Reporting News and Opinions
MC Oluomo, born Musiliu Ayinde Akinsanya on March 14, 1975, in Oshodi, Lagos, embodies a classic rags-to-riches narrative intertwined with the raw mechanics of street power, union politics, and partisan loyalty in Nigeria. His legacy is polarizing: celebrated by supporters as a self-made leader, philanthropist, and champion of transport workers, yet criticized by opponents as a symbol of thuggery, electoral intimidation, and impunity.
What should have been a routine anti-smuggling enforcement - fake chassis number, alleged unpaid duty of N74 million on a vehicle valued at N298 million - turned into a full-blown constitutional crisis.
These tactics blended fiscal innovation, technocratic recruitment, institutional reform, political networking, and strategic confrontation with the federal government. They created the so-called “Lagos Model”, a proof-of-concept for sub-national self-sufficiency that influenced his successors (Fashola, Ambode, Sanwo-Olu) and later his national approach.
In Nigeria, the legal framework explicitly criminalizes the payment of ransoms to kidnappers or terrorists.
Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed: "Last year, my nephew was kidnapped. That's my late sister's son, along with three other people. They went to a farm they had hired... and they were kidnapped just a few miles between Kaduna on the way to Kachia.
