The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

  • Preventing gridlock on Lagos-Ibadan expressway

    Preventing gridlock on Lagos-Ibadan expressway

    Anyone who frequently travels on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway which also leads to the northern states and which branches eastward to Benin and the eastern parts of the country to  Delta, Rivers and important cities like Port Harcourt,  Aba, Calabar, Enugu  etc. would know this is the arterial road that links the rest of Nigeria with Lagos.  This easy access is very important in the overall economy of Nigeria. This means that the road should not be seen in its importance to the southwest alone but to the geo-strategic significance of the road to Nigeria.

    Comparing the development of the road in the manner of Apapa gridlock should give palpitation to the planners of the development economics of Nigeria. Apapa is the major entrepôt of Nigeria in the sense that 90 percent of the goods coming to Nigeria come in through the port. This in itself is due to bad planning and lack of bold imagination of Nigeria’s leaders since independence.

    I am not going to blame the British, our colonial masters who left this place 66 years ago. This is long in time for us as inheritors of bad colonial planning to help ourselves and not blame those who came for their own reasons and after having finished with us, left us alone when our leaders pushed them out perhaps because the nature of imperialism in this part of the world did not require physical presence before their economic rewards could still be realized.

    I think I have made my point that power in the hands of innovative and imaginative leadership would have seen us make hop step and jump to what is required in these days of knowledge economy.

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    From Lagos up to Sagamu and onward to Iperu in Ogun State on both sides of the so-called express road are to be found industries haphazardly located on both sides of the road. This development definitely makes the government of Ogun State happy and other Nigerians in other states of the federation probably envy Ogun State for attracting this bevy of industries which must be good for the internal revenue of Ogun State and the federation as a whole. But at what expense?

    Now this express road where millions pass through daily is being turned into parking place like Apapa port. In this place, long articulated trucks turn anyhow against the run of traffic and many escape head-on collision through the grace and mercy of God.  Admittedly, we have not reached the situation of Apapa where for lack of movement drivers spread mats under their vehicles and sleep their time away! This need not happen if we plan very well before action.

    We should always factor into whatever action we take the sociology of the Nigerian people. Our people do not think about others when they drive on the roads. This is why slow moving trucks drive on the inner side of the road for fast driving leaving the outside part of the road for wrongful overtaking. Could it be our drivers get driving licences without test? In any case, many of the trailer drivers are absolute illiterates. 

    I honestly believe that the whole country needs to be taught the ordinary ideas of civics. Perhaps thieves in government need to be taught that stealing is not only bad but it is also a corrosion of the society. Why should a single person in society build a house for a single family at the cost of billions of naira and declare it open for poor people to gawk and look at while religious leaders are invited to pray for further prosperity of the owner knowing as we all do, that the mansion is a manifestation of the stealing going on in the oil industry while the people in the oil producing areas languishing in want and poverty?

    I congratulate the president of this difficult country, Nigeria for having the vision to embark on the Lagos – Calabar road; he should also at the same time focus on the Badagry – Sokoto road which is equally important. Whenever these two roads are finished, whether in our times or not, history will celebrate those who execute a vision that many of us egg heads have had for a long time.

    The Lagos – Ibadan express road linking the port city with the rest of the country remains in my own estimate, a scandal to forward planning and imagination. I shudder to think about what happens to our economy if the bridges over Ogun River were to collapse thereby cutting the road off from Lagos. If we plan for the above scenario, we should have put the road to Abeokuta and Ibadan to excellent and ready state and perhaps the Epe-Lagos alternative road in a state of readiness through federal government take-over of any of the sections of these roads not presently under federal jurisdiction.

    I remember when I was in Germany as ambassador of our potentially great country, the German Chancellor Herr  Helmut Kohl created what he called “the ministry of the future “and put it under a young lawyer to dream about the future and what would be needed to cope with it. I will like this innovative approach be made to the future development of Nigeria. For defence purposes we need easily motorable roads for the defence of Lagos in case of enemy seizure of the city and its ports. The Lagos – Abeokuta to Ibadan express easily recommends itself and so does the Lagos – Epe – Ibadan branching off in Ijebu-Ode to link the Benin and the eastern provinces of Nigeria. This is the way to plan for a future scenario that goes beyond our expectations that what we have now will always be up to the mark of securing the country against possible enemies. The way we do things now take life too leisurely. We must begin to think out of the box as they say.

    To come back to where we began, efforts must be made to prevent the gridlock of Apapa being repeated on the Lagos – Ibadan road because of our search for local and external investment. We must prevent this by all means why we begin serious planning to having alternative link roads to the hinterland of Nigeria from Lagos and not put all our eggs in the fragile Lagos – Ibadan  express way.

  • By their fruits

    By their fruits

    Before they became politicians, they were the people’s nemesis. It was themselves first and everything centred around them. The good things of life must be for them and their family members only. They have lived on the state for eons and are not ready to let go. These days, they parade themseoves as lovers of the people, the same people they oppressed and suppressed in the eighties.

    Now in the political era that started in 1999, these mean men masquerading as the best things to happen to the country since the return to democracy over 26 years ago have come to see themselves as social crusaders. Can you imagine the tormentors of yesterday becoming the crusaders of today? Do not be deceived. Their crusading is all for power.

    They desperately want power. It is not that they were never in power before. They wielded power not too long ago, but did nothing to improve the lot of the same people that they claim are now “hungry”. Some of them even say they too are “hungry”, even after being in power for 24 years at a go! If the masses are indeed “hungry” to borrow their word, these fat and well-fed ‘hungry’ politicians should search themselves and come up with the truth of when the ‘hunger’ started.

    The masses of Nigerians have been hungery for years. Hungry for the good things of life, such as well-equipped schools, hospitals, decent homes and companies where they can work and make a living to take care of themselves and their families. Oh! May be the people were not hungry when David Mark, then a military officer and Minister of Communications, said ‘telephone is not for the poor’. Since he joined politics, he has tried to rephrase the statement. He claimed he never meant it that way. So, how did he mean it?

    Why did he not make the denial then in the eighties? Why wait till the return of democracy to correct his Freudian slip? The people cannot be deceived. They can see through his gimmick to sweeten things now in order to get them to his side. He now heads the lowly fancied, African Democratic Congress (ADC), a coalition of spent politicians, who are never tired of trying their luck for power in every election year. Mark was Senate president for eight years under the now disintegrated Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). His eight years in office was half of the 16 that PDP held power. The party had vowed to rule for 60 years before it was brought down to earth in 2015.

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    Since then, the party has been comatose, with many members like Mark; its presidential candidate in 2023, Atiku Abubakar, and his Labour Party (LP) counterpart, Peter Obi, seeking solace in ADC. With them in their new home is John Odigie-Oyegun, a former governor of Edo State, who hit the limelight in the famous 1984 case of Saidu Garba versus the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) when he on several occasions disobeyed the orders of Justice Yahya Jinadu of the Lagos High Court.

    Jinadu was no ordinary judge. He was courageous and bold  as they come. He brooked no nonsense and was not ready to allow any person no matter how powerful to trample upon his court. Oyegun was then the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. His ministry oversaw the fire service. Garba was divisional fire officer at Onikan, Lagos when the nearby 32-storey Nigeria External Telecommunications (NET) building went up in flames on January 24, 1983.

    He was interdicted over the incident. His interdiction ended up in Jinadu’s court. The judge ordered Garba’s reinstatement. Oyegun flatly refused to obey the order.Oyegun’s lawyer from the Federal Ministry of Justice, who also later became a judge, indulged him.

    Jinadu was shocked to his marrows. He wonderd at the lawyer’s attitude, and disrobed him not once,  but twice in open court. Sadly, in the end, ‘big manism’ won, as Oyegun disobeyed all the court orders. Though, Jinadu’s orders were set aside on appeal  by 2-1, the judge laughed last at the Supreme Court where the verdict was unanimously (5-0) restored. But, before the victory, he had been forced out of work. His six-month notice of resignation to allow him conclude part-heard cases was rejected by the Buhari junta which directed him to go immediately.

    It is quite interesting to see the same Oyegun and his ilk today calling themselves respecters and upholders of the rule of the law. How can anybody be that if they do not obey court orders? What kind of manifesto and policy will someone like Oyegun who is the chairman of his party’s committee of the same name fashion for the association? The morning, it is said, shows the day. If you were once a disrespecter of court orders, you will always be one. Democracy cannot change that. How can it change an innate attribute mastered as an art as a top civil servant?

    The combination of  Oyegun and Mark at the top echelon of ADC is unholy. It is forged in chicanery and it cannot get the party anywhere. Oyegun might have gotten away with disobeying court orders some 42 years ago, but he and his party are unlikely to escape the people’s wrath at the polls in 2027 for past indiscretions. What have they got to offer than their legacies of disobedience of court orders and telephone is not for the poor? Voters are waiting at the polls to remind them of those legacies.

  • Their craze for ‘number one’

    Their craze for ‘number one’

    It is in the character of politicians to be in front, to be the number one. Even, where they are not the numero uno, they still see themselves as such. Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara started what can be called the game of number one when he picked up his membership card of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Apparently to silence mockers that he has no political base, he brandished his card and with a smile intoned: “My membership card is 001. I am now number one in APC in Rivers State”. Then, came ADC’s Peter Obi’s turn to play the same card. While campaigning for a LP candidate in the forthcoming council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Obi said he would be contesting for “number one” in 2027.

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    Obi might have done that to impress the Obidients, members of the amorphous group behind his political ministry. They supported him in 2023 when he contested on LP platform and have warned him against joining ADC if he won’t get the party’s presidential ticket in 2027. Is there any elective post called number one? I am contesting for president is I am contesting for president. Any reason for the cryptic signal?

  • Nigeria’s digital plague

    Nigeria’s digital plague

    The ‘hustle’ is neither gross nor cruel when the commodity is the whore ─ or video vixen, if you like. Profit is neither sinful nor inhumane when the exploited is an underage child presented as a piece of flesh.

    Free enterprise is fair game when creatives defy religious and tribal strictures to commercialise genitalia for your viewing pleasure. The new pornography is democratic and interestingly daring. 

    Consider, for instance, the curious case of a Nigerian skit-making duo─mother and her son─who have become popular among high school children.

    Just recently, a widowed neighbour sought my attention, urging me to counsel her grandsons and “set them straight.” She had stumbled on the 12 and 13-year-olds, respectively, while they watched videos of the Nigerian mother and her teenage son dry-humping each other.

    The mother, presumably in her late thirties or early forties, is seen frolicking with her son in a sexually suggestive way in a series of videos. The woman, evidently driven by her taboo sex fetish, has produced a series of videos in which she is playfully groped, smooched and dry-humped directly on the butts by her teenage son.

    The boy, apparently in his early teens, goes after his scantily clad mother as she performs house chores or reclines in bed, hops on her back and dry-humps her buttocks with feverish gusto. This takes place in a series of skits in which the mother parades in a flimsy wrapper or shorts.

    And as is often the case with purveyors of decadent media fare, they have gotten more daring. A more recent video shows the mother bathing with her son, naked, in the bathroom. The boy is seen sponging her back with delight. Predictably, her timeline gets flooded, as you read, with the commentary of viewers egging them on, some applauding their closeness, some pleading desperately for a video in which the mother eventually has sex with her son.

    Read Also: PDP condemns Senate’s rejection of electronic transmission of results

    Apparently, the ‘hustle’ is neither abominable nor gross when the Nigerian mother molests her adolescent son, subjecting herself to playful, intense smooching─anything to generate online engagement, while sating netizens’ unconcealed and hidden sex fetishes.

    Forget the mother-son duo; there are more daring skit-makers masquerading as “content creators” in Nigeria’s virtual space. Just this morning, a skit-making couple posted a video of themselves. In the clip, the male’s head is buried between the naked thighs of his female partner. A few seconds afterwards, he lifts his head to show his mouth and nose dripping with milk-like fluid suggestive of female ejaculation.

    And you must have encountered perhaps more daring videos of married couples self-identifying as “content creators” even while producing soft porn. The new porn arena features the participation of the Nigerian family men and women, boys and girls, grannies, wives and husbands.

    The rise of sexually suggestive video skits in Nigeria is linked to content commodification, digital sexual objectification, and the pursuit of viral popularity on social media platforms. This trend is the new pandemic, corrupting youths and clashing with traditional mores.

    Porn is the new plague across Africa, as evidenced in the number of lewd content produced by Africans and broadcast on Facebook, Tiktok to mention a few. There is a current viral narrative of a Zimbabwean girl who flashes her bare genitals before the camera to the viewing pleasure of her numerous fans on Facebook.

    The newfound erotica, fondly dubbed “soft work,” is a vast virtual graveyard where morality has gone to die. Nigerian “content creators” personify more than a mere change in taste or a rebellion against prudishness. They constitute a civilisational signal flare, showing how moral imagination is being commercially repurposed, to the detriment of personhood.

    In Nigeria and much of Africa, the human body is constantly remodelled as a punchline. Sexual humiliation is rebranded as humour, and intimacy, once a modest human affair, is commercialised. The public sphere has been turned into a decadent peep show all in the name of skit-making, satire, and digital entrepreneurship. This did not begin with the internet. The internet simply removed the gatekeepers.

    Skit-making now revolves around simulated sexual acts, voyeurism, and the theatrical violation of boundaries. Couples perform intimacy for clicks and families appear as ensembles in productions that blur the line between play and exposure. Privacy is monetised and defended as hustle; even children are sometimes used as props and participants in skits that should never require their presence.

    It’d be lazy to simply describe this as moral decay and move on. Decay implies passivity, as though something simply rotted on its own. What is happening here is more deliberate. It is a new economy of attention that feeds on shock, rewards extremity, and punishes restraint. It is capitalism stripped of shame, mining the intimate zones of the human body for a profit.

    Pornography has always been political. Not because it shows sex, but because it shows power. Andrea Dworkin once argued that porn is not about pleasure but possession—about reducing the human being to an object that can be consumed without consequence.

    That argument may sound old-fashioned to a generation raised on filters and fast data. But its relevance has only deepened in an era that dresses filth as empowerment. Women are told that they are choosing visibility and matching their male peers in relevance. Youths are told they are choosing “survival” through “ingenuity.”

    Yet, choice without morality belies freedom; it accentuates drift. This drift had gotten so bad as far back as 2023, when a Nigerian teenage girl made a sordid show of riding a cucumber─cowgirl style in her mother’s kitchen till she orgasmed. Afterwards, she waved the cucumber thick with her milky discharge in front of the camera, before sauntering off.

    One of the most uncomfortable truths in this moment is that many women and girls are not merely victims in this economy but also its drivers, anchors, and beneficiaries. This fact is often avoided for fear of appearing judgmental. But avoiding it only infantilises women and strips them of moral agency. Participation in one’s own commodification does not erase the harm; it intensifies it.

    The themes that dominate most skits are telling: simulated rape, voyeurism, incest, adultery, and transactional sex. Power games are played for laughs as violence softens into farce. What has shifted is not merely who plays the villain but the thrill of playing one. Transgression is now marketed as equality and progress.

    This is why the argument that “youths are just being creative with the tools available to them” is unjustifiable. Creativity is not value-neutral. Every creative act intones an ethic or vice, whether acknowledged or not. The same mentality that justifies digital smut as survival justifies drug trafficking, cybercrime, ritual violence, and other predatory economies as means to preferred ends.

    The internet, in this sense, is not the cause but the amplifier; a glittering façade, like the casinos and brothels of older empires, promising escape while numbing society to its cost.

    A 2025 study by Raymond Asuquo of Nasarawa State University, Evaluation of Social Media Skits and Emerging Behaviours among Youths in Nigeria, examined widely shared skits across major platforms and found a clear pattern: sexually explicit content and risky portrayals are increasingly normalised, driven largely by the quest for monetisation and online visibility. The study warns that such content reshapes youth behaviour, blurs ethical boundaries, and raises urgent questions about responsibility, regulation, and cultural survival. Creativity, the research notes, has become entangled with harm.

    And that is as bad as the story gets.

  • PDP and the price for impunity

    PDP and the price for impunity

    Impunity is PDP’s other name. With the party’s latest act of impunity ending in a fiasco in Ibadan High Court last Friday, the question on the lips of Nigerians concerned about the health of our democracy and party system are asking is what next?

    Following a suit filed by some aggrieved members of the party’s factional leaders late last year, Justice James Omotosho had ordered their Ibadan convention to be halted until the party complies with the statutory requirements of its own constitution, the Nigerian Constitution, and the Electoral Act. He therefore directed the PDP “to go back and put its house in order, and to give the statutory 21-day notice to INEC before it can proceed with the proposed convention.”

    Similarly, Sule Lamido, an elder of the party claiming he was denied the opportunity to purchase a nomination form to contest for the party’s chairmanship, in violation of the PDP constitution and guidelines, also secured a Federal High Court injunction suspending  the convention.

    But without first vacating any of the judgments, PDP sought and secured the help of an Ibadan High Court which, on November 4, 2025, cleared the party to proceed with the national convention.

    When Kabiru Tanimu Turaki’s attempt to enforce his faction’s Ibadan phyric victory was resisted by the other faction that had taken control of their Abuja Wadata national secretariat, he sought recognition of the Ibadan convention and validation of the NWC that emerged at the convention from another Ibadan Federal High Court presided over by Uche Agomoh. However, instead of the relief sought, the court last Friday nullified the November 15 -16, 2025 convention on the ground it was conducted in flagrant disobedience to two subsisting judgments of the same court. Turaki and other officials purportedly elected at the convention were barred by the court from parading themselves as national officers of the party forthwith.

    Predictably, Turaki’s faction was defiant declaring “We are aware of the judgment of the Federal High Court” but, “Notwithstanding this judgment, the Turaki–led Peoples Democratic Party, which emerged from the Ibadan convention, remains legally intact and unshaken, as we await the authoritative pronouncement of the appellate courts”.

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    It is often said those destined for ruin, are often out of sheer pride driven to act irrationally. With timetable for the 2027 election already released by INEC and with otherwise loyal PDP party members in search for alternative platform to escape a PDP sinking ship in droves, one would have thought these times call for sober reflection with reason prevailing among PDP warring factional leaders.

    It is not as if PDP deserves tears of Nigerians if its fate is now sealed. Nigerians, except those playing the ostrich, still remember their ongoing nightmare was a direct result of 16 years of PDP deliberate and calculated assault on our economy and the general health of our nation. It was their confiscation and conversion of our national resources to personal use of their members that brought our nation to ruins  With air of invulnerability, they went on to share the nation’s national patrimony kept in their temporary care for our grandchildren  and great grandchildren. If death is the wages of sin, that PDP deserves s to die is not debatable.

    But Nigerians, a much forgiving people did not want PDP to die. They want it to live even if not totally out of altruism. It is on record that for the first 16 years of the fourth republic, PDP became a threat to our budding democracy achieved through intense struggle, sweat and blood. It was an era of thriving anti-democratic elements such as Olusegun Obasanjo, David Mark  Atiku Abubakar, A Ali,  men who purely for sadistic humour irreverently danced on the tombs of those who made the supreme sacrifice that democracy may thrive in our land.

    Of course there are other reasons Nigerians should have no restraint singing the traditional night prayer- Nunc Dimittis for the passage of PDP if that is its ordained fate.  For instance this is a party of warring factional leaders for whom honour counts for little when they are engaged in war of attrition over illegal sharing of our national resources. It was PDP leaders that told Nigerians which of them stole what.

    It was Obasanjo’s PDP children including Atiku Abubakar and Dino Melaiye who first attempted to disrobe their father on the street by accusing him of alleged corruption. The former alleged his principal directed him to deploy state resources to buy a car for his concubine and the later asking the following rhetorical question following their principal’s labelling of the National Assembly as an assemblage of ‘pen robbers’: “Has Baba forgotten it was not the 8th assembly that collected ‘Ghana must go bags’ from him for his failed third term debacle?

    It was Bukola Saraki who became the whistle-blower in the fuel subsidy scam through which PDP stalwarts and their siblings defrauded the nation of billons of naira. It was also Saraki who personally confessed that he literarily ‘stole’ the presidency of the 8th assembly. It was David Mark who betrayed his greed by going to court to pre-empt EFCC that had raised question of impropriety in his process of buying the senate mansion, a national patrimony which did not fall under items for sale under government monetization policy.

    PDP alive is probably as dangerous as the one that will ultimately end up in hell. But for our own selfish interest, we need it alive to give legitimacy to our budding democracy which thrives better under a multi-party system. This is why in spite of PDP capital sins, Nigerians have quietly prayed and hoped it stops digging itself into the hole.

    Unfortunately neither Nigerians’ past fervent prayers nor its envisioning of better future for PDP has stopped it from self-destruct.

    It is for instance on record that in 2013, Atiku Abubakar, ever in search of presidential platform at every election season , along with Usman Bugaje, his adviser, pulled out of PDP to join forces with Bukola Saraki and some PDP governors to form nPDP. They eventually joined forces with newly formed APC. That betrayal of their party was all untested APC needed to collect power from weakened PDP.

    In 2019, with  characteristic display of air of invulnerability of the Obasanjo and Tony Anenih’s  era of ‘do or die elections’, Atiku, Saraki and their group  headed back to PDP. But with APC now consolidated in power, PDP was roundly defeated by President Buhari in spite of his-first term’s lack-lustre performance

    A leopard does not change its spots.  In 2023, PDP leaders including Atiku Abubakar, Iyorchia Ayu, David mark and Tambuwal jettisoned their party’s time-tested power rotational policy. They treated party members that disagreed with them with disdain.

    Tambuwal was Wike’s trusted ally. He, however at the last minute, came out to play the ethnic and religious card by supporting Atiku Abubakar. They did not stop hitting Wike when he was down. Despite winning 14 of the 17 votes cast by PDP leading lights for the VP slot, Atiku by-passed him and settled for Ifeanyi Okowa, the governor of oil-rich Delta State notorious for generous donations towards successive PDP presidential campaign war-chest.  Wike’s answer to Atiku’s impunity was to disallow him from campaigning in which he went on to secure for candidate Bola Tinubu.

    It was also curious that PDP did not weigh the consequences of ignoring the legitimate demand of the southeast that was the most important harvester of votes for PDP outside the north. It equally ignored the nuisance value of an opportunistic Peter Obi who, emerging from being a two-term APGA governor, quickly rose to become PDP VP candidate in 2019.

    Realising he stood no chance against Atiku in the 2023, PDP presidential primary, he migrated back home to exploit the ethnic and religious sentiments of his equally aggrieved Igbo people. Obi later moved to Lagos and other Nigerian cities with huge Igbo urban immigrants to harvest group Igbo and Christian votes that placed his Labour platform third in the election. His gain was PDP’s loss.

    It is apparent the only people that have continued to benefit from impunity since the birth of the fourth republic are its perpetrators. Everyone else including members of party oligarchy, political office holder and seekers, at the end has been a loser. Group interest and personal ambitions of party members, best achieved through compromise are frittered away through zero-sum intra-party struggle. The result is threat to the survival of party system, abuse of the judicial process and a culture of fear and heightened tension. And the cheapest solution according to Justice Omotosho of Abuja High Court is PDP putting its house in order.

  • The wages of a coup plot

    The wages of a coup plot

    The 1999 CONSTITUTI0N (as amended) makes it abundantly clear how a government can come into being or can be effectively changed. It can only be born or changed in an election that takes place every four years. Any other means of doing that, it says, is illegal, null and void ab initio (from the beginning).In effect, the framers of the Constitution had envisaged a situation where human nature may at times be at play.

    In such a situation, some risk-takers would seek to forcefully take over the government and impose themselves on the people. To check this folly, Section 1 (2) of the Constitution warns: The Federal Republic of Nigeria shall not be governed, nor shall any person or group of persons take control of the Government of Nigeria or any part thereof, except in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution. Perhaps, the legal draughtsmen were guided in their action by the experience of the trend then emerging in the world.

    By the time of the drafting of the 1999 Constitution and its 1979 precursor, the country had run through several military rules. This series of military interregnum began with the coup of January 15, 1966, which 60th tragic anniversary was celebrated some two weeks ago. The coup later plunged Nigeria into a bitter civil war in 1967.

    Nigeria has not only seen but lived the evil that the forceful takeover of government is, and has quite rightly settled for the democratic system of government. As the great Awo said: ‘the worst democracy is better than the most benevolent military regime’. Nothing can be truer than that statement. So, anybody can imagine the shock when reports of a coup plot were run by an online publication last October. Though known for its brash practice, the publication caught on like wildfire. It became a subject of discussions everywhere.

    The military which normally is taciturn when it comes to such things was drawn out. But it gave nothing away. Rather, it kept things close to its chest. Though, the discerning knew that something was amiss from what it said, they bought the official line while waiting for what would happen next. This did not take long. The country home and Abuja residence of a former state executive were searched, and some documents carted away. The man who is outside the country has remained abroad since then, despite all the chest-beating to return home in no time!

    The veil over the coup plot was removed on Monday when the military, without mincing word, confirmed that indeed there was a plot to  overthrow the government. The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) said investigations into the plot for which some officers were arrested for what it initially described as ‘indiscipline’ had been concluded and the report forwarded to the appropriate superior authority, in line with extant military regulations.

    “The findings have identified a number of officers with allegations of plotting to overthrow the government, which is inconsistent with the ethics, values and professional standards required of members of the Atmed Forces of Nigeria (AFN), DHQ said in a statement by its spokesman, Major-Gen Sumaila Uba. “Accordingly, those with cases to answer will be formally arraigned before an appropriate military judicial panel to face trial in accordance with the Armed Forces Act and other applicable service regulations”.

    The confirmation marks the beginning of another phase in the saga. Coups or rumours of coups are not usually stories that the media rush to town with. The advent of the social media, with its culture of Citizen Journalism, has changed all that. At the click of a phone button, reports whether confirmed or not, now travel at the speed of light. If there is a speed faster than that, they would have travelled at that velocity, together with its concomitant damage. The power and reach of the social media are enormous. Within the twinkling of an eye, whatever report it releases goes viral, causing panic everywhere.

    Not a few said “not again” when the online medium ran the coup plot story. Unfortunately, some influential people tried to politicise it. They wanted confirmation immediately about the plot to or else it is not true. To them, the only way they would believe that there was such a plot is for the  government to release facts and figures concerning it. It was either their way or no other way.

    Wait a minute. How does any government do such a thing when the matter was still being investigated? In order not to jeopardise investigations and in the process, destroy the career of those who may be innocent, such probes are handled discreetly until the exercise is concluded. This is an age-long military practice which has no place for politics.

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    Things have changed and we should be glad that they have. Reason: coups or reports of coups are stories that were hitherto not touched even with a 10-foot pole until the military say-so. Then, the media reported a coup plot at its own risk because there was nothing usually to back up the story. How will you say you got the story? Sources? That even makes matters worse because you have just unwittingly told them you have an ‘insider’ feeding you with information.

    The military that I know will not rest until you name that person. The only alternative is to go in for it as part of the plot since a journalist must protect his source come what may. How many Citizen Journalists will not wither under military gaze and sing like a bird, if push becomes shove? How many? The thinking is if you are not among the plotters, you will not know so much about what is purely a military affair. Coups are purely military matters. Any civilian caught in the web is also tried under military law, irrespective of his status.

    This is why in the military, coups are no tea party. They are matters of life and death. You live to tell the story, if you succeed and pay the supreme price, if you fail. Plotters know what they are going into beforehand, so they too are prepared for the worse. This is why coups are hush-hush business. Also, plotters do not discuss such matters even with their wives for the fear of a leak. They know the price of such a leak. If the plot leaks, the wife is as culpable as her husband, for not reporting to the authorities after being aware of it.

    Nonetheless, it is the trial that will determine the guilt or otherwise of the suspects in this instant case. No more, no less. May we remind those weeping more than the bereaved that the suspects’ investigation does not amount to conviction. They may yet be freed by the court martial, if they have no case to answer. Those asking for evidence of the plot should show interest in the trial so as to ensure that justice is not only done, but also seen to be done. As Nigerians, let us come together and say no more coups.

  • SL Akintola: Time is a healer

    SL Akintola: Time is a healer

    It is 60 years ago on the morning of January 15 when Chief SL Akintola was murdered on the grounds of the premier’s residence in Iyaganku Reservation, Ibadan by Captain Okoro and soldiers apparently from the military cantonment in Abeokuta who having kidnapped the deputy premier, Chief Remi Fani-Kayode, led him to accompany the murderers to the premier’s lodge. Chief Akintola refused to surrender after the initial fuselage of the soldiers.

    It is said the premier decided to come into the open space where the troops killed him. While this was going on in Ibadan, the premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello had also been killed by troops led by Major Chukuma Nzeogwu Kaduna. His wife was not spared. The commander of the 1st division of the army, Brigadier Samuel Adesujo Ademulegun with his eight months old, pregnant wife were killed in their bedroom by troops led by Major Timothy Onwuategwu while their little children watched what was happening. The second most important military man in Kaduna, Colonel Ralph Shodeinde was also killed in his house.

     Action was extended to Lagos where the military commander, Brigadier Muhammad Maimalari was killed by troops led by his Brigade Major, Emmanuel Ifeajuna. Some detachment of troops kidnapped the Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and his Finance Minister, Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh and took them to some distance on the Abeokuta-Lagos road where both were murdered and their bodies were found a few days after January 15.

    The military action was first welcomed in Nigeria, particularly in the southern part of the country where bitter politics seemed to have been the order of the day. When later the coup d’état was subject to critical analysis, the ethnic and regional dimensions became obvious, that it was a political struggle for power rather than using the vote that resorted to the use of bullets.  

    In the Western part of Nigeria where Chief Akintola was premier, the coup was celebrated as a relief from the political chaos. The genesis of the problem was the collapse of the ruling Action Group due to ideological cleavage and external manipulation by rival parties from other regions. This presented an opportunity to destroy the West and the Action Group. The NCNC that was predominantly led by the Igbo had coalesced in the centre with the predominantly Hausa party to form the federal government to monopolise power and used it to corner appointments which Chief Akintola loudly condemned.

    Getting rid of Akintola became a matter of urgent necessity because he, and first the Action Group before its breakup in 1963, had become a troublesome presence to the federal authorities. The vitriolic demonisation of Akintola by the combined NCNC and the federal government which eventually went its different ethnic ways after the federal election of 1964 during which Akintola’s political tentacles held sway in Western Nigeria when his message of inclusiveness of the constituent ethnic groups needed to be represented in the federal government began to resonate with the people.

    When the Western Nigerian elections came up in 1965, it became a “do or die” election for the two rival political formations in Nigeria namely the UPGA, formed by the remnants of the NCNC in the West, and their big Eastern faction and the Awolowo strong faction in the West and Lagos. Confronting them was the NPC juggernaut from the North and the Akintola faction of the Yoruba political machine.

     The various Nigerian minorities were split between the two groups. In this situation the election could hardly be free and the Akintola government in the West did not play the electoral politics by the books. After the election that returned Akintola to power, rioting and rebellion broke out throughout the Western Region and Lagos. It seemed to critical observers that unless serious use of power was employed, the government would have to open negotiations for power sharing in the West.

    There were rumours of troops movement and when the coup d’état of January 15, 1966 happened, it did not come to critical observers as a surprise; nevertheless it was welcomed globally with sadness because our country had a lot of promise.

    When Akintola was killed 60 years ago, he died for his belief in inclusive government and that in spite of whatever ideology we embrace, the government of the people for the people shall prevail. His remains that had been deposited in Adeoyo Hospital following his death were taken mainly by Ogbomoso people under the leadership of Prince Laoye, for burial.

    What remains of Akintola’s legacy?

    Though time is a healer, the evergreen memory of Akintola remains forever for his family and political associates and for Nigerians who now appreciate him for some of his ideas.

    He was one of the founders of the Action Group which was one of the political parties that fought for the independence of Nigeria. When the country became independent in October 1, 1960, he was premier of the Western Region, the most financially prosperous and infra-structurally advanced part of the Federal Republic. Right from the formation of the Action Group, he stood out as a federalist as against the NCNC of Nnamdi Azikiwe who stood out for a unitary government. Awolowo had captured the feeling of the Yoruba in 1947 when he wrote his book Path to Nigerian Freedom and argued that there were no Nigerians as there were Frenchmen, Germans or Japanese and that Nigeria was simply a geographical expression. Akintola had said this much earlier when he was editor of the Lagos-based Daily Service. Akintola had used his position as an editor in the 1940s well before the formation of the Action Group to oppose Azikiwe’s dream of united Nigeria and had agreed with what Abubakar Tafawa Balewa was to say later that united Nigeria was “British intention” for the country.

    Akintola was a realist. He had lived in the North as a young man and he spoke Hausa fluently and understood the traditions and mores of the Hausa and held the view that they were totally different from those of the Yoruba despite the fact that the religion of Islam was embraced equally by about 50 percent of the people just like the Hausa.  He also saw the Igbo culture of village democracies with little respect for a hierarchy of chiefs and elders and kings being totally alien to the Yoruba but he felt whatever differences existed in the country could be harmonised under a federal structure of government. He found a common ground in the belief in a federal structure with the Hausa Fulani leadership.

    He regarded the federal constitution that took us to independence as not protective of regional autonomy enough. Indeed it was he who moved the successful motion of independence in 1957 after the defeat of the earlier one moved by Chief Anthony Enahoro in 1953.

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    Akintola’s struggle between 1962 and 1966 can be explained in his struggle for inclusivity in government at the federal level as well as respect for state autonomy. Unfortunately the struggle also included peaceful survival of his government at home which he did everything to protect despite war declared on his state by people from outside until it became a case of all things were fair in war. After all, he was the Are Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land.

    Both Awolowo and Akintola families had been friends for a long time and are still friends even today even though supporters are still crying more than the bereaved!  His embrace of northern power structure was based on political realism rather than just surrendering to forces arraigned against him and what he considered against Yoruba interest.

    For anybody interested in the development of Nigerian language, Akintola comes before everybody. His mastery of English, Hausa and Yoruba makes him a natural nationalist in the struggle against British imperialism and for the soul of Nigeria. He was a liberal in the full meaning of the word. As Sir John Rankine, the last British governor of colonial western Nigeria said of him, Akintola was a master of ambiguity arguing issues from two opposing sides convincingly. The governor apparently forgot Akintola was a successful lawyer in Lagos before going into politics after years of teaching at Baptist Academy in Lagos, following these by years as editor of a successful newspaper. He was so much in control of the Yoruba language that many people in the university community felt his service as an exponent of the Yoruba language would have been more rewarding than the thankless engagement in politics.

    He was also a practicing Christian who avoided violence as much as much as possible. Some hot heads in his party used to openly tell him that Fani-Kayode would have done a better job in putting down the rioting and rebellion in Yoruba land in 1965 following an election which the people felt was rigged in favour of the premier’s party.

    Perhaps the most enduring legacy is his idea of inclusivity because he believed you must have a country first and a people who felt they have a stake in the country before practising whatever ideology that was fashionable at the time.

    The above is part of a brief talk delivered at the University of Ibadan Conference Centre.

  • To mend, not tear apart

    To mend, not tear apart

    Nothing about 2026 feels incidental. Nigeria does not step into it so much as it drifts here, bearing the weight of a previous year that refused to end quietly.

    The country arrives with receipts folded into its pocket—grievances, catastrophes, breakthroughs and aspirations—each rustling to fate’s torrid leash.

    This is not a threshold crossed cleanly. It is a season entered with the gait of a people who have learned to listen for danger and opportunity at the same time.

    Politics hums beneath ordinary speech, turning casual conversations into coded rehearsals. Every movement of Nigerians and the state seems angled toward a reckoning that lies a year ahead.

    The 2027 elections have leaked into the present, colouring legislation and inspiring alliances. Some of these have been accentuated as “betrayal” by supporters of Rabiu Kwankwanso, who label his longtime ally and Kano Governor Abba Yusuf’s switch from the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). But Camp Yusuf claims political self-preservation.

    Lest we forget Rivers Governor Sim Fubara’s frantic lunge for survival by dumping the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to hoist the APC flag in the State House. Fubara joined APC, not out of love or ideological sympathy, but with the hope of quashing threats from his estranged political godfather and FCT Minister Nyesom Wike and a State Assembly bent on impeaching him.

    Forget politicians seeking self-preservation; our survival as a nation is critically tied to this year, 2026. But do Nigerians sense this instinctively? A republic can feel when it is being tested, after all.

    This is the year when institutions reveal their efficiency depths, perhaps. Habits, hardened over decades, will surface under pressure. The reflex to litigate politics, manage dissent instead of listening to it, and celebrate reforms faster than outcomes can mature, will meet a citizenry whose patience has thinned into hostile scrutiny.

    On hostile scrutiny, the jury perpetually decides against the run of political and social realities. Thus, the inclination of large segments of the populace to imagine the worst about Nigeria despite undeniable flashes of progress across crucial sectors.

    Amid palpable tension, the ruling party, APC, enters the year psyched with ambition yet plagued by unease. Size, in Nigerian politics, has never guaranteed coherence. It breeds factions, competing centres of gravity, and rival interpretations of loyalty. Party congresses loom, and with them the familiar permutations: parallel meetings, disputed delegates, and consensus discovered after dissent has been buried. Courts, once again, will be invited to settle quarrels that party execs and ideology fail to resolve.

    Opposition politics moves differently, less encumbered by incumbency yet equally haunted by fragmentation. Economic pressure has given opposition language an edge it lacked in easier years. Inflation, transport costs, and food prices no longer sound like abstract failures. The impact is felt in kitchens and registers at bus stops and fuel stations.

    Whether opposition figures cohere into a credible alternative matters less, for now, than the fact that competition itself has grown volatile. The certainty of outcomes has thinned as opposition politics, once strategised and choreographed, now improvises with guerrilla tactics.

    Inside the National Assembly, re-election anxiety influences behaviour as legislators listen more closely to party structures than to public mood. Oversight softens, and controversial bills travel faster than persuasion ever could. The logic is simple: survival first, principle later.

    This atmosphere makes law itself feel provisional. Nowhere is this clearer than in the arguments surrounding taxation. The tax reform laws have exposed a deeper crisis than statutory interpretation. Civil society question process as lawmakers dispute texts. The Presidency distances itself even as the chair of the tax reform committee offers clarification. Each political actor attempts to project authority, yet the real issue lies elsewhere.

    Trust becomes scarce in the Nigerian clime, especially when citizens suspect that laws can shape-shift between passage and publication. Taxation ultimately thrives on belief; thus, compliance may congeal to resentment and even sabotage, if distrust persists. This is the terrain 2026 inherits.

    Through it all, the economy splays into the year bearing bruises. Subsidy removal, currency volatility, and inflation have morphed from economic shocks to social conditions. Small businesses have collapsed and those that haven’t remain locked in an intense struggle against doomsday contingence. As households learn resilience, the government’s mantra of hope remains disciplined and insistent. Nigerians would rather “hope” translates to relief.

    The proposed 2026 federal budget stands at roughly N58.18 trillion, ambitious in scale yet constricted by obligation. Debt servicing alone consumes N15.52 trillion, and the deficit is projected at about 4.28 per cent of GDP. Nigeria’s public debt, reported at N152.4 trillion by mid-2025, shadows every promise made at the podium.

    A vast federal budget, heavy debt service obligations, and a persistent deficit sketch a portrait of ambition under constraint. Public debt figures require governments at all levels to demonstrate that borrowing translates into tangible improvement. As the pressures of reform travel downward, impacting citizens already stretched thin, anger will not stem solely from hardship.

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    Nigerians have endured difficulty before; what stings is asymmetry. Sacrifice preached downward the economic totem pole, while insulation persists above. Calls for citizenry endurance must be matched by ruling class restraint. Evidence of transparent accounting and governance will matter more than rhetoric.

    Yet, cynicism persists through an unrelenting stream of discontent in the civic sphere. Social commentary is rife with the narratives of doomsayers: politicians, activists, and frustrated elites lustful for power or its fruits. These voices rage with venom, amid insecurity, spewing defeatism and prophesying Nigeria’s inevitable collapse. Behind their calls for change, subsists self-interest; the bitter taste of being left out of the corridors of influence. They are neither patriots nor prophets, but casualties of their unfulfilled desires. And the youth, in their vulnerability, have become their prey.

    Any youth that emulates them will simply burden himself with disillusionment and perpetual cynicism until he can ill afford the luxury of dreaming. It’s about time Nigerians dumped cynicism and embraced enduring optimism. The love of country, though seemingly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things, resonates louder than the critic’s flamethrower words.

    The Good Nigerian does not look for scapegoats. He does not sneer from the sidelines, unwilling to engage unless conditions are perfect. He understands that patriotism is not in the cynical condemnation of everything but in the conscious, deliberate acts of sacrifice that improve the polity one gesture at a time.

    Imagine the speed with which fuel stations increased the pump price of petrol from N735 – N750 per litre to N839 – N850 per litre; how nice it would be if they could rapidly effect price cuts when fuel price plummets.

    Nigeria’s problem is not entirely shortcoming in governance but the absence of goodwill among the citizenry. The political elite did not fall from outer space or descend from the heavens; they are products of Nigerian homes, schools, worship houses and neighbourhoods. If we demand better leadership, we must, first, become better citizens.

    More Nigerians could learn to emulate perhaps the Hausa tricycle driver who, in March 2025, scrawled on his tricycle: Ramadan Discount: From N200 to N100 per Drop. He did this while prices of fuel and food staples skyrocketed.

    This year, and onward, Nigeria needs more men and women who’d rather give than take; who would rather mend than tear apart; who would rather chart the path to a brighter tomorrow than wail in the darkness and curse the times from a soapbox.

  • Malami & Mohammed: Haunted by their past

    Malami & Mohammed: Haunted by their past

    The late president, Muhammadu Buhari rode to power in 2015 with goodwill of Nigerians, defeating a sitting president for the first time in our nation’s history. Nigerians saw in him the answer to the overarching problems of the country viz indiscipline, corruption and the threat of Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast and banditry and immigrant Fulani terrorism in the north-central and northeast.

    Despite his anti-democratic credentials as former military head of state and perceived religious fanaticism, Nigerians saw in Buhari, a leader who loved and had faith in a country whose unity and indivisibility he fought for as a foot soldier marching from Makurdi to Port Harcourt; and on whose behalf he suffered the indignity of being removed from power and dumped in detention for standing with Nigerians that roundly rejected IMF and its ‘conditionalities’ including turning Nigeria into a dumping ground for foreign goods. 

    Unfortunately, by 2023, with the near-collapse of the economy due to massive corruption and incompetence, social dislocations and division as a result of terrorist onslaught that set ethnic nationalities against each other, Buhari had frittered away the goodwill of Nigerians that heralded him to power in 2015.

    The failure of Buhari Presidency stemmed from his incompetence. Those he romantically described as his ‘loyal gatekeepers’ who did not share his pan-Nigeria world view but decided to hide within his government to serve self or other tendencies soon hijacked his government despite repeated warning by his wife.

    In this regard, we can start by identifying Buhari’s ‘friends’ that turned out to be his nemesis beginning with Abubakar Malami, his Attorney General and Minister of Justice who, to many, defined Buhari’s presidency; Bala Mohammed, a non-Fulani who decided to fight the Fulani war like a slave, Hadi Abubakar Sirika, former aviation minister dragged before Justice S.C Orji’s FCT High Court in October 2025 over alleged N2.7billion theft; Godwin  Emefiele who on December 2, 2025 forfeited total assets of about N12.18 billion, including 753 Abuja duplexes, plus another $4, 7 million and N830 million.

    Now let us take a journey through memory to examine some of the excesses of Malami who in power forgot that power is transient and became indifferent to the verdict of history.

    The first evidence of Malami’s acquisitive tendencies came to light with petitions over MTN fine of N780 billion by NCC. When Malami and Adebayo, the Minister of Communication were interrogated by the Senate Committee on Communication, it was discovered that the NCC which was duly authorized to collect all revenues was circumvented as the N50 billion part payment was “curiously paid into CBN Recovery Account specifically designated for the recovered looted funds”.

    This was followed by Malami’s 2017 secret trip to Dubai for a meeting with a fugitive offender, Abdulrasheed Maina, chairman of Presidential Pension Review Committee, indicted by Senate probe panel for N2billion fraud. And upon his return, but for the protest of the then Head of Civil Service, Malami would have succeeded in integrating Maina back into the bureaucracy through the back door.

    It is also on record that the central issue between Malami and Ibrahim Magu, the EFCC chairman he falsely accused of corruption, and replaced with an unqualified candidate from his (Malami) state, was over how seized assets were distributed. He had accused Magu of selling the assets to his cronies while Magu accused him of ignorance as the statute setting up the EFCC did not give the body such powers. Magu was later found innocent and rehabilitated following Buhari’s Justice Salami Investigative panel that exposed Malami’s vindictiveness.

    In 2021, it was said that UAE passed to Nigeria, a list of 38 individuals and 15 entities including six Nigerians viz Abdurrahaman Ado Musa, Salihu Yusuf Adamu, Bashir Ali Yusuf, Muhammed Ibrahim Isa, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan and Surajo Abubakar Muhammad, allegedly involved in terrorist financing. As a follow up, it was also said that Nigeria Sanctions Committee met on March 18, 2024, and recommended the sanctioning of some individuals including Gumi’s ally, Tukur Manu, accused of participating “in the financing of terrorism by receiving and delivering ransom payments over the sum of $200,000 in support of ISWAP terrorists for the release of hostages of the Abuja-Kaduna train attack.”

    But Malami, the Minister of Justice appeared to have been swayed by Gumi’s argument that “No Nigerian will put his money into terrorism”; insisting terrorists “are financing themselves by taking our children for ransom”. Malami chose to do nothing despite the ravaging of the north by terrorists forcing northern leaders to call for Buhari’s resignation over his failure to protect lives and properties of the people of the north.

    With his December 2025 detention by EFCC over alleged theft of about N8.7bn, and last week DSS grilling allegedly over his handling of the list of Nigerian terror financiers released by the United Arab Emirates, many believe it is the past coming to haunt Malami.

    Many also believe Bauchi’s Bala Mohammed, whose commissioners are currently facing EFCC charges of terrorism financing share the same fate with Malami. He who sows the wind must necessarily reap the whirlwind.

    Bala Mohammed started nursing a presidential ambition as soon as he was elected governor in 2019. And since one only gets integrated into the northern ruling class through marriage, business or political endorsement, he first declared he was Fulani maternally, before choosing to fight the Fulani battle like a slave. For instance, long after full blooded Fulani like’s Nasir El Rufai, Kastina’s Aminu Masari and Kano’s Abdullahi Umar Ganduje had disowned and called for the total elimination criminal Fulani herdsmen engaged in killing of innocent Nigerians with banned AK 47 riffles, Mohammed embarked on his ill-advised campaign to justify continued bearing of AK 47 rifles that have become weapon of terror against Nigerians by immigrant Fulani herdsmen.

    He did not just stop at that  but went on to insist immigrant herdsmen should be conferred with Nigerian citizenship and integrated into the then government planned National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) being championed by the federal government.

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    Then he picked up battle with Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State who but for the fact he was fleet-footed would have been eliminated by armed criminal Fulani herdsmen who chased him out of his farm. His only offence was his decision to faithfully implement anti-grazing law passed by his state of assembly. Malami then took the battle to Ondo State where he confronted the late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu over his resolve to rid his reserve forest of illegal criminal herdsmen.

    With all the victories Malami secured in his self-appointed crusade against opponents of criminal Ak-47 wielding immigrant Fulani herdsmen, Malami should feel fulfilled with the title of ‘a sympathiser’ of this anti-Nigeria group; that he is belatedly getting his flowers from no less a body as the DSS should be cause for double celebration.

    Mohammed who alleged his refusal to defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had attracted intimidation and harassment, fingered Nyesom Wike as the man behind his current travail. “Somebody said he is going to put fire in my state. That person is the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike”, he stated after threatening “to escalate the matter to the international community”.

    But if Mohammed is not trying to be economical with the truth, he should admit that he and Wike were once intimate friends. Former House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara, not too long ago publicly scolded Bala for his act ingratitude to Wike who generously deployed Rivers State resources to wage his 2019 gubernatorial battle in Bauchi.  Bala more than anyone else knows that Wike, his estranged friend fights with his eyes closed when seeking vengeance. He can therefore not feign ignorance by attempting to divert attention from EFCC that is currently holding some of his Ministry of Finance officials.

    The good news is that Abubakar Malami is deemed innocent until the court returns a guilty verdict while Bala Mohammed is protected by the constitution. The shortest route to freedom for the former who, one Bala Usman,  claimed was until 2015 ‘a charge and bail’ lawyer is to defend the sources of his stupendous wealth including 53 mansions currently under temporary forfeiture to government. As for the latter who is not EFCC’s target, his obligation is to secure freedom for his finance commissioner, Adamu, arraigned by the EFCC, alongside Balarabe Abdullahi Ilelah, Aminu Mohammed Bose and Kabiru Yahaya Mohammed on December 31, 2025 on a 10-count charge bordering on alleged terrorism financing to the tune of $9.7million

    And this can be easily achieved by providing evidence to invalidate DSS claim that the total sum of $17 million and N75.2 mil¬lion shared on February 7, 2024, was for terrorism financing.

  • Police and the Kaduna abductions

    Police and the Kaduna abductions

    WE HAVE WALKED THIS path before as a nation. That was in 2014. Twelve years after, we are back on the same road, and the bone of contention is similar. Mass abduction! Were over 150 persons abducted in Kajuru in Kaduna State on Sunday? Christian leaders in the state  are claiming that they were. They put the figure at 172. Nine were said to have escaped, leaving 163 in captivity. The government and the police refuted the claim.

    It is 2014 all over again, yet the 2026 case is eerily odd. The story is being hotly contested by the government and the police. You will say that also happened in 2014. That year in a government girls secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, some 274 pupils were whisked away in the dead of the night. The school and the community raised the alarm. They looked up to the government for help to get the girls back. Rather than act swiftly, Abuja footdragged. How can 274 girls be roused from sleep and carted away like that when they are not sheep? Some officials were said to have asked, as they made light of the issue.

    But it was not a joke. The abduction was real and the reality only dawned on the powers that be two weeks later. By then, it was too late to get the girls back intact. They had been distributed like chattels to the different cells of the  Boko Haram Islamic Sect that abducted them. As a nation, till today, we rue the missed opportunity to rescue those girls intact at the earliest possible time. We are still haunted by the image of Leah Sharibu, one of the girls who defied the abductors and has remained with them ever since. One only hopes that the same scenario is not now playing out in Kaduna!

    It is now four days that the abductees were said to have been seized from three churches in Kurmin Wali in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State. Media reports said the incidents took place simultaneously. Some said the affected worship places were a Catholic and two Cherubim and Seraphim (C & S) Churches. Yet, some said they were an ECWA and two C & S Churches. Late on Wednesday, the Force Headquarters confirmed the affected places were a Catholic, an ECWA and a C & S Churches. From the reports, the assailants were said to have stormed the churches in large numbers, encircled the worshippers and marched them in one single file into nearby forests.

    This is a serious matter which should be handled with the utmost sense of urgency and care that it deserves. Our worship places and schools, no matter how remotely located they are, should not be allowed to become easy targets for  kidnappers to go to at will and pack as many people as they wish. Unfortunately, these places and schools have become human fishing grounds for these marauders. They operate with impunity, and in most cases, they enjoy the cooperation of the locals, who out of fear and at times, pecuniary gains, have no choice but to do their bidding.

    Unwittingly, such people have emboldened these criminals by becoming accessories to the fact. From the look of things, what happened in Kurmin Wali four days ago is gradually unfolding. Why did the police and the government initially say there were no abductions, contrary to the claims of the Christian leaders? Rather than dispute the claim, the police should have dug deeper before talking. It reacted hastily without first discharging its primary function of investigating the claim.

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    It would have cost the police nothing to say that the matter was under investigation and that the public would be briefed on developments. These are challenging times for the country and our security agencies must be seen to be up and doing and proactive.

    We are in the firing line, so to say. In the wake of Donald Trump’s claim of “Christian genocide” in Nigeria for which he came ‘gun-a-blazing’ last Christmas eve to take out the terrorists behind these killings, our security agencies, especially the police, must be careful how they react to terror attacks and other related incidents. They cannot afford to do anything that would make them to look partial or lead to their being accused of a cover up.

    Their job is to detect crime and bring the perpetrators to justice. They cannot do it alone. They need the support of the people. So, when the Kajuru incident happened, the police should have held back a little considering that the crime scene was in a remote community. In such a situation, they should not rely on one or two sources to draw their conclusions, they should have reached out to as many people as possible, including the common man on the street, who might have seen or heard something about the incidents.

    This should serve as a lesson to the police and the government. They should not be too hasty to take only what they consider as ‘good infoŕmation’ to reach conclusions on matters. They should look at the ‘bad’ and the ‘ugly’ as well and sieve them to determine the truth before talking. On what information did the Commissioner of Police Muhammad Rabiu, Kajuru Local Government Chairman Dauda Madaki, and Internal Security and Home Affairs Commissioner Sule Shaibu base their claim that there were no abductions in Kurmin Wali last Sunday?

    Did they subject the information to any proof before running with it? It only shows that all they were interested in is that there was no such incident so that they can rush back to the governor and gush, “your excellency, all is calm. There is no cause for alarm”. There was cause for alarm and Governor Uba Sani deserves to know the truth so that all his efforts to enthrone peace in Southern Kaduna and every part of the state do not come to nought.

    Just as the respected leader of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 northern states and Abuja, Reverend Joseph Hayab, said in the heat of the row over whether the incidents happened or not, the governor has been working tirelessly to ensure law and order, but that is not to say that something that happened should be swept under the carpet. It is not what the government and the police want to hear that matters, it is what happened that is relevant. Were people kidnapped in Kajuru? Yes, the police finally admitted. So, why was it initially hard to tell the governor the truth so that he can mobilise resources for the abductees’ swift rescue?

    Hiding such truth from those in power does not amount to helping them. It further alienates them from the governed who know no other person than the leader and call him out for all actions and inactions, even though he may not know about them. This is the danger of hiding the truth from a leader. The security agencies and the close aides of governors shouod know this and learn from the Kajuru incident that it is better to say the truth than hide it. Contrary to their thinking, this is not political correctness; it is political harakiri.

    The person who bears the brunt at the end of the day is the leader, not the police and his aides. Let security agencies and political appointees help leaders by telling them the truth about happenings in the country, no matter how bad things may be, and leave them to take the decisions they deem fit. A leader is a captain, and there can only be one captain in a ship.