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‘Protest by Ile-Ife indigenes over OAU VC crazy, disgusting’, Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka says

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Foremost Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has condemned the invasion of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, by indigenes of the town on Monday, following the appointment of a new Vice Chancellor who is not a native of the town, saying those who invaded the institution with charms “must have been crazy.”

Africa News Watch had reported how the townspeople who were not happy that a non-indigene, Professor Adebayo Bamire, was announced as the 12th substantive VC of the foremost institution, had invaded the school’s main campus to register their displeasure.

The protesters had stormed the school with charms, amulets and other fetish objects to insist that an Ile-Ife indigene should have been appointed the VC following the announcement of Bamire.

They had insisted that an indigene of Ile-Ife, Prof Rufus Adedoyin, should be installed instead, but according to the institution’s Joint Council and Senate Selection Board in a statement on their position, Prof. Adedoyin who was also in the running during the selection process, came ninth in the screening exercise which saw sixteen candidates shortlisted for the post.

Soyinka, himself an alumnus and former lecturer of OAU, decried the invasion which he described as not only “shocking and disgusting” but “crazy.”

Soyinka, who spoke on the incident while delivering a lecture titled, ‘The Politics of Black Intellection and Creativity,’ at the University of Pennsylvania on Thursday, expressed distaste over the unholy act, wondering why no intelligent indigene of the town had come out to disown the protesters.

While reacting to a question by one of the panelist, Professor Wale Adebanwi, a Presidential Penn Compact Professor of African Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, the Professor of English said it was absurd for the people to insist that the OAU VC must be an indigene of the town.

“An Ife person wrote me and say, look at these people disgracing us. I told him to go there and disgrace them. You are an Ife person. You should be in the front line,” the erudite professor said.

“The Ife people should say those people don’t belong to us, we don’t know where they came from. And they should be dealt with ruthlessly. Why should there be an Ife VC anywhere? I just don’t understand what they put in the water these days. It is crazy,” he added.

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Zambia: Minister confirms search for at least 25 miners after Seseli Mine mudslide 

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Zambian Mines Minister, Paul Kabuswe, said on Monday that a search was still on for at least 25 informal miners buried alive three days ago by a mudslide at an open-pit copper mine.

The soft ground is making the rescue workers, who included military personnel and others from large-scale mining companies, cautious, which has been slowing down the operation, according to Kabuswe.

“We must be mindful that we shouldn’t have an accident within another accident,” Kabuswe said.

According to the government, the Seseli Mine in Chingola, approximately 400 km (250 miles) northwest of the capital Lusaka, was flooded by heavy rains, trapping the miners in three different locations.

Zambia is Africa’s second-biggest producer of copper, which is in high demand for the transition to a low-carbon economy, and its government currently aims to boost the country’s copper production to 3 million tonnes a year by 2032, from around 850,000 metric tonnes last year. It has also witnessed a high degree of mining accidents

A week earlier, Canada’s First Quantum Minerals confirmed that two people died at its Zambian operations last week. The miner said a worker from its contracting partner, Reliant Drilling, died at First Quantum’s Kansanshi operations following a fall of ground due to an underground dewatering decline.

The number of trapped miners was not immediately known, but Kabuswe reported that 25 families had so far come forward to claim missing relatives who were employed at the mine as at the time of the accident.

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We are shocked at ex-President Lungu’s outbursts— Zambian Govt

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The Zambia government has expressed shock over the recent outburst by former President Edgar Lungu who accused incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema of doing everything possible to destroy democracy and install a dictatorship in the country.

While speaking at a press conference in Lusaka on Friday, Lungu had alleged that the Hichilema’s administration wanted to “kill democracy and subsequently introduce dictatorship in order to prolong their stay in power.”

He also alleged that all government institutions had been compromised and were being used to hound the opposition.

“All institutions of governance are heavily compromised, I want to repeat that all institutions of governance are highly compromised, you can not even talk about the Police, Registrar of Society, Judiciary, its a question of degree,” Lungu had said.

“Several opposition leaders have been arrested on trumped-up charges in order to silence them and are appearing in the courts of law. The interference can be seen from how they followed Harry Kalaba, Democratic Party, and now they have followed him to the Citizens First, Saboi Imboela’s National Democratic Congress has not been spared,” Lungu had added.

But in a response to the concerns raised by the ex-President, Chief Government spokesperson, Cornelius Mweetwa, said the federal government was surprised by the sentiments expressed by Lungu which it said amounted to advocating civil disobedience by the Zambian people.

In a statement on Saturday,
Mweetwa cautioned Lungu against over-stretching his luck but to “behave himself like a statesman.”

Mweetwa said that government was not happy that Lungu, who should enjoy a position of statesman, was reducing himself to below what was expected of him.

He also insisted that government had no intention of removing Lungu’s immunity as being peddled about in certain quarters.

“Sentiments by the former president that government wants to remove his immunity are unfounded. This is the resolve of president Hakainde Hichilema to ensure that there is unity and peace,” Mweetwa added.

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