ports into automated, friction-free pipelines that prioritize production over rent-seeking.
If Nigeria wants to survive this fiscal squeeze, the National Single Window cannot just be treated as another glossy IT project launched in Abuja.
 It requires unyielding administrative enforcement to completely dismantle the corrupt cartels managing the manual desk chains.
The invisible toll gates at our Ports must be completely demolished, and that exact same structural discipline must be scaled across our border stations and trade corridors.
The era of managing international trade with 20th-century paper trails is dying. The future belongs to the builders of automated, transparent systems.
Chief Ibrahim Nasiru, a public affairs analyst,  writes from Abuja 
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Headlines

NANTA Exco embarks on seven-day Ghana retreat, fam trip to deepen regional tourism partnership

Gloria Odion, Reporter

The National Executive Council (NEC) of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA) has commenced a seven-day executive retreat and familiarisation (fam) trip to Ghana, hosted by Safari World, as part of efforts to strengthen regional tourism partnerships and expand cross-border travel opportunities.

The NANTA delegation was received at Safari World Homes in Accra by the Chairman of the Safari World Group, Mr. Ernest Gyekye, who expressed delight at hosting the Nigerian travel trade leaders.

He assured the delegation of a memorable experience throughout their week-long stay.

Speaking on the significance of the visit, NANTA President, Mr. Yinka Folami, described the retreat and familiarisation tour as a strategic initiative aimed at fostering stronger business relationships and promoting collaborative tourism development across Africa.

“This mission is not a leisure trip,” Folami said. “It is a deliberate step to implement and expand our association’s marketing advocacy for Nigerian brands across borders.”

He noted that Nigeria and Ghana share deep historical, cultural and commercial ties that should be leveraged to drive tourism growth on the continent.

“Nigeria and Ghana share history, culture, trade and people. The future of our tourism cannot be built in silos,” he said.

“This retreat is about moving from policy to practice—creating real products, real partnerships and real movement of travellers between Accra and Lagos.”

As part of the programme, the NANTA executives will engage in strategic business-to-business (B2B) meetings with their Ghanaian counterparts, tour key tourism destinations under the Safari World brand, and participate in cultural exchange activities designed to promote stronger bilateral tourism cooperation.

The itinerary spans Safari World’s three flagship destinations, including Safari Homes in Accra, the Aqua Safari riverfront experience, Safari Island Cruise, Safari Nautica, and Safari Recreation and Sports facilities in Ada, as well as the Safari Valley Eco Resort and Safari Eco Park in Dawu.

Operating under the brand promise, “One World, Three Destinations, Over 20 Unique Experiences,” Safari World is leveraging the visit to strengthen its footprint in the Nigerian travel market while positioning Ghana as a premier destination for leisure tourism, conferences, group travel, family holidays and premium tourism experiences.

A major highlight of the visit will be the Executive Dinner scheduled for July 21 at the Safari Valley Eco Resort, where key stakeholders from Nigeria and Ghana’s tourism industries will deliberate on strategies for deepening travel trade and advancing regional tourism development.

The familiarisation tour is expected to provide NANTA’s leadership with first-hand knowledge of Safari World’s tourism offerings, paving the way for the development of attractive travel packages and stronger business partnerships that will benefit Nigerian travellers and the wider West African tourism industry.

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Customs

Ogun Customs spurns claims of Smugglers’ takeover of Idiroko–Sango Ota trading Route

Funso OLOJO, Editor

The Ogun I Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has dismissed as false reports alleging that smugglers had taken over the Idiroko–Sango Ota trading route in Ogun State, describing the claims as a deliberate misrepresentation of a traffic incident.
In a statement issued by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Superintendent of Customs (SC) Chado, the Command clarified that the traffic gridlock on the route resulted from the breakdown of an articulated commercial trailer after it fell into a badly deteriorated section of Atan Road, temporarily obstructing the free flow of traffic.
According to the Command, the vehicles caught in the ensuing congestion were legitimate commercial trucks transporting red palm oil to various local markets and had no connection whatsoever with smuggling activities.
It explained that the large number of heavy-duty trucks trapped in the gridlock may have led some members of the public to wrongly conclude that smugglers had taken over the road.
“The reports that smugglers blocked the road are inaccurate. The disruption resulted from a road accident and poor road conditions. The vehicles involved were lawful commercial vehicles transporting red palm oil for legitimate trade,” Chado stated.
The Command urged journalists, social media users and the general public to verify information before disseminating reports capable of creating unnecessary panic or undermining public confidence in security agencies.
Observers within the border trade sector noted that the allegation does not reflect the prevailing security situation within the Ogun I Area Command, where anti-smuggling operations have been intensified under the leadership of the Acting Customs Area Controller, Comptroller O.O. Afeni.
Since assuming office, Comptroller Afeni has strengthened intelligence-driven surveillance, enhanced collaboration with other security agencies and host communities, and sustained pressure on economic saboteurs operating along the Ogun border corridors.
These measures, according to stakeholders, have resulted in significant seizures of prohibited goods and reinforced the Command’s resolve to safeguard Nigeria’s economy and territorial integrity.
Maritime and border trade stakeholders also cautioned against the spread of unverified information capable of undermining the efforts of security personnel or creating a false impression of lawlessness in border communities.
They stressed that while combating smuggling remains an ongoing responsibility, responsible and accurate reporting is equally critical to ensuring that operational achievements are not overshadowed by misinformation.
The Ogun I Area Command reaffirmed its commitment to sustaining its anti-smuggling campaign while facilitating legitimate cross-border trade in line with the statutory mandate of the Nigeria Customs Service.

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