Editorial
IBB book launch: Gathering of statemen without state!
On Thursday, February 20, 2025, Nigeria gathered at the Transcorp Hotel, Abuja. Yes Nigeria! For the simple reason that in their hands lies the State – the instrument of a people who have agreed to gather together under one law, one destiny and one goal!
Collectively, the faces in that assembly constitute the collegiate called – The Owners of Nigeria (Dele Momodu). To put it more plainly, if not forcefully, if those at that assembly had decided yesterday, decides today or even tomorrow with one voice that Nigeria will become heaven on earth, that status would have since have been attained a long time ago. If they do so today or tomorrow, the same outcome will be achieved.
But they never decided yesterday. From the vibes in that picturesque gathering, they seem not ready to do so today. Nobody knows what would be of tomorrow. Yet they had the opportunity to do so and still have it today, and ceteris paribus, will also have the powers to do so tomorrow. Sampler: In that gathering were all the living former leaders of Nigerian government, either as military Heads of State or civilian Presidents.
In fact, two of them – Olusegun Obasanjo, and Muhammadu Buhari, governed Nigeria in both capacities. Though Buhari, the last, but one President, who exited power on May 29, 2023, was not physically president, for what many suspect was an obvious reason, having been ousted from power and detained by Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida as Head of State in 1985, he sent a representative. So, in that regard, he was also present.
The question therefore is why did they not toe that line of making Nigeria great? Nobody needs to go far to find the answer. Save for the plain imbeciles or those given to living in denial or the politically-correct-seeking-bunch, the reason is obvious. It was clearly seen in that gathering in Abuja – clearly visible like the flicker of light in pitch-darkness – selfishness.
They had gathered for the launch of the book: A Journey in Service, an autobiography authored by Babangida, chronicling his life’s story, particularly his eight-year rule as the only Military President in the history of Nigeria.
Indeed, such a gathering where the former President, finally admitted to the fact that Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola won the June 12, 1993 election, as expected, would have been an opportunity for deep introspection.
It would have been a chance to walk back the years past as well as an occasion that would provide the sharp tool with which the tip of the huge boil that has given Nigeria intractable pains and sleepless nights, would have been pricked open to release the puss, thus freeing it from its excruciating agony. But nada! Instead, it was the same pastime – subterfuge, deceit, half-truths and outright lies. That was all that gathering showcased, regrettably.
Even though he intended it to be humour, Yemi Osinbajo, Buhari’s Vice President, actually captured the fact that some of the patrons at that event, had executed coups against each other. The former university professor and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), might have been pointing to military coups, or could have been understood as doing so. But even the civilians amongst them had not been less mischievous against themselves.
More than that, virtually all of them had carried out coups against Nigeria by deciding to work for themselves rather than working for the country – the reason it is currently in its sorry pass. The fact that they failed to utilise that opportunity on Thursday to tell Nigerians the truth, is again, a clear indication of their mindset. The scant regard to nationhood, captured in the absence of patriotism, which has remained at the vortex of Nigeria’s underdevelopment, was just too obvious in their conducts at that event which could not pass as more than mere jesting.
The fact that each of them who rose to the rostrum to speak, decided to shower praises on the General, whose singular action of nullifying that June 12 election most Nigerian had expected to be the turning point for Nigeria, not only left a sour taste in the mouth, it was evidently nauseating as it was revulsive.
Who knows, if with the level of patronage, obeisance and extreme veneration devoted to same Babangida seen as the architect and harbinger of Abiola’s ugly fate, the late business mogul, would not be turning with anguish in his grave from what he would obviously interpret as pure mockery. After all, the same Babangida did not mince word when he pointedly told Nigerians as he rang his warning bell, we are not only in government, we are in power.
What other statement could have been more audacious in sending the message? Yet, because he has now recanted his original position by “taking responsibility,” the position of sainthood had to be donated to him. After all, what could be more benevolent in reversing himself? What happened to him when he did not? Did his Hilltop mansion not remain the Mecca it had always served, where hundreds of Nigerians trooped to in search of privileges?
It did not even matter to that audience that Babangida’s feeble admittance to that event 32 years ago was as half-hearted as it was insipid. Even a suckling toddler would have easily seen the result of the election clearly. But no, the Minna Saint, only realised that Abiola won upon “further reflection.” What a pity? Yes! If he did not know and just realised, why should anyone blame him?
So, they cheered! They clapped! They celebrated. But nobody was deceived. Even the baby clutching at the mother’s breast knew that neither the Generals in the room nor the bloody civilians among them believed the gibberish. Like it had always been, it was all showmanship, a circuit created to entertain themselves and deceive Nigerians, as always.
Even the late Sani Abacha, who ultimately took over, were he to be at that gathering on Thursday, would still find accommodation in the eulogies, ululations and backslappings. Regardless what Nigerians know of him, he could have written his own book. If he did and told the same audience that Kudirat Abiola, who was assassinated long before her husband died mysteriously, minutes after he was released from detention, was killed by area boys, that same crowd would have cheered and clapped.
That is the tragedy of Nigeria. Come to think of it, how many June 12 tragedies have been experienced in Nigeria’s electoral journey since that catastrophic event of 1993? Which election since then has passed the simplest test of credibility? Those same people at that event in Abuja, saw the outright replication of the same June 12 in 2023.
What did they say when some people grabbed, snatched and ran away with the mandate of the people? Maybe 20 years after, one of the beneficiaries of that heist will write his memoirs to tell the world that Peter Obi, the Labour Party (LP) candidate, actually won the election, but Nigeria would have broken into pieces if allowed to become President. So, in national interest, for Nigeria to be preserved, he was denied.
Even that line would also attract the same applause as the author would be celebrated as a hero “for his humility” in telling the truth at last. The drums will be rolled out. Hapless and helpless Nigerians, who have since become pawns on the chessboard, will, as usual, cringe in pain and the beat will go on. Yes! Stripped of the essence of nationhood, Nigeria will remain what it is – an entity peopled with a surfeit of statesmen without a state. 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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