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Tinubu: The unravelling of a bigot
By Onyema Omenuwa
Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been unravelled. As a bigot, that is. Eventually, and completely, it needs to be added. And it is all due to the hypocritical kind of politics that he plays, particularly in Lagos State where he holds sway as the alpha and omega of politics. Significantly, his unrelenting and desperate quest to become the President of Nigeria led to his unravelling. Though he has succeeded in that regard, since he is today the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the success came at the great cost of shattering the façade of progressivism that has all along defined his politics.
Tinubu projects progressivism as his political worldview. But presently in Lagos State, the “Igbo Must Go” hashtag has become something of a mantra across social media platforms for the Yoruba residents of Lagos and their supporters. That is starkly anti-progressive by any stretch of imagination, and it is happening in Tinubu’s Lagos. “Residents” is used advisedly in this context because not every Yoruba in Lagos is an indigene of Lagos State or a “Lagosian,” as the indigenes of the state delight in describing themselves. And that is the irony. Indigenous Lagosians and, in all fairness to them, the teeming Yoruba of liberal disposition, have distanced themselves from and have been speaking against this divisive campaign, which tends to position Lagos as a xenophobic enclave for the Igbo. Such an open repudiation is quite reassuring. Chief Bode George for instance has said that the anti-Igbo campaign “is arrant nonsense… Those who are proposing this nonsense have no bearing and no family connection to Lagos. I am saying it as a Lagosian.”
Yet, the campaign is real, and the bigoted campaigners are very vociferous. They have registered a notorious presence on all social media platforms, literally strutting and fanning the embers of hatred against the Igbo race. In all that, silence had been the word from Tinubu; not to mention the Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led Lagos State Government, which he installed. It was only on August 4 that President Tinubu issued a feeble condemnation of the campaign, as part of his equally half-hearted nationwide address following the “End Bad Governance in Nigeria” protests. Sanwo-Olu had reacted to the campaign in the same lax manner.
And to think that Tinubu himself ignited the “nonsense,” by the inordinate pursuit of his ambition. For the perceptive mind, the anti-Igbo sentiment got invigorated in Lagos during the 2015 electioneering, with that infamous outburst or threat by Oba Rilwan Akiolu of Lagos to have the Igbo population in Lagos drowned in the lagoon, if they voted against Akinwunmi Ambode, who was Tinubu’s candidate for the governorship election of the state. In no time, the sentiment became so widespread, and what obtains today is sheer display of ethnophobia against the Igbo, comparable only to the xenophobic attitude of South Africans against Nigerians in that country. It was probably only during the civil war years that the Igbo had to put up with the kind of animosity as is currently exhibited towards them in Lagos. On a daily basis, social media platforms brim with very terrible ethnic slurs by persons of Yoruba extraction, and their supporters, against the Igbo.
Such displays of ethnic prejudice can be overlooked, if it is emanating from the ignorant or unenlightened class of people. But that is not the case. Educated and enlightened folks also amplify the anti-Igbo rhetoric. However, it must continuously be emphasised that Tinubu’s ambition (which he has achieved anyway), and nothing else, is at the root of it. Events lend credence to this assertion. It bears repeating and it is unarguable that Tinubu is the ultimate power in Lagos politics. For starters, he was two-term governor for eight years and thereafter has maintained a vice-like grip on the state’s affairs. Without absolute loyalty to him, no one can attain any political height in Lagos State. To become governors, Babatunde Fashola, Ambode and the incumbent, Sanwo-Olu danced to no other tune than Tinubu’s. Ambode who dared to assert himself after assuming office ultimately lost out bigly and is today something of a pariah in Lagos politics.
Because of Tinubu’s staying power, some have credited him with a mastery of political strategies. Yet for him, the fear of losing control over Lagos is real. And the Igbo population in Lagos has the potential to make it happen. The possibility of the clichéd parlance, politics is a game of numbers can be taken advantage of by a Tinubu rival or an opposition party in Lagos State using the Igbo population. The consciousness of this possibility makes Tinubu and his cohorts who aspire to elective office very uncomfortable. But the fear need not be, for an acclaimed strategist. All that the man who bears the vanity appellation, “Jagaban.” needs do to sway the Igbo votes to his advantage is woo the Igbo voters. But no, threat seems to be the very strategy he has mastered, and he deploys it maximally. Which progressive does that?
When the Oba of Lagos threatened the Igbo, Tinubu was not credited with any statement of disapproval of that reckless utterance. His silence was very readily interpreted as an approval and that enabled the activation of latent bigotry that a motely of Yoruba characters now profess and propagate. The 2023 electioneering for which Tinubu was the APC presidential candidate fed the anti-Igbo sentiment got more fillip. With the “master strategist” fighting the political battle of his life, the likes of Bayo Onanuga ran amok. Using majorly his X handle @aonanuga1956, as Tinubu’s spokesperson, Onanuga regularly churned out a no-holds-barred hate-laden comments against the Igbo, bragging that “I don’t owe anyone any apology.” Not a few commentators had to remind of the genesis of the Rwanda genocide whose imagery still scares humanity. It happened largely because of reckless utterances against an ethnic group such as being spewed by him. Then, on assuming office as President, Tinubu appointed Onanuga as spokesperson of his Government. That can only be a reward for a job well done.
The anti-Igbo expressions tend to convey the impression that the Lagos Igbo residents characteristically interfere in Lagos politics beyond the limits allowed by and in a democracy. But that is not true. What is true is that the Igbo numerical strength in Lagos is second only to the Yoruba indigenous population. That number can naturally determine the outcome of any election. For context, Tinubu’s fear is reasonably informed by previous voting patterns, especially beginning 2015, that his party is not the choice of the Igbo in Lagos. He was trounced in the presidential election in Lagos State, and till date the debate hasn’t abated that his party was heading for a greater trouncing in the governorship election but for some unspeakable manipulations and intrusions perpetrated on his behalf, including the deployment of the Oro traditional cult to prevent the Igbo from voting.
So, the resort to savage force by his supporters to suppress the Igbo votes was borne out of his own desperation. And in the bid to stop the Igbo, all actions were considered fair: Street urchins and thugs, a cult group, as already alluded, were unleashed on the Igbo, with even some educated elite offering themselves to propagate the anti-Igbo rhetoric. In all this frenzy, they cared less about what would become of the Lagos image. What mattered was Tinubu’s was for interest to be served. Lagos is unarguably the most cosmopolitan Nigerian city, featuring considerable attributes of civilisation, if not modernity. That is the city where one man’s desperation to hold steadfastly on to power is threatening to destroy its potential for exponential growth.
One otherwise insignificant social media account, @Lagospedia, on X took Onanuga’s hate propaganda some notches higher by its enthusiastic but ferocious propagation of Igbophobia. In its efforts, it spawned other similar accounts like @Lagospidia, @Lagos_IBILE and @YorubaGuard. Though all the accounts have been reportedly deactivated on X, a sole agenda united them: A crusade against the Igbo population/interest in Lagos. On July 27, 2024, @Lagospedia posts assumed a dangerous dimension with its call for a xenophobic protest against the Igbo from August 20 to 30. The handler specifically promoted hashtag IgboMustGo, demanding the Igbo’s ejection from the southwest. As alluded, Lagos State Governor, Jide Sanwo-Olu only feebly condemned the crusade via a statement on August 1 where he urged Lagosians “to ignore the post and any post of that nature”. Sanwo-Olu surely does not need any reminder that it is in his Lagos that the Igbo population and their businesses have been attacked over and over, without any consequence.
The agenda to set the Yoruba population against the Igbo in Lagos and by extension the entire southwest is being pursued with palpable vigour, and it bears repeating that it is done with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s tacit encouragement. Concerned authorities may turn a blind eye and deaf ear to what is happening in Lagos, but it is worth mentioning that such expressions of anti-ethnic sentiments threaten the constitutional right of Nigerians to live anywhere in the country. Today, it is the Igbo. Tomorrow, for as long as Tinubu continues to hold sway, it will surely be any other ethnic group in Lagos, unless they don’t insist on exercising their franchise without let or hinderance.
But overall, events have exposed the Tinubu brand of politics for what it is and cast him properly. Neither he nor any of his protégés can in all honesty lay claim to progressivism. Interestingly, the deception about Tinubu’s worldview of progressive politics had stuck in public consciousness for far too long that indeed no doubt existed about his commitment to the principle. But deception, like all pseudofacts, has an expiry time. Bob Marley’s immortal words ring true here: “You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” The unravelling of Tinubu though long in coming because of his adept at masterfully projecting a façade eventually did come. Unless the meaning of progressive as used in democratic politics has been so elastically adjusted as to accommodate bigotry as a connotation, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the politician who is today the President of Nigeria, should not have his name and his politics associated with that word or concept. At least, not anymore.
He has unravelled and should stop laying claim to progressive credentials. The unfortunate drift occasioned by his political predilection deserves nothing but blanket condemnation, otherwise it would be institutionalised. It is a bad advertisement for the “unity in diversity” mantra that the country’s political leaders proclaim.
Omenuwa, a lawyer, is a commentator on national issues
From Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s former President, came a mild rebuke to Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, who in assessing the quality of his six-year tenure as Nigerian leader, all but dismissed him as “inexperienced.”
Atiku, a guest of Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS Television, last week, told his host that Jonathan was inexperienced, saying his tenure was marked by notable missteps.
“I know Goodluck Jonathan very well. He is a decent young man, but also inexperienced, and I believe that contributed to his inability to manage the affairs of the country, particularly when he was faced with challenges,” Atiku, currently chasing the number one job the former President exited in 2015 for the seventh time, said.
But in a measured riposte at the 2025 Association of Retired Career Ambassadors of Nigeria awards ceremony in Abuja on Monday, Jonathan, while acknowledging that he must have made some mistakes, argued that errors were inevitably with human beings as only God could be perfect,
Reacting to Atiku’s remarks, he told his audience: “So not too long ago, a very senior politician said, ‘Oh, Jonathan was too young and probably that’s why he made mistakes.’
“If I made mistakes, yes, nobody who becomes a governor or a president will say you did not make mistakes. Even when you promote yourself to the level of a god, you become a deity.
“All human beings must make mistakes. I became president in 2010 at the age of 53. I left in 2015 at the age of 58, and they say I was too young. Must it have been 100 years before I ran the affairs of the state?
“I’m talking to diplomats, so I can say that during my period, I knew what I did for us to appear in the UN Security Council two times… If I were so naive, I don’t think I would have been able to navigate through that process.”
Jonathan also spoke on regional affairs, warning that political instability remains a major obstacle to economic growth across West Africa. He stressed that without stable governance systems, meaningful development in the sub-region would remain elusive.
“We cannot progress economically if we are very unstable societies politically,” he said.
Jonathan noted that while the founders of ECOWAS envisioned strong economic cooperation, persistent political crises have hindered progress, particularly in enforcing democratic standards among member states.
“That means that ECOWAS must interfere with the internal affairs of the states, and the issue of sovereignty becomes a problem,” he said.
Jonathan urged leaders in the region to work collectively towards stability, saying, “The heads of states of ECOWAS must continue to work together and agree on concrete terms and make sure that the sub-region is politically stable.”
He added that economic integration efforts would falter without solid democratic institutions and called on Nigerian diplomats to properly document foreign policy experiences for future leaders.
Paying tribute to ECOWAS founders, including former Head of State Yakubu Gowon, Jonathan described the creation of the bloc in 1975 as a bold and necessary step toward regional unity and economic integration.
Gowon, who was also honoured at the event, recounted the origins of ECOWAS, linking its formation to post-war diplomatic engagements across West Africa.
According to him, “It was as a result of the various efforts of all Nigerians when we went through a very difficult period, and I had to go to the various countries to say thank you.”
He said discussions with regional leaders at the time led to a shared vision for broader cooperation.
“Why don’t we also think about having something that we can at least have in agreement for all of us when we are working together?” he said.
Gowon emphasised that ECOWAS was the product of collective effort rather than individual ambition, crediting government institutions and civil servants for its success.
“This would not have been possible without the support of all the staff of the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Economic Development,” he stated.
He added that the recognition bestowed on him should be shared widely.
“The honour that is being done to me today should really go back to all the staff that worked so hard to make sure that this became a reality,” he said.
Also speaking, the President of the Association of Retired Career Ambassadors of Nigeria, Joe Keshi, highlighted the importance of honouring excellence in diplomacy, noting that the awards celebrate dedication and service to Nigeria and the continent.
“Diplomacy is one profession where success is often invisible, reflected not by news coverage, but by maintained stability, prevented conflicts, cultivated partnerships,” he said.
Keshi noted that the event coincides with the 50th anniversary of ECOWAS, describing the organisation as “a bold experiment in regionalism,” and urged diplomats to adapt to evolving global challenges.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Waheed Shaibu, also praised Gowon, describing him as a symbol of national unity and visionary leadership.
He said the recognition offers a chance to reflect on a legacy “defined by visionary leadership, courage, and unwavering commitment to the unity, stability, peace, and progress” of Nigeria.
Shaibu added that Gowon’s leadership reflected “patriotism, resilience, and a profound sense of duty,” while commending ARCAN for its continued contribution to diplomatic discourse and Nigeria’s global engagement.
After months of official hiatus, the Federal Government, on Tuesday finally got on the way with the trial of those fingered in the alleged plot to oust President Bola Ahmed Tinubu through a coup, including Timipre Sylva, former Minister of State for Petroleum.
The move, which apart from the former Governor of Bayelsa State, came with the filing of a 13-count charge before the Federal High Court, Abuja, against the alleged plotters including Mohammed Ibrahim Gana, a retired General in the Nigerian Army, Erasmus Ochegobia Victor, a retired Naval Captain, Ahmed Ibrahim, a serving police inspector, Zekeri Umoru, Bukar Goni, and Abdulkadir Sani.
Sylva, whose name surfaced as one of the plotters when the news first broke and believed to be the major financier of what would have led to another military government in Nigeria after the last ended in 1999, was listed as being at large – on the run.
The charge, filed on Monday by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and signed by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Rotimi Oyedepo (SAN), accuses the defendants of offences ranging from alleged treason and terrorism to failure to disclose security intelligence and money laundering linked to terrorism financing.
The prosecution alleged that the defendants conspired in 2025 “to levy war against the state to overpower the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, an offence punishable under Section 37(2) of the Criminal Code.
The Federal Government further alleged that the defendants had prior knowledge of a planned treasonable act involving one Colonel Mohammed Alhassan Ma’aji and others, but failed to alert authorities.
Furthermore, the defendants were also accused, according to the charge, of, while “knowing that a treasonable act was intended to be committed, did not give information thereof with all reasonable despatch to either the President… or a peace officer.”
They were also accused of failing to take preventive steps and “did not use any reasonable endeavours to prevent the commission of the offence”.
Beyond treason, the defendants are facing terrorism-related charges of conspiracy under the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, as they “conspired with one another to commit an act of terrorism in the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
Inspector Ahmed Ibrahim and Zekeri Umoru were specifically accused of attending meetings linked to the alleged plot “in a bid to further a political ideology which may seriously destabilise the constitutional structure of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
The charge also accused the defendants of providing support for terrorism, alleging that they “knowingly and indirectly rendered support” to facilitate acts of terror.
The prosecution alleged deliberate suppression of intelligence, stating that the defendants “had information which would be of material assistance in preventing the commission of the act of terrorism but failed to disclose the information to the relevant agency as soon as practicable”.
Financially, several defendants were accused of handling funds linked to terrorism financing, in violation of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Bukar Kashim Goni allegedly “indirectly retained the aggregate sum of N50,000,000, which forms part of the proceeds of an unlawful act, to wit: terrorism financing”, while Abdulkadir Sani allegedly retained N2m from a similar source.
According to the charge, Zekeri Umoru “without going through a financial institution accepted a cash payment of the sum of N10,000,000″ and also retained an additional N8.8m suspected to be proceeds of terrorism financing.
Inspector Ahmed Ibrahim was also accused of taking possession of “the sum of N1,000,000, being part of proceeds of terrorism financing”.
Alleged Coup Plot, Protests
After the Federal Government cancelled the parade to mark Nigeria’s 65th independence anniversary on October 1, 2025, reports had claimed that the move was linked to an alleged coup attempt.
The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) dismissed the claims, however, saying the parade cancellation had nothing to do with the alleged coup attempt.
In January 2026, the DHQ confirmed that there was an attempt to overthrow President Tinubu.
The DHQ Director of Defence Information, Samaila Uba, said investigations showed some military personnel were involved in the alleged coup plot.
According to Uba, the officers have been detained and would be arraigned before military judicial panels.
Last month, families of the military officers detained over the alleged coup plot appealed to Tinubu to allow the suspects to be tried in an open court.
Human rights activist Omoyele Sowore protested alongside the detained officers’ families. They also asked for access to the alleged coup plotters.
From the seat of the Presidency, came what indicates a clear and open support for the camp in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) fighting David Mark, National Secretary and Rauf Aregbesola, National Secretary, respectively.
The signal came from Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff (CoS) to President Bola Tinubu, who practically threw his weight behind Leke Abejide, one of the arrowheads wedging the war that could see the main opposition party in Nigeria not presenting a candidate for next year’s presidential election.
Against the backdrop of allegations that Aso Rock has been fuelling the various crises in the major political parties, Gbajabiamila, former Speaker of the House of Representatives and a key ally of President Bola Tinubu, all but clearly stoked the fire by egging the Kogi lawmaker on to launch a fiercer onslaught against the Mark leadership.
Urging Abejide, who had sworn that he would do everything to ensure Tinubu’s re-election not to leave the ADC, through which he won his election to the National Assembly in 2023, but to stay back and fight rather than exiting the party, the ex-Speaker praised him for his resilience so far.
Abejide, who on his own, has thrown his weight behind Nafiu Bala, former Deputy National Chairman of the ADC, now laying claims to Mark’s position was one of those sacked at the convention organised by the Mark group last week.
But Gbajabiamila, who used the Kogi lawmaker’s birthday celebration on Monday to announce his support publicly, while hailing his political trajectory and resilience, including winning his election under the ADC – a relatively less-fancied platform in 2023.
His words: “For a man to contest in a place like Kogi, under a relatively unknown party, and win back-to-back elections, it tells you who that man is. You did not only secure re-election but also helped expand the party’s influence by bringing in other candidates. You’re a committed party man and a fighter.
“My charge to you is to stay in that same party. Fight them. Scatter them. Hold on to your party. Do not abandon them. We like what you are doing. Hold on to your party. Do not abandon it. Continue what you are doing. Win your election there. Nobody can take your party away from you.”
After the hammer from the Mark group, alongside Kingsley Temitope, Obinna Norman, Kennedy Odiong, and Stella Chukwuma, over the allegation of anti-party activities, Abejide dismissed his sack as null and void, coming from a “suya convention.”
Jonathan to Atiku: I don’t play God *I still achieved, though imperfect
BREAKING: FG opts for open court trial of coup plotters against Tinubu
ADC: Fight, scatter them! *Presidency goads Kogi lawmaker on Mark’s leadership
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