Contesting the Portable vs Carter Efe’s cruel ring-fight, By Tony Erha

This time round, I’m compelled to shift a steady gaze from the backwater politics and insecurity that greatly trouble Nigerians. Must it be bitter politics and unresolved insecurity all the time? There is intense migraine, where there is no respite, and no end to the afflictions. Alas, renegade politics, economic woes, and insecurity have permanently dominated the air waves and tend to mar the life of the people.

The unrestrained news of deaths, maiming and criminalities compete with political maneuvering, in this sickening season of the 2027 political transition and commotions. There is no more sanctity of human lives and normalcy. What has become usual is ceaseless news of heavy death tolls, disfigurements, political manipulations, burning and looting. Sadly, it is an endorsed insurgency of the sort, a definition of our national life that is worse than a full-scale war.

For days, the unprofessional boxing fight between Portable and Carter Efe, has dominated the happenstance chart or newsbreak of a country that is in a derisive search for peace. The news of the freestyle boxing bout of the two prominent entertainers has climbed national chart to number one. The bout, continually generates fervous, excitement and the polarization of fetishes and Christian dogmas, where Portable boasted that he was using ‘juju power’ to defeat Carter Efe and he (Carter Efe) professed he would use “Jesus power”, to floor his rival.

Well, the outcome of the fight, with Carter Efe crushing Portable, appeared to have fit the main stream narrative that “Jesus” has defeated “Juju”. The hangover ranges and rages, where Portable, who had claimed to have defeated his previous opponents with the same “Juju”, is now at the receiving end.

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Whereas Joseph Oderhohwo Efe (Carter Efe) is a comedian, online streamer and songwriter; Habeeb Okikiola Badmus (Portable) is a musician of the ZaZoo genre. Both men have a penchant for engaging the youth and other entertainment fans with their brands, which sometimes lean to excessive showmanship and magnetism. In the fiercely contested and energy-sapping encounter, held on Saturday, May 2, 2026, Carter Efe won Portable via a unanimous decision in the highly publicised event, titled ‘Chaos in the Ring 4′

In a prevalent social media comment, a poster called it “pitiless ram-head-fight”, a brand with which some money bags unruly influence the youth to money, materialism, violence and self-important illusions, where hundreds of millions of Naira were sunk in”. Another pointed out that it is similar to the “BBA reality show, which is fading away”.

But, it is not far from the usual entertainment hypes once organised by outlaw American cowboys, as a forerun to the main fight between its gun-slinging gangs. It is also suited to gunfight scenes, known with American films, once popularised by American cowboy actors of memory – such as John Wayne, Ben Johnson, Clint Eastwood, Gary Cooper, Tom Mix, Gene Autry and Sam Elliott.

Yet, Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, informs us that ‘Ram Fighting’ is a blood sport between two rams, held in a ring or open field. It is commonly in culture of Africa, Asia and Europe. In Nigeria, Uzbekistan, and Indonesia, Wikipedia also stated that it gains popularity, amongst the locals.

I have watched the ‘ram fights’ in Nigeria, where fighting rams die, after spilling blood, and the spectators jubilate. Thereby stagers of the fights betted and collect the gains or losses of the fights. Such fights pose ‘Cruelty to the Animals”. As an advocate against cruelty to ‘Animals’, with the Animal Kindness Club of the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), animals should be treated with dignity.

The Portable vs Carter Efe’s duel is ephemeral ceasefire and breathing space to an overwhelmed government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Lucky Jababan – who faces restless public agitation over the avalanche economic woes, insecurity, and social problems Nigerians face.

It’s likened to the alibi of a drunkard, that alcohol consumption makes him forget his problems. But, what he doesn’t also divulge is whether the problem is no more when the boozing has worn out, and he is himself.

Stopping problems do not require one to cause more, whereas, humanity is filled with five best strategies of problem-solving. Unfortunately, the reckless prizefighting between Portable and Carter Efe, is a delinquent official approval for the increasing violent social conduct that saturate Nigeria. For critical thinking, where do violent encounters prevail in addressing the attitudinal fisticuff of a societal?

It is like a rule that gives a people the choice to die or live. Such is the advertorial on cigarette and its addiction. “The Federal Ministry of Health Warns that smokers are liable to die young”. The question is whether it’s out of place or impossible to entirely ban smoking?

For bloodsport like boxing, wrestling, kickboxing etc., with lethal side effects like the Parkinson’s disease, brain and tissue damage, and untimely deaths, there are rules.

Once upon a time, I wanted to prove a point to my wife that the wrestling fights she often watched on network television, including the melee; free-for-all-brawls, weren’t make-believe. I got a ticket for her to watch a wrestling tournament, organised by Felix Okugbe, a late sportswriter and some other promoters, with the Raypower/AIT giving it a live coverage in an indoor sports hall of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

It turned out to be a terrible incident of regrets that I still haven’t overcome. Greco-Roman wrestling of summersaults and the American free-styles, started with thrills, ovations and cat calls. My wife was getting to the reality of the things I told her, when the worst happened.

A young wrestler called Indomitable Fearless, died instantly, in one of the supportive slams, after the medics failed to revive him. It was agonizing moment for all, and a torture to comfort my wife and getting her out of the venue, in a jiffy. Until date, wrestling bouts are hardly watched in my house.

But, blood sport has its warning like the youth are warned not to carry out in schools and at home, the physical actions of wrestling they watch on television.

Yet, entertainment exercises that insult sensibility and are fraught with dangers should be avoided, where the rules of the games are also strictly enforced.

Pointedly, there are misgivings to the slipshod fight between Portable and Cater Efe. This is, nevertheless, raised by a Nigerian woman, identified on the Facebook as Nne Sophia; “Boxing is a regulated and dangerous sport”.

She condemned how the two celebrities, who are not professional boxers, were allowed to face-off, without following some boxing rules. She decried a dangerous punch Carter Efe gave Portable, on the back of his head, called a “rabbit punch”. “This is a very dangerous thing to do as it can lead to serious disability or death. The back of the head, ‘occiput’, is where the brainstem that controls our vital body functions like breathing and our heart rate is located”