Buhari Accepts Adebayo Adelabu Resignation From the CBN

President Muhammadu Buhari has formally accepted the resignation letter forwarded by the Deputy Governor (Operations) of Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Adebayo Adelabu who also double as the Agbaakin Parakoyi of Ibadanland.

The letter signed by President Buhari on the 24th of May therein accepted the resignation and appreciated Mr Adelabu's unflinching service to the apex bank which cuts across various departments.

The president also took the time out to wish him all the best in his future ambition and quest to play more active role in politics in his home state, Oyo.

"Whilst appreciating your services in various Departments of Central Bank of Nigeria since 9th of April, 2014, I wish you the very best in your future ambitions and continued commitment to public service in our country and specifically, as you seek to play a more active role in politics, in your home state."

Mr Adebayo Adelabu who had earlier submitted his notice of disengagement from CBN so as to abstain completely from playing partisan politics whilst still in public service, has expressed his desire to contest for the next gubernatorial election in Oyo State under the platform of the ruling party, APC.

He hopes to make a sacrifice by resigning from the CBN and draw from his wealth of knowledge and experience of about 23 years in the private sector with his public sector exposure in the CBN, as well, to impact on the pacesetter state, Oyo and continue the good work started by the present Governor of the state, Gov. Abiola Ajimobi.

My Song 'Big Boy' Did Not Glorify Yahoo-Yahoo - ELDee The Don

Former Nigerian rapper, singer and record producer, Lanre Dabiri better known as eLDee the Don gave a vivid in-depth account of his experience with a journalist/interviewer back in 2010 where he was asked about the possibility of his then hit track 'big boy' being a little misleading as it could be seen as glorifying a materialistic lifestyle in great contrast with his already known style/brand of socially conscious music.

Here is the story as recounted by eLDee himself:

"One day in 2010 while doing a red carpet interview, an interviewer asked me: “I listened to your song big boy, while I do like and enjoy the song, don’t you think the lyrics are a little misleading? I mean you’re glorifying a materialistic lifestyle..."

She contd...”How do you reconcile that with some of your previous more socially conscious music?” Without thinking deeply about what she said, I immediately responded that I wrote the song to motivate young people to be successful.

I added that I don’t understand why anyone would try to suggest a negative meaning to this amazing song that is doing so well at inspiring young people to be everything they can be. We didn’t have time to talk any further because we had to move along quickly and do another interview and but I noticed as we walked away that she looked disappointed.

I didn’t think much of it at the time. I mean, she fell right into the category of the “haters” I was describing on the song, so I just moved on. There was a part of what she said though, that stayed with me and continued to echo in my head. It was the part where she asked how I was able to reconcile “big boy” with some of my previous more socially conscious music.

A few years before, I had released another successful record titled “I go yan”. I go yan is a socially conscious song that tackles the shortcomings of African leaders. When you place those two records side by side, the contrast is evident. The more I thought about what that interviewer said to me on the red carpet that day, the more clarity I had about the contradiction.

How can I care so much about the plight of my people and at the same time promote oppression and materialism? I struggled with it for a while but I eventually developed a coping mechanism that helped me get past the feeling of guilt.

My coping mechanism was that in the expression of art, it is ok to have contradicting positions from time to time so I thought it ok to one day feel like Bob Marley and another day feel like Diddy. Even the late great Tupac Shakur made records that if placed side by side are contradictory. Compare “Dear mama” to “Hit em up” for example, same artist, different emotions. That was how I coped with my own contradiction.

Truth is, people who are close to me know that I’m more of a Bob Marley than a Diddy. In my natural state, I'm more socially conscious than flashy. Much of my music doesn’t give off that vibe though, primarily because a lot of my music was made to cater to my audience.

Recently, I started wondering,...why do people connect so well with materialism? What is it about a flashy lifestyle that is more exciting? Why is more respect given to people who are considered to be rich and wealthy in society?

The answer may seem obvious but the more I learn about human behavioral psychology, the more I realize that a lot of it lies in our personal insecurities. Our insatiable need for acceptance and regard in our society drives much of how we perceive ourselves and the decisions we make in our daily lives.

And because of that, our perception of who we are and what we are worth has become one of our most basic human needs, right after food, and security. Poverty has a strong impact on our self esteem as a people. The need to fill a low self esteem gap with material things is what has led our society as a whole to where we are today.

Today, we have a society that doesn’t respect honest work. A society that insists on the display of wealth for social status. A society that has raised the bar so high for everyone that even the rich have to lie about their true financial capacity.

We have a society that today finds justification for corruption, armed robbery and fraud...because it doesn’t matter anymore how you get it, just get it, and for no other reason than to flaunt it.

I made the song “big boy” and unwittingly contributed to the decay...I know better today. For the record, I do not consider "big boy" a Yahoo-Yahoo song. What I feel bad about is that I promoted materialism and oppression.

I did not encourage anyone to steal, what I did was promote materialism, which is at the core of why stealing has become more justifiable/acceptable by many in our society.
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Lanre Dabiri aka eLDee The Don is now a retired musician who now works as an entrepreneur, a tech enthusiast and IT consultant in Georgia, USA

OYO LGA POLLS: ADELABU LED THE STAR PROMOTERS OF APC CANDIDATES

OYO LG POLLS: ADELABU LED THE STAR PROMOTERS OF APC CANDIDATES

Less than 20hrs to conduct of the long-awaited local government areas and local council development areas elections in Oyo State, the National Expo Magazine hereby reveal the star supporters of All Progressives Congress (APC) chairmanship and councillorship candidates.

Since Governor Abiola Ajimobi came to power in 2011, this will be the first council poll to be conducted in the state. The last time residents of the state had the luxury of electing their counsellors and council chairmen was in 2007, when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was the ruling party, and Otunba Christopher Alao-Akala was governor.

The tenure of that set of elected council officers ended in 2010. Since then, the third tier of government in the state has been governed by administrators handpicked by the governor, with the approval of the state House of Assembly.

Previous efforts by Ajimobi to conduct council election were put on hold by legal encumbrances, which have just been resolved.

For politicians in the state, the May 12th (tomorrow) council election is not just about electing councillors and chairmen alone, but also to show the strength of political parties in the state, and to even decide which of the cleavages within the parties that call the shot.

That the APC is firmly rooted in Oyo State is not in doubt, but an independent thorough investigation into the campaigns and the events leading to the council polls by the National Expo Magazine revealed that some governorship aspirants on the platform of ruling APC gave their financial and material supports to the party's candidates; a move to curry their favours in the forthcoming governorship primaries.

The investigation revealed that only four out of the fourteen notable governorship aspirants threw their financial weights behind the candidates. It was gathered that Chief Adeniyi Akintola (SAN) donated cash to the campaigns of APC chairmanship candidates from Ibadan zone; the commissioner for health, Dr. Abdulazeez Adeduntan, gave cash to almost 40 carefully selected APC chairmanship candidates while the commissioner for finance, Mr. Bimbo Adekanbi financially supported all the 68 APC chairmanship candidates.

The last man standing was Chief Adebayo Adelabu alias Penkelemesi who singlehandedly funded the whole 68 APC chairmanship candidates as well as all the party's councillorship candidates whose total number is close to 700. The essence of the support was to help the candidates defray part of the legitimate campaign expenses of the candidates.

The magnitude of the supports and financial donations to the course of the party, All Progressive Congress and her candidates by the aforementioned aspirants clearly showed their preparedness and determination to win this September governorship ticket of APC in Oyo State.

Our investigation also revealed that Adelabu's gesture to reach out to all was borne out of his dedication and loyalty to the party and Governor Abiola Ajimobi. A close aide who spoke with by our correspondent said that his boss is always ready to give his best to the party and the Government of Oyo State led by Governor Ajimobi.

As we count down to the party's governorship primaries in September, we cannot wait to find out who will eventually fly the APC ticket among the top-four governorship hopefuls.

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Adebayo Kareemot
(Editor-in-Chief, The National Expo Magazine)