Editorial
Why the blackmail President Tinubu? Go get your planes!
News broke on Wednesday that President Bola Tinubu flew in chartered flights to attend the inauguration of Cyril Ramaphosa in South Africa. According to reports, the President, who has been holidaying in Lagos since last weekend to celebrate the Sallah season, jetted out of the country with his entourage in two private jets.
The PUNCH, which broke the story, reported that Tinubu and his team left the Presidential Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, on a Dassault Falcon 8X aircraft around 11:06 am, quoting a source, who saw him leave as saying: “They went in two private jets. Of course, you are aware that the presidential jets are no longer in good shape.”
Nothing was said about whether the planes were donated as goodwill by Tinubu’s numerous wealthy friends or the Presidency paid for them. But the message was clear – the presidential fleet is no longer fit for purpose and the President is abandoning it as his means of transportation, henceforth. In other words, Nigeria may never see Tinubu in those planes again.
Now, even an imbecile will not fail to decipher or at least suspect the inherent motive behind this move, which is pure blackmail, simplicita! It will be one of the most enchanting news if the President settles for something less than what has been recommended for him – two brand new aircraft. In fact, Nigerians should roll out the drums if it turns out that Tinubu has settled for the refurbishment or repairs of the existing fleet. It will mean that he has decided to listen to Nigerians for once. Else, the picture going by the prevailing signals from the Villa, suggest otherwise.
Bayo Onanuga, the President’s spokesman had actually set the ball rolling on this line of engagement with Nigerians when he clapped back against Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), in the February 25, 2023 election, questioning his motive for railing against Nigeria acquiring two new jets for Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima at a time like this in Nigeria when the country’s economy is at its nadir.
Hear him: “Does Peter Obi want the President dead? Is that his wish? Does he want him to continue moving around in a rickety plane and die like the VP of Malawi and Iran President? Let him tell us. This is a basic thing any sane government will do.
“You can’t toy with your President’s welfare. Why will any right-thinking person still want the President to move around in it? In this way, it is the National Assembly that officially recommended that new ones should be bought. Sometimes, Peter Obi opened his mouth to make unnecessary statements.”
Now, what did Obi say that could be interpreted as a possible death-wish for the Jagaban Borgu? Hear the former Governor of Anambra State, who used his X platform to drive home his position: “At a time when our country is on the front page of global newspapers for facing its worst economic crisis, marked by high inflation, a falling currency, and widespread poverty, the government is contemplating buying new presidential jets. This demonstrates extreme insensitivity to citizens’ struggles.
“With rising insecurity, poverty, hunger, and homelessness, this decision highlights the disconnect that is apparent between the government and the people. It is unacceptable as the situation in the country today more than ever demands a more compassionate use of resources, prioritising citizens’ welfare.
“It’s on record that our presidential jets have an average age of 12 years, purchased when most Nigerians could afford necessities. Now, as our country faces significant challenges, including a high debt profile, our citizens are in even greater need. Instead of adding to our luxuries, we should be focused on alleviating their suffering and finding solutions to their problems.
“For long, our bad leadership has made our priorities, as leaders, to be at variance to the needs of society, which is why we are headed now south, as a nation. To elucidate further, despite dropping down to the fourth-largest economy in Africa, with a GDP of $252 billion and a per capita income of $1,080, with huge debt burdens and borrowing to service debts, yet, we are spending $15 million for our Vice President’s residence, while the USA, the world’s largest economy with a GDP of $25 trillion, about 100 times our GDP, and a per capita income of $80,000, about 80 times ours, still houses their Vice President in Number 1 Observatory Circle, a house built over 100 years ago, and whose value is less than the $15 million we are spending on our VP’s residence.
“A reputable real estate company reports that the US Vice President’s Official Residence is valued at about $7.5 million today. While we had earlier refurbished the old VP residence with $2 million, the over 100-year-old US Vice President’s house has only undergone wide-scale renovations twice, funded by taxpayers’ money; in 1993 and 2021. Every new US VP is free to finance any minor refurbishing from his funds.
“It’s, therefore, time to stop this impunity, insensitivity, and shamelessness and refocus on the needs of our people. We must prioritize education, healthcare, and lifting our citizens out of poverty. Let us work together to build a nation that truly serves its people, not just the interests of a few. Let’s rise to the challenge, and build this new Nigeria which is now more possible than ever before.”
Now, how does this sound like a death wish? Certainly, Obi did not speak in isolation. This remains the groundswell of opinion canvassed by many Nigerians. But it has to be so ascribed to achieve the purpose of shutting the naysayers up. After all, would it not amount to high treason for anyone to wish the President dead. So, like Josep Gaobel, the German propagandist under Hitler, the message has to be twisted to cast them in unpatriotic, if not devilish image.
Come to think of it, at what point has Tinubu or those in government with him ever hidden their appetite and love for high taste and luxury? Have they not consistently shown the tendency to the George Orwell’s Animal Farm penchant for revelling in opulence at the expense of Nigerians? Have they also not had their way in doing so?
Despite the hues and cries from Nigerians that it was crazy to spend N160 million to buy luxury vehicles for each of the 469 members of the National Assembly, especially from a loan, were they not told that it was better to buy them to navigate the bad roads in the country instead of using the funds to repair them for the benefit of the whole instead of the few? Did they not go ahead with the acquisition?
Did Tinubu not also acquire his presidential yacht from the same loan to boot? Did he not acquire luxury cars for his wife or engage in renovation of the presidential residence in Lagos and building of a luxury home in Abuja for the Vice President, outside other obviously frivolous and nonsensical projects? Did anybody stop him.
So, why the attempt to hoodwink the people with this propaganda, drama and blackmail? Is it lack of money? Certainly no! Were Nigerians not served the palatable news the other day that another cache of $2.5billion is sitting somewhere at the vault of the World Bank to be picked? What would stop its use to acquire luxury items for the pleasure of the President, including a better and more luxurious yacht in addition to the brand new, tear-rubber planes, not only to keep him alive, but in pleasure?
Yes! Obi and his Obidient Movement, can go ahead and make all the noise. It will neither stop nor affect anything. After all they have already been adequately labelled for what they are – villains – unpatriotic group – noisemakers who do not wish Nigeria well, by attempting to circumscribe the pleasure of Mr. President and disturbing his peace with their rantings.
Like the harassed hen, flapping its wings and jumping around while watching the kite in flight with one of its chicks, it is for the world to hear its voice and not because the predator would be persuaded to return its victim. Remember that it was the selfsame Obi, who almost lost his voice at the Time Muhammadu Buhari and his own irresponsible cabal were acquiring loans from every imaginable corner from around the globe.
Yes! He not only warned about the consequences of the indiscriminate obtaining of loans, but about feasting on them like drunken sailors through all manner of illicit designs by those at the corridors of power at the time. Today, is Nigeria not suffering those consequences he warned about? At that time, just like Onanuga and his team at the Villa are doing, Obi was feasted on by Buhari’s handlers, especially the duo of Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu.
What is the picture today? Who is right and who is wrong. Those who attacked him those days, calling him all sorts of names in return on behalf of their principal, are probably living the best lives from what they acquired as part of their own share from the official bazaar on the commonwealth at that time, as is now being revealed, while the country sinks deeper in the thick morass of poverty and human degradation.
For the LP boss, he has done his bit. He has spoken again. The only time he could become culpable is if he decides like many others of his national stature to keep silent. He has pointed out where he stands on the matter, not because it would stop anything, but for the world to hear his voice.
This is also our position as well at WhirlwindNews as well. Powerless and ineffective as it might sound, we must lend our voice in stating that this is not the time to buy the new planes, because we totally believe that contrary to the official position Abuja is touting the planes are being acquired more to maintain luxurious tastes which has become the character of the people in government and even around Nigeria where government money is seen as slush funds to be enjoyed by those at the corridors of power to the exclusion of the ordinary people.
Furthermore, that the idea was broken at the NASS by the House of Representatives Committee on Security, means the deal is already completed. Perhaps, the new birds are even in the air enroute Nigeria already. What is in issue therefore is the present drama now trailing development. It is distasteful because it suggests that the purveyors of the idea are simply rubbing it in. By suggesting that Nigerians would swallow lullaby that they are part of the decision – a decision the has already been taken long before they had a whiff of it is what rankles. Such a suggestion is an uncanny way of rubbing the insult in. It presumes that Nigerians are daft who do not know what is going on. That not only rankles, it is the TRAGEDY!
On Wednesday, July 8, 2026, Peter Obi, candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), practically took the media space of Nigeria by storm, with his alarming claim that he might not be alive to contest the 2027 presidential election.
Obi was not talking about some strange illness discovered by his doctors, which had limited his days on earth or alluding to any other kind of natural cause of death. On the contrary, he was forecasting of a more diabolical, highly sinister variant of unnatural, untimely kind of death – political assassination or any other dimension relating to it.
The former Governor of Anambra State, who has remained the main thing in the polity since taking the Nigerian political firmament by storm with his emergence as contender for the nation’s number one job in 2022, ending up with a stunning performance in the February 25, presidential election as candidate of the Labour Party (LP), despite all odds, and prediction of naysayers, was not in doubt about where the threat was domiciled.
A guest of #WithChude, a popular podcast, hosted by Chude Jideonwo, he was instead quite emphatic that his reading of his current ordeal suggests that his traducers, might not stop with their clear intent of preventing him from being on the ballot in the 2027 presidential contest, but up the ante to the level of taking his life if the push eventually graduated to shove.
He did not mince words where the arrows were coming and who was pulling the bows, but was equally emphatic of that as well – the All Progressives Congress (APC) government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Hear him: “Every single thing I do for a living, this government is frustrating it. Deliberately so. Everything. So, there is even a possibility, if they have the opportunity, I will not be alive.
“It’s not an accusation. I know. I get frustration every day. Because you do things that you think would be normal – it is not normal anymore. They won’t come directly and say, ‘Oh, we’re doing this,’ but you can see their hand in virtually everything.
“They are attacking everybody who is in opposition personally. I am being attacked personally. Everything. Even to provide me with necessary things that I should have been entitled to, not at all. I had a case recently at the airport, where people who work in the airport came and locked my car. And I said, ‘It’s me.’
“But I said, ‘Look at the cars of other people.’ And you could see them talking to each other, as if, ‘Who is this one? And I see people I know at the airport, they will not greet me because they are fearing that if they greet me…And I have people send me invitations and say, ‘My son, my daughter is wedding, but please don’t come.’”
Since this outing, it has been hoopla on the Nigerian turf as the centrifugal and centripetal forces pull from all sides on the matter in a dog-fight between the government forces and Obi’s supporters.
In fact, Abuja did not waste time in producing a quick riposte, with Bayo Onanuga, spokesman of the President, ostensibly conveying the sentiments of his boss on the matter, dismissing the NDC candidate as a liar and a cry-baby.
He has support from Festus Keyamo, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Management, who quickly pulled out a video of what was supposed to be the airport incident Obi was referring to underscore the point that the former governor was indeed the guilty party.
In fact, so intense was Keyemo’s intervention that he not only instructed Obi to render an immediate and unreserved apologies to the airport staff – the selfsame people he accused of insulting him – but pay N25,000, which he claimed was the mandatory fine for the “crime” of parking in an unauthorised place, he allegedly committed.
Now as the drama in the nation’s theatre of the absurd continues to build up into a fearsome political fireball, it is pertinent to assess the situation, based on the facts on the ground – past and present.
In so doing, it is apposite to review the images on the huge national screen playing from the reel of events since Obi happened on the Nigerian political space. This will underscore whether his outcry could be considered as coming from genuine fears or dismissed as non-issues, as the Aso Rock Villa, enjoins.
Does NEXT International Supermarket, arguable once the biggest monuments in Abuja and one of the visible concerns linked to Obi, suddenly going up in flames some years back, not deserve a mention in the current conversation?
What about the outburst of Monday Okpebholo, Governor of Edo State, warning the NDC candidate never to step his foot in Benin the capital or anywhere within the territory without his express say-so? Where does that fit in?
How does Abuja capture the real life attack on Obi, then a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), in the same Benin under the nose of the selfsame Okpebholo? Does that bullet-ridden vehicle that told the story of the entire macabre event in more ways than words not mean anything?
Okay, how is Obi supposed to process the silence of Abuja after an APC chieftain warned him not to step his feet into Rivers State or do so at the pain of death, when elsewhere such open threat ought to instigate an instant action, including the arrest and prosecution of the culprit?
What about the outburst of the selfsame Onanuga warning the NDC candidate – never to interfere in Lagos politics – following the blitzkrieg that came after trouncing Tinubu in his own backyard during the 2023 presidential election?
How was Obi supposed to process the pulling down of a prime property in Lagos belonging to his brother, in the context of this warning and other events that nuanced the actions of Alausa and other players since that 2023 routing?
Given this list of what is in the public domain, though not exhaustible yet – not knowing what else could have transpired beyond what is known to him and his supposed traducers alone, does it make for Obi to be complacent and believe that all is well?
For us, no politician in Nigeria today could be accused of being too careful with the foregoing events, not the least, Obi, given the long list of unresolved political killings history in the country.
The horrendous cases of the likes of Funso Williams, Bola Ige, Aminasori Dikkibo, Harry Marshal, Ogbonnaya Uche (OGB), who fell to the bullets of gunmen at various times, have not continued to blur the nation’s political firmament, but remain sad reminders of how awry things could go.
WHIRLWINDNEWS believes, therefore that the case of Obi deserves more than being dismissed with a wave of the hands as Abuja has since done. We believe that, not only the NDC candidate, but the nation needs the assurance that he is alive to contest in the election.
The consequences of Obi coming to harm might be graver than those who believe they are safe in the fortresses of Abuja foresee. It might signal the doomsday. Therefore, that assurance must come in visible words and deed. Now!
It began less than 10 minutes after taking the oath of office. In his address to the nation, he uttered those three-letter words – subsidy is gone. The ink with which he signed the documents declaring him President was yet to dry.
That was it. From that moment, Nigerians have known nothing but poverty, tears and death. It was a declaration that came out of impulse rather than articulacy. It was not even contained in his original speech prepared for the occasion. But it sprouted out – from a rash, unthinking and impetuous mental construct.
But the effect was instant, the impact direct. From that moment, Nigerians have never known peace. Every thing took a cue. Minutes after, the news broke that the price of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol had jumped from N189 to N550. It was that instant. Today, it hovers around N1,500.
The effect: Within minutes, transportation cost quadrupled. So too, commodity prices. Caught unawares, marketers, who had earlier thought it was a day of the rains as customers rushed to their shops, soon became suspicious and then got wiser – these were not ordinary customers but smart alecs playing a fast one on them.
They stopped selling, retrieved the items they could from those who had not disappeared with their goods and closed shop to study the situation properly. Hours after, they responded. A plate of eba and soup, went up from N200 to N1,000. Prices hit the rooftops.
In fact, the vehicle transporting what used to be Nigeria, which had been moving at a horse and buggy pace in the days of Muhammadu Buhari, stopped abruptly, engaged the reverse gear and began galloping backwards. That has remained the ugly, parlous tale of the Tinubu days, since May 29, 2023.
Now, the expectation would be that the President and his government that wrought such a horrendous punishment on the polity, would themselves take some blows. But nada! Instead, the opposite was the case. Within months of plunging the citizens into the untold hardship Tinubu went on a binge, spending money – in the words of Olusegun Obasanjo, former President – like a drunken sailor.
Few weeks after, as Nigerians were reeling and gasping in pain from the impact of their new situation, 469 newly-minted Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs), rolled out from factories in Japan, where they were produced into the premises of the National Assembly for the just inaugurated members.
Put the cost at N100billion – that is N160million for each unit, plus other charges. Reason: The lawmakers needed the vehicles because of their good suspension system, to navigate the so many bad roads in Nigeria. Yes, you heard right. How could they think well and make good laws after the hassles of the bad roads? Tinubu saw reasons, acquiesced and voila!
But it did not end there. Tinubu suddenly realised that Kashim Shettima, his deputy, needed a new home “befitting” his new office. Pronto! A voucher of N21billion was raised and he had it. Till date a haze still hovers over the project.
The last news that was heard was that Number Two refused to take residence because the entire environment, including the toilets was wired to the teeth to monitor him. And Number Two needed privacy.
Again, in the same weeks, Oga Patapata, also realised that Madam needed to transport more comfortably. Pronto! It was arranged. Another voucher was raised for cars for the Office of the First Lady. Cost N1.2billion. Of course, madam needed the comfort for peace at home.
Naturally, since transportation is not done by land alone, he also took care of that. For the sea, a yacht was procured. Cost N5billion. Because the birds in the presidential fleet were not good enough, Tinubu did the needful.
He enriched the fleet with the one befitting of his status and had it transformed to mimic the US Air Force One. To complete the status symbol project, he also added a replica of The Beast, the US presidential automobile.
Ironically, the funds used in procuring these luxury lifestyle, came, not out of productive ventures of Nigeria, but through borrowing. Today, Tinubu has practically borrowed Nigeria blind, doubling or even tripling that of his predecessors.
Meanwhile Nigerians had upped the ante from mere groaning and skreiching. Citizens, unable to take it anymore, now stop their hitherto sleek vehicles on the Third Mainland Bridge and plunge into the Lagos lagoon to end it all. The option is now more rampant than remote and occasional.
Many others, taking the Socrates option, now drink hemlock and many more simply sleep off without any intention of waking up. That is where we are. That is the new Nigeria – the Tinubu Nigeria. But there is more.
Terrorists and the landlords of the forest, having now discovered that the Commander-in-Chief has other fancies than security and welfare of the people – the constitutionally-declared primary purpose of government and scant regard for the citizens, have practically gone haywire. They have taken over and established their authority.
Presently, outside those wantonly slaughtered or butchered in their homes like animals at the abattoir, incinerated alive while sleeping on their beds, among other forms of decimation, many more citizens are now spending months, going to years as victims of captivity with them in various forests in Nigeria.
In their rampage, the terrorists have since broken all barriers considered out of place hitherto. One of their escapades is the present videos of the school children and teachers taken from Oyo State. The gory imagery captures the current Nigerian story.
For instance, on Thursday, just as the sound of heavy celebration was going on in neighbouring Ogun State as the world marked the Ojude Oba yearly carnival, two of the victims, one of them with a toddler on her back, were pleading for their lives, as others went through various forms of torture, including heavy whipping like beasts.
Don’t forget that the terrorists had earlier slaughtered one of their colleagues. In the new video, the totally terrified women, informed that they had chosen another victim to be similarly eliminated. Yet, no word about rescue! Terrible!
Interestingly, if not painfully, Tinubu’s response, in the few cases he bothered, was to see the crisis through the politics lens. His most recent reaction was to tell the world that the harvest of attacks and carnages ravaging the country, were sponsored by his political enemies, intent on shoving him out of power. That to him was all that mattered.
Now, where are your powers as C-in-C? They are mostly found in the most disgraceful economic and political acts of impunity. Nigerians now waking up to hear of the award of brain-dazing contracts such as the N15trillion Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Badagry-Maiduguri Highway – with scant regard for official regulations, is now becoming more common than rare.
Few days after one of the teachers was beheaded and the video of the hideous act made to circulate on the social media, the President and his All Progressives Congress (APC), party, rolled out the drums of his winning the party’s ticket to contest the 2027 presidential election.
To say that it has been three years of weeping, wailing, mourning and gnashing of the teeth, is a clear euphemism. There is no starker way of putting it than calamity – pure, unmitigated catastrophe – disaster.
Then comes the big question. Nigeria is already breasting the tape of these ruinous years of the first term. Suppose Tinubu succeeds in renewing his tenure by January next year? Will Nigeria survive five more years of a life like the last three? What will be left of Nigeria? Is there a way out, outside shouting – God forbid!?
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