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By Leo Igwe
In December, I visited my hometown in southeastern Nigeria and, for the first time in decades, and spent over a week in the community where I was born. I was shocked by the pervasiveness of superstition and paranoia. I came face-to-face with the dark and toxic effects of irrational fears and anxieties. Upon arrival at the family compound, I noticed that the hand of our family’s housekeeper was swollen. I asked him what happened, and he said that he had picked up some poison while working on a farm. Picked up some poison? Does one drink or pick up poison? I asked him what he meant by that. He said that was what they said. Who said? He could not specifically say. The following day, I saw a motorcyclist in the compound praying for him and pressing the swollen part of his hand, which caused more inflammation. I was outraged, I told him to get ready, to visit the hospital.
The following day, we went to a hospital, where he is currently undergoing some treatment. Some community members confirmed that people could pick up or step on ‘poisons’ that some enemies or evil people kept. And that could cause diabetic sores, stroke, or death. A woman told me that one could buy them at local markets or from some occult experts. Nobody was able to explain to me the nature or components of these poisons, what they looked like, or how they worked. I asked and inquired for details to no avail. I met people who told me partial paralysis or stroke, diabetic sores were sent; they were not natural or some medical conditions. Some people told me that enemies used this poison to kill their parents or other relatives. And in most cases, they pointed accusing finger at other family members. In my community, no one dies a natural death. Anyone who passed away was killed. In most cases, people would say: “They have killed him” or “They have gotten him at last”. Who are ‘they’? Their neighbours, their brothers and sisters. Their relatives.
People live in constant fear of being ‘poisoned’ by others, their neighbours. These fears undermine development and community well-being. People suspect and worry that someone, usually their family or community members, was after them to make them sick or kill them through occult means. They claim these evil neighbours place spiritual poisons here and there which they could pick or step on. Though they claim to be Christians, people in my community go from one church to another, from one prophet or pastor to another, from one traditional priest to another. They ‘spiritually’ fortify or protect themselves. People pray in Christian and traditional ways. They call on Jesus. They also invoke the ancestors. People in my community hire prayer warriors and engage in ritual sacrifices to ward off evil people and their alleged harmful schemes. At the end of the day, the people are trapped in a vicious circle of fear, poverty, paranoia, and exploitation. They are held hostage by ignorance and superstitious nonsense.
Con artists, mischievous individuals, and other self-styled godmen and women fleece and scam them in the name of prayer, ministration, consultation, and appeasement of gods and spirits. These unscrupulous individuals extort money from community members for deliverance and exorcism. One day, I came back and saw this strange guy standing at a corner in the compound. I inquired whom he was, and I was told that he was an itinerant prayer man. He used to go from house to house to pray for people. After praying, he would ask partakers to go inside and get him some food or money. I ignored him and went into the house. Some days later, I went to visit a neighbour and saw him conducting a prayer. He collected some sand and put it in their hands, screaming and asking god to open doors for the family. Open doors? Which doors? He would scream: “Open doors. God, Open doors for this family”. And they would repeatedly chorus: Aaaamen. Aaaamen. He went on and on, commanding God to prosper the family. He asked one of them to open the door to the living room, in an attempt to physicalize the prosperity. I observed them for a while and turned back.
I was thinking and wondering how screaming and commanding an imaginary deity would transform the fortunes of a family. I wished those partaking in that prayer could pause and think. They should know that if god had opened doors for this prayerman, he wouldn’t be loitering around in the village, making this useless supplication. One incident that opened my eyes to the hostage and devastating effects of irrational beliefs was a case of dog stool in a neighbour’s compound. A week into my stay, I got a call from my agemate. He lives in Italy, and the family’s house was close to mine. He asked if I was in the village. I said, No. I was in a neighbouring state, Akwa Ibom, traveling for a meeting. He said he wanted me to go to his family’s house. The sister woke up that morning and saw some animal dropping, and they suspected some poop. He said, Look, they have come again. That was how they killed the parents. He said the poop was not ordinary, that someone invoked the dropping to kill or make someone in his family sick.
This friend sent me a video, where his sister, a catholic nun, recounted the incident, stating that she had poured some of Rev Ebuka’s olive oil on it and someone also urinated on it. These rituals were apparently meant to neutralize the evil magic and intent. I have been wondering how olive oil and urine could disable or neutralize evil magic. The matter was reported to the community head and tabled at the village meeting. I attended the meeting for the first time. I stayed till the issue was raised. I used the opportunity to caution attendees and the community. I warned them against the dangerous and toxic effects of baseless claims and accusations of occult harm. I drew their attention to cases of families and communities in the region damaged by such suspicions. I urged them to free their minds and consciences from irrational fears, paranoia, and superstitions.
Leo Igwe directs the Advocacy for Alleged Witches
Dax Shepard shared a wild promise with his 11-year-old daughter, Delta.
“Delta was saying how she can’t wait to have a baby,” Shepard, 51, said during the Monday, January 5, episode of his “Armchair Expert” podcast. “I said, ‘When do you think you’ll have your first child, when you turn 18?’ I want to be supportive of whatever.”
When his daughter responded with “no,” Shepard guessed that Delta would have her first child between 35 and 45 years old.
“I said, ‘If you want to, we’ll freeze your eggs when you’re 18.’ I’ll pay for you to get your eggs frozen so you don’t have to think about that,” the actor continued. Shepard’s podcast cohost Monica Padman praised his “lovely” gesture.
Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell’s Most Honest Parenting Quotes
According to Shepard, his daughter is “thinking mid-20s” is the perfect age to start having kids, but both he and Padman thought that Delta would be “underestimating” how much fun she’s having at that age.
“It won’t be time for her to be in the house every night with a child,” Shepard said.
Shepard shares Delta and daughter Lincoln, 12, with wife Kristen Bell.
Both Shepard and Bell, 45, have been candid about their parenting styles in several interviews over the years. Shepard’s podcast has also offered him a platform to discuss fatherhood.
Shepard previously discussed his daughters’ future dating lives during a 2023 episode of his podcast.
The actor confessed that he’s “not going to love seeing some 25-year-old dude in boxers in my kitchen” if the girls have adult “sleepovers” with their significant others as they get older. While he is “very pro-sex” and wants his daughters to be “very happy and adventurous” when it comes to love, he doesn’t want any of it happening under his own roof.
Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard’s Most Polarizing Comments Over the Years
One thing that is OK in Shepard and Bell’s home is cursing, however.
“I fully swear in front of my kids,” the actor said during a July 2025 episode of his podcast. “They are allowed to swear, not with impunity, but when it’s called for, and they land it, and it’s in the house and not out at a restaurant, it’s OK.”
He added, “My defense of it is, I just told the girls, like, ‘Hey, these are noises that come out of your mouth, and you assign what they mean to you.’”
Shepard explained that he thinks of this way, there’s “no way” that he’s introducing the girls to cursing.
Bell previously discussed this same subject during a 2020 appearance on Good Morning America. The Frozen star recalled Lincoln saying: “You never told me f*** was a bad word,” when coming home from school one day.
“Dax has, yet again, the best response,” she recalled. “He said, ‘Listen, you’re a kid. There are a lot of things you can’t do until you’re an adult. One of them is drive my car. One of them is drink alcohol. Vote. And say swear words.’ It’s as simple as that.”
CopyRight @2009 The Maravi Post , An Eltas EnterPrises INC Company Since @2005. Publishing and Software Consulting company
Contact us: contact@maravipost.com
A woman just looking to blow out her candles lit herself up as her birthday celebration turned into a scene from “Apocalypse Now,” nearly nuking her face! Nozza Usmanova’s loved ones recently surprised her with a birthday cake, sparklers and…
Active Citizens, Asia-Pacific, Civil Society, Crime & Justice, Development & Aid, Economy & Trade, Global, Headlines, Human Rights, TerraViva United Nations, Youth
– As many of you know, out of the blue, I have been called in to assist the Interim Government led by Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus in stabilising the economy left in ruins by the fallen autocratic-kleptocratic regime that looted the banks, stole public money and robbed small investors in the capital market to siphon off billions of dollars out of the country. I had never served in a government; neither had I ever expected this opportunity. However, my UN experience and political economy understanding have been handy.
Anis Chowdhury
Reflecting back the year that we have just passed, I trust, you have been well as we wished each other at the start of 2025 the best of our health and spirit. Unfortunately, despite our earnest wish, the world was not peaceful during 2025.
Hopes and global disorder
Hopes kindled briefly for justice for the Palestinians as the European powers, including Australia (a European settler colony) were forced to recognise the Palestine State, and Narcissist Trump pushed for some peace in both Ukraine and Gaza in his mad desperation for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Yet Gaza is still being bombarded with Israel’s genocidal intent, making a mockery of deranged Trump’s rhetorical claim of achieving “peace in the Middle East for the first time in 3,000 years”, and the illegal occupation of the West Bank along with settler violence continues unabated with complete immunity in blatant violations of international laws.
Narcissist Trump sanctioned the International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ) in his desperate attempt to save Israeli war criminals, including Benjamin Netanyahu and justify Israel’s genocide and settler violence. Trump upended his assault on the rule-based order with arbitrary so-called ‘reciprocal tariff’.
Bangladesh
As for the post-fascist Hasina Bangladesh, the year 2025 began with high expectations. And as for me, the year 2025 has been extra-ordinary.
Today, I am pleased to say that we have been able to avert a full-blown crisis. Heart-felt thanks to our ‘remittance fighters’ who whole-heartedly trusted the Interim Government’s various reform initiatives. Expatriate Bangladeshis sent a record $30.04 bn in remittances in the 2024–25 fiscal year, the highest amount ever received in a single fiscal year in the country’s history. Forex reserves surged to $33 bn, hitting 3-year high as December remittances crossed $3bn. You can get a report card by Finance Advisor, Dr. Salehuddin and myself, published in the Daily Star on 18 August 2025.
Of course, not everything has been rosy. The much-hoped systemic transition remains full of uncertainty. I see systemic transition as the process of total transformation of a caterpillar inside a cocoon. We still do not know whether the ‘caterpillar in the cocoon’ will turn out to be a butterfly or a moth. People are genuinely worried as the past systemic transition opportunities were wasted.
I myself found road-blocks at every turn. Bureaucratic inertia and resistance have frustrated my efforts for genuine reforms. It has been a real-life experience of the classic British political satire, “Yes, Minister”. Like Sir Humphrey Appleby, the bureaucrats will display outwardly extra-ordinary humbleness, but will politely defy citing rules of business. Bureaucratic resistance is the main stumbling block for achieving coordination, coherence and integration in policy making and implementation, thus, causing wasteful duplications, inefficiency and lack of effectiveness.
Nevertheless, I achieved some success. One of them is the agreement to expand the voluntary Bangladesh National Cadet Corps programme to cover ALL youths (aged 18) in 10-12 years, so that we can have a disciplined workforce to be readily deployed during any national emergency. Needless to say, that this is an imperative to realise demographic dividend. We are hoping to roll out the programme from July 2026 to coincide with the July Revolution anniversary.
Despite frustrations and uncertainties, I am hopeful as I can see a seismic shift in the political dynamics of the country. This coincides with the demographic shift – the youth (15-30 years) representing nearly 30% of the population. These youths have a different vocabulary of politics; they want justice, inclusion, self-respect, and dignity – they are fiercely nationalist.
Recently martyred Hadi is their embodiment. The establishment is understandably threatened and tried to silence the youth by assassinating Hadi; but they failed to extinguish the flame, instead, everyone has become a Hadi, standing unwavering in their commitment to carry out Hadi’s mission of building a just nation where citizens can live with dignity, free from fear, subjugation, and oppression. Hadi re-centred our national conscience on Insaf: justice, dignity, and fairness not as rhetorical slogans, but as non-negotiable ethical foundations of the State and society.
In an era of moral drift, Hadi reminded the nation that no political order can last without justice at its core. He ignited a generation with civic courage and moral responsibility. Free from fear, patronage, or transactional politics, young people saw in Hadi a new model of leadership: ethical, principled, and accountable. In doing so, he reshaped the future political character of Bangladesh and moved national thinking beyond entrenched legacy power structures toward people-centric, principled governance. He challenged the inevitability of corruption and coercion, insisting instead that politics could be reclaimed as a moral vocation. His life poses an enduring question to those who seek power: Will you serve justice, or merely rule?
Let me end this year-end message with my personal tribute to Khaleda Zia, who has recently passed away after a long illness imposed on her by the vindictive Hasina regime, falsely convicting her and imprisoning in a substandard cell. Like her husband, Shaheed President Zia, she was thrust into the whirlpool of history. They never sought power; but when the responsibility fell on their shoulders, they carried out their duties to the nation whole-heartedly and selflessly; thus, they became a true statesman (woman), winning hearts and minds of their people.
Perhaps Khaleda Zia’s most enduring legacy lies in her extraordinary restraint and dignified disposition, even under severe and prolonged adversity. Her self-restraint, rooted in grace rather than weakness, distinguished her from many of her contemporaries and offers a powerful lesson for today’s often abrasive and confrontational political culture.
Warmest regards and best wishes for the New Year
IPS UN Bureau
