Weird Politics and Personalities

Fayose has no sense of history. If Fayose weren't a political scion of Mr. Tortoise, he wouldn't have invited Mr. Tortoise to his 65 birthday ceremony. Fayose would have read Iyabo's long letter to her father. Ṣùgbọ́n, irúkan nkan ni àwọn méjèèjì-Baba àti Ọmọ. Ọlọ́run má jẹ ki o rán ṣẹ́ sí ẹni tó máa bá ọjọ́ ẹ̀yẹ rẹ jẹ́. Àṣẹ! 

- Yahaya Balogun. 

Read Ìyábọ̀'s letter to her father:

BOMBSHELL! - DR IYABO RESPONDS TO HER FATHER. 

A MUST READ!

Open Letter to Dr. Olusegun Obasanjo

December 18, 2013. 

Written by Iyabo Obasanjo, DVM, PhD.

It brings me no joy to have to write this but since you started this trend of open letters I thought I would follow suit since you don’t listen to anyone anyway. The only way to reach you may be to make the public aware of some things. As a child well brought up by my long-suffering mother in Yoruba tradition, I have been reluctant to tell the truth about you but as it seems you still continue to delude yourself about the kind of person you are and I think for posterity’s sake it is time to set the records straight. I will return to the issue of my long-suffering mother later in this letter.

Like most Nigerians, I believe there are very enormous issues currently plaguing the country but I was surely surprised that you will be the one to publish such a treatise. I remember clearly as if it was yesterday the day I came over to Abuja from Abeokuta when I was Commissioner of Health in Ogun State, specifically to ask you not to continue to pursue the third term issue.

I had tried to bring it up when your sycophantic aides were present and they brushed my comments aside and as usual you listened to their self-serving counsel.

For you to accuse someone else of what you so obviously practiced yourself tells of your narcissistic megalomaniac personality. Everyone around for even a few minutes knows that the only thing you respond to is praise and worship of you. People have learnt how to manipulate you by giving you what you crave. The only ones that can’t and will not stroke your ego are family members who you universally treat like shit (sic) apart from the few who have learned to manipulate you like others.

Before I continue, Nigerians are people who see conspiracy and self-service in everything because I think they believe everyone is like them. This letter is not in support of President Jonathan or APC or any other group or person, but an outpouring from my soul to God. I don’t blame you for the many atrocities you have been able to get away with, Nigerians were your enablers every step of the way. People ultimately get leaders that reflect them.

Getting back to the story, I made sure your aides were not around and brought up the issue, trying to deliver the presentation of the issue as I had practiced it in my head. I started with the fact that we copied the US constitution which has term limits of two terms for a President. As is your usual manner, you didn’t allow me to finish my thought process and listen to my point of view. Once I broached the subject you sat up and said that the US had no term limits in the past but that it had been introduced in the 1940s after the death of President Roosevelt, which is true.

I wanted to say to you: when you copy something you also copy the modifications based on the learning from the original; only a fool starts from scratch and does not base his decisions on the learning of others. In science, we use the modifications found by others long ago to the most recent, as the basis of new findings; not going back to discover and learn what others have learnt. Human knowledge and development and civilization will not have progressed if each new generation and society did not build on the knowledge of others before them.

The American constitution itself is based on several theories and philosophies of governance available in the 18th century.

Democracy itself is a governance method started by the ancient Greeks. America’s founding fathers used it with modifications based on what hadn’t worked well for the ancient Greeks and on new theories since then.

As usual in our conversations, I kept quiet because I know you well. You weren’t going to change your mind based on my intervention as you had already made up your mind on the persuasion of the minions working for you who were ripping the country blind. When I spoke to you, your outward attitude to the people of the country was that you were not interested in the third term and that it was others pushing it.

Your statement to me that day proved to me that you were the brain behind the third term debacle. It is therefore outrageous that you accuse the current President of a similar two-facedness that you yourself used against the people of the country.

I was on a plane trip between Abuja and Lagos around the time of the third term issue and I sat next to one of your sycophants on the plane. He told me: “Only Obasanjo can rule Nigeria”. I replied: “God has not created a country where only one person can rule. If only one person can rule Nigeria then the whole Nigeria project is not a viable one, as it will be a non-sustainable project.

I don’t know how you came about Yar’Adua as the candidate for your party as it was not my priority or job. Unlike you, I focus on the issues I have been given responsibility over and not on the jobs of others. It was the day of the PDP Presidential Campaign in Abeokuta during the state-by-state tour of 2007 that Yar’Adua got sick and had to be flown abroad. The MKO Abiola Stadium was already filled with people by 9am when I drove by (and) we had told people based on the campaign schedule that the rally would start at noon.

At 11 am I headed for the stadium on foot; it was a short walk as there were so many cars already parked in and out. As I walked on with two other people, we saw crowds of people leaving the stadium. I recognized some of them as politicians and I asked them why people were leaving. They said the Presidential candidate had died. I was alarmed and shocked. I walked back home and received a call from a friend in Lagos who said the same and added that he had died in the plane carrying him abroad for treatment and that the plane was on its way to Katsina to bury him.

I called you, and told you the information and that the stadium was already half-empty. You told me to go to the stadium and tell the people on the podium to announce that the Presidential candidate had taken ill that morning but the rest of the team, including you and the Vice-Presidential candidate would arrive shortly. I did as I was told, but even the people on the podium at first didn’t make the announcement because they thought it was true that Yar’Adua had died. I had to take the microphone and make the announcement myself. It did little good. People kept trooping out of the stadium. Your team didn’t arrive until 4pm and by this time we had just a sprinkling of people left.

That evening after the disaster of a rally, you said you had insisted that the Presidential candidate fly to Germany for a check-up although you said he only had a cold. I asked why would anyone fly to Germany to treat a cold? And you said “I would rather die than have the man die at this time.” I thought of this profound statement as things later unfolded against me. Then I thought it a stupid statement but as usual I kept quiet, little did I know how your machinations for a person would be used against me. When Yar’Adua eventually died, you stayed alive, I would have expected you to jump into his grave.

I left Nigeria in 1989 right after youth service to study in the US and I visited in 1994 for a week and didn’t visit again until your inauguration in 1999. In between, you had been arrested by Abacha and jailed. We, your children, had no one who stood with us. Stella famously went around collecting money on your behalf but we had no one. We survived. I was the only one of the children working then as a post-doctoral fellow when I got the call from a friend informing me of your arrest.

A week before your arrest, you had called me from Denmark and I had told you that you should be careful that the government was very offended by some of your statements and actions and may be planning to arrest or kill you as was occurring to many at the time. The source of my information was my mother who, agitated, had called me, saying I should warn you as this was the rumour in the country. As usual you brushed aside my comments, shouting on the phone that they cannot try anything and you will do and say as you please. The consequence of your bravado is history.

We, your family, have borne the brunt of your direct cruelty and also suffered the consequences of your stupidity but got none of the benefits of your successes. Of course, anyone around you knows how little respect you have for your children. You think our existence on earth is about you. By the way, how many are we? 19, 20, 21?

Do you even know? In the last five years, how many of these children have you spoken to? How many grandchildren do you have and when did you last see each of them? As President you would listen to advice of people that never finished high school who would say anything to keep having access to you so as to make money over your children who loved you and genuinely wished you well.

At your first inauguration in 1999, I and my brothers and sisters told you we were coming from the US. As is usual with you, you made no arrangements for our trip, instead our mom organized to meet each of us and provided accommodation. At the actual swearing-in at Eagle Square, the others decided to watch it on TV. Instead I went to the square and I was pushed and tossed by the crowd. I managed to get in front of the crowd where I waved and shouted at you as you and General Abdulsalam Abubakar walked past to go back to the VIP seating area. I saw you mouth ‘my daughter’ to General Abdullahi who was the one who pulled me out of the crowd and gave me a seat. 

As I looked around I saw Stella and Stella’s family prominently seated but none of your children. I am sure General Abdullahi would remember this incident and I am eternally grateful to him.

Getting back to my mother, I still remember your beating her up continually when we were kids. What kids can forget that kind of violence against their mother? Your maltreatment of women is legendary. Many of your women have come out to denounce you in public but since your madness is also part of the madness of the society, it is the women that are usually ignored and mistreated. Of course, you are the great pretender, making people believe you have a good family life and a good relationship with your children but once in a while your pretence gets cracked.

When Gbenga gave a ride to help someone he didn’t know but saw was in need and the person betrayed his trust by tapping his candid response on the issues going on between you and your then vice-president, Atiku Abubakar, you had your aides go on air and denounce the boy before you even spoke to him to find out what happened. What kind of father does that? Your atrocities to some of my other siblings I will let them tell in their own due time or never if they choose.

Some of the details of our life are public but the people choose to ignore it and pretended we enjoyed some largesse when you were President.

This punishing the innocent is part of Nigeria’s continuing sins against God. While you were military head of state and lived in Dodan Barracks, we stayed either with our mum in the two-bedroom apartment provided for her by General Murtala Mohammed or with your relatives, Bose, Yemisi and your sisters’ kids in the Boys Quarters of Dodan Barracks. At QueensCollege, I remember being too ashamed to tell my wealthy classmates from Queen’s College, Lagos we lived in the two room Boys Quarters or in the two room flat on Lawrence Street.

No, we did not have privileged upbringing but our mother emphasized education and that has been our salvation. Of my mother’s 6 children 4 have PhDs. Of the two without PhD, one has a Master’s and the other is an engineer. They are no slouches. Education provided a way to make our way in the world. You are one of those petty people who think the progress and success of another takes from you. You try to overshadow everyone around you, before you and after you.

You are the prototypical “Mr. Know it all”. You’ve never said “I don’t know” on any topic, ever. Of course this means you surround yourself with idiots who will agree with you on anything and need you for financial gain and you need them for your insatiable ego. This your attitude is a reflection of the country. It is not certain which came first, your attitude seeping into the country’s psyche or the country accepting your irresponsible behavior for so long.

Like you and your minions, it’s a symbiotic relationship. Nigeria has descended into a hellish reality where smart, capable people to “survive” and have their daily bread prostrate to imbeciles. Everybody trying to pull everybody else down with greed and selfishness — the only traits that gets you anywhere. Money must be had and money and power is king. Even the supposed down-trodden agree with this.

Nigeria accused me of fraud with the Ministry of Health. As you yourself know, both in Abeokuta and Abuja I lived in your houses as a Senator. In Lagos, I stayed in my mum’s bungalow which she succeeded in getting from you when you abandoned her with six children to live in Abeokuta with Stella.

I borrowed against my four-year Senate salary to build the only house I have anywhere in the world in Lagos. I rent out the house for income. I don’t have much in terms of money but I am extremely happy. I tried to contribute my part to the development of my country but the country decided it didn’t need me. Like many educated Nigerians my age, there are countries that actually value people doing their best to contribute to society and as many of them have scattered all over the world so have many of your children.

I can speak for myself and many of them; what they are running away from is that they can’t even contribute effectively at the same time as they have to deal with constant threats to their lives by miscreants the society failed to educate; deal with lack of electricity and air pollution resulting from each household generating its own electricity, and the lack of quality healthcare or education and a total lack of sense of responsibility of almost every person you meet. Your contribution to this scenario cannot be overestimated.

You and your cronies mentioned in your letter have left the country worse than you met it at your births in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Nigeria is not the creation of any of you, and although you feel you own it and are “Mr Nigeria” deciding whether the country stays together or not, and who rules it; you don’t. Nigeria is solely the creation of the British. My dear gone Grandmother whose burial you told people not to attend, was not born a Nigerian but a proud Ijebu-Yoruba woman.

Togetherness is a choice and it must serve a purpose.

As for Nigerians thinking I have their money, when it was obvious I was part of the Yar’Adua (government’s) anti-Obasanjo phenomenon that was going on at the time. 

The Ministry of Health and international NGOs paid for a retreat for the Senate Committee on Health. The House Committee on Health was treated exactly the same way. The monies were given to members as estacode and the rest used for accommodation, flights and feeding. While the Senate was on the retreat in Ghana, the EFCC asked the House Committee to return the monies they received for their retreat and asked us in the Senate to return ours on our return which I refused, as it was already used for the purpose it was earmarked for in the budget that year which was to work on the National Health Bill.

The House Committee had not gone on their retreat. I did nothing wrong and my colleagues and I on the retreat did our work conscientiously. I asked the EFCC not to drag my colleagues into it and I am proud I suffered alone. As is usual in a society where people who are not progressive but take pleasure in the pain of others, most Nigerians were happy, not looking at the facts of the matter, just the suffering of an Obasanjo.

As the people that stole their millions are hailed by them the innocent is punished. When the court case was thrown out because it lacked merit even against the Minister, no newspaper carried the news. The wrongful malicious prosecution of an Obasanjo was not something they wanted to report; just her downfall. But it really wasn’t about me, it was about right and wrong in society and every society gets the fruit of the seeds it sows.

How do you think God will provide good leaders to such a people? 

God helps those who help themselves. I have realized that as an Obasanjo I am not entitled to work in Nigeria in any capacity. I am not entitled to work in health which is my training, or in any field or anywhere in the country or participate in any business. I have learnt this lesson well and there are societies that actually think capable, well-educated people are important to their society’s progress. Apparently, unless I am eating from the dustbin, Nigerians and possibly you will not be satisfied. I thank God it has not come to that based on God-given brains and brawn.

When I left Nigeria in 1989 for graduate studies in America, you promised to pay my school fees and no living expenses. This you did and I am grateful for because, working in the kitchen and then the library at University of California, Davis and later, working on the IT desk and later as a Teaching Assistant at Cornell gave me valuable work ethics for life. I wouldn’t have it any other way. As a black woman in the early 21st century, I have achieved much and done more than most. My wish is that black girls all over the world will have the capacity to create their lives, make mistakes, learn from it and move ahead.

Moving back to Nigeria, thinking I wanted to serve was obviously a grave mistake but one brought about by the tragic incident of April 20, 2003. This was the day five people were shot dead in my car. The mother of the children was an acquaintance I had met only one day before the incident.

We had attended the same high school and university but she was there ten years earlier than I. She had also studied public health in the UK as I had in the US. It was these coincidences that made us connect on our first meeting and then she decided to visit on theSaturday of the election of 2003 when the incident occurred. I am scarred for life by that incident and I know the mother was too as we both looked back to see two men on each side of my car shooting.

I understand her trauma and her behaviour since then can be judged from that. Nigeria is a nasty place that pushes people to lose their compass. I participated in the campaigns leading to the elections that day, more because this was my first experience of electoral process in Nigeria. Growing up there were no elections and I was too young in the 1979 and 1983 elections. It was interesting to see democracy at work. When Gbenga Daniel who I campaigned for offered me a job, I probably would have declined it, if not for the memory of the dead.

I felt I had to engage in making the country progress and to avoid such incidences in the future. I don’t need to tell you or anyone what kind of governor and person Gbenga Daniel is. As usual when I found out, you would not listen to my opinion but found out for yourself. I also campaigned for Amosun for the Senate in 2003.

I have had some wonderful Nigerians do good to me, I will never forget the then Minister of Women Affairs, who saw me talking in the crowd at a campaign event and was alarmed and said “bad things can happen to you out there, I will give you one of the orderlies assigned to my office to follow you". This was the police man that died in my car that day. I never really thought bad things would happen to me, I moved around freely in society until that shooting scarred me and I accepted a police detail. I was constantly scared for my life after that.

You called me after your vengeful letter as usual, looking out for yourself and thinking you will bribe me by saying the APC will use me for the Senate. Do you really know me and what I want out of life?

Anyone that knows me knows I am done with anything political or otherwise in Nigeria. I have so much to do and think to make this world a better place than to waste it on fighting with idiots over a political post that does no good to society. That letter you wrote to the President, would you have tolerated such a letter as a sitting President? Don’t do to others what you will not allow to be done to you. The only thing I was using that was yours was the house in Abuja where I left my things when I left the country. I eventually rented it out so that the place would not fall apart but as usual you want to take that as well. You can’t have it without explaining to Nigerians how you came about the house?

As I said earlier, this is not about politics but my frustration with you as a father and a human being. I am not involved with what is currently going on in Nigeria, I don’t talk to any Nigerian other than friends on social basis. I am not involved with any political groups or affiliation. You mentioned Governor Osoba when you spoke to me, yes I was walking down the street of Cambridge, Massachussets a few months ago, when I looked up and saw him reading a map trying to cross the street.

I greeted him warmly and offered to give him a ride to where he was going. This I did not do because I wanted anything from him politically but because that is how I was raised by my mother to treat an adult who I really had no ill-will towards. Some said he was part of the people that manipulated the elections for me to lose in 2011. I don’t have any ill-will to him for that because I think they did me a favour and someone has to win and lose.

I had told you I wasn’t going to run in 2011 but you manipulated me to run; that was my mistake. Losing was a blessing. As usual you wanted me to run for your self-serving purpose to perpetuate your name in the political realm and as the liar that you are, you later denied that it was you who wanted me to run in 2011.

In 2003 I ran because I wanted to and I thought getting to the central government I will be able to contribute more to improving lives and working on legislation that impacts the country. I found that nothing gets done; every public official in Nigeria is working for himself and no one really is serving the public or the country.

The whole system, including the public themselves want oppressors, not people working for their collective progress. When no one is planning the future of a country, such a country can have no future. I won’t be your legacy, let your legacy be Nigeria in the fractured state you created because, it was always your way or the highway.

This is the end of my communication with you for life. I pray Nigeria survives your continual intervention in its affairs.

Sincerely,

Iyabo Obasanjo, DVM, PhD

Massachusetts,

USA.

There are many more "ACHIEVEMENTS that will guarantee Tinubu’s re-election." 

Please find them below: 

1. The only Nigerian president to have travelled to France about half a dozen times in just TWO years of his administration. 

2. The only president to have bought himself an Escalade, a huge America car as his official vehicle. 

3. The only president to have bought himself a N5 billion yacht in his first year. 

4. Tinubu is also the first president to have purchased himself an Airbus plane, which source of money is undisclosed. According to some cronies, he purchased the plane from his pocket.  

5. President Tinubu probably has the largest cabinet ever in Nigeria's history, made up of about 48 ministers. But, you can't remember the names of up to ten of the ministers because most of them are idle, incompetent, and unknown. 

6. The only president to have announced on his first day in office that he had COMPLETELY removed subsidy from petrol only to turn around and pay trillions of Naira in "subsidy." 

7. The only president whose wife "donated" a whopping sum of ONE BILLION NAIRA to Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. 

8. The only president, who without advertisement or competitive bidding, gave a $13 billion highway construction contract to an "indigenous" company in which his family has business interests.

9. The only president whose son kick-started his father's re-election campaign before the administration's mid-term by touring the country, meeting Muslim leaders, and sharing cooked meals and raw food. 

10. The only president whose son reviews parade and is followed by a large retinue of state security apparatus and a long motorcade of his own. 

11. The only president who budgeted N4 billion for the purchase of official vehicles for his wife.. 

12. The president who spent the largest amount of money on the "renovation" of the largest number of presidential residencies 

13. The president who suspended his minister of humanitarian affairs, set up a committee to investigate her and then sat on the report of the committee. 

14. The only president whose minister of finance, Accountant General, cbn governor, FIRS chair, EFCC chair, COAS, IG of Police, DG, DSS, CJN, Attorney General, etc, are simultaneously all his tribesmen. 

15. The only president who established a seven-man committee to advise him on Census and five of the members of the committee are his tribesmen and women. 

16. The president who has paid an appreciable percentage of (undisclosed amount) of money for the construction of another highway, the Sokoto-Badagry Road, which total contract sum and delivery date have been kept away from the public. 

17. The president whose minister of works doubles as the spokesman of the companies awarded road construction contracts by his ministry. Have you ever heard Hightech or Infouest construction companies give any details about their Lagos-Calabar, Sokoto-Badagry, or Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road contracts? 

18. The president who condemned and ranted most against the state of emergency declared by his predecessors, only to turn around and declare a state of emergency of his own in Rivers state based on the flimsiest excuse. 

19. The president who mobilised the people and threatened fire and brimstone if President Jonathan removed subsidy on petroleum products only to turn around and inflict the most depressing and cruel subsidy removal regime on the populace. 

20. The president, whose celebrated economic policies caused the highest rate of inflation in the country's history. 

21. The president who refused to say pim in the face of allegations of sexual harassment against his counterpart in the Senate

22. The president under whom petroleum tankers have killed the most number of people in the first two years of any administration.  

23. The president under whom the socio-economic conditions of the people have NOT improved despite the unprecedented revenue generated, the amount of loans contracted, the increased crude oil export, and favourable crude oil prices. 

24. The president who clamped emergency rule and decided to negotiate with the governor he ousted in a foreign country. 

25. The president who has the largest number of spokespersons in the history of Nigeria's democracy. 

26. The president who appointed the largest number of special advisers and special assistants in the country's history 

27. The president who promised 2000 tractors for Nigerian farmers and failed to deliver. 

28. The president with the most dubious business, education, and family history. 

29. The president who promised to implement the Oronsoye Report, set up a committee to review it and then abandoned the matter. 

30. The C-in-C who failed to eliminate banditry and bandit kingpins Bello Turji and Dogo Gide but rushed to have army barracks named after him. 

31. The president who promised thousands of jobs only to allow for the closure of factories and exacerbated unemployment. 

32. The president who raised the most telecom tariffs without corresponding improvement in telecom services. 

33. The president who authorised the highest tariffs in the electricity sector without meaningful improvement in electricity supply. 

34. The president who rushed to award multi-billion dollars highway contracts while neglecting existing but dilapidated roads. 

35. The president, who received the fewest foreign leaders in the first two years of any recent presidency. 

36. The president under whom three West African countries left ECOWAS due to his ill-considered and incompetent foreign policy. 

37. The president who threatened to invade Niger Republic and restore democracy and then chickened out. 

38. The president with the longest vehicular convoy of any Nigerian president 

39. The president whose son takes precedence over cabinet members during introductions to foreign leaders while his father is on official foreign visits. 

40. The president who announced the normalisation of aviation and visa relations with UAE only to be contradicted (for misrepresentation of facts) by the host country. 

41. The president who calls on his compatriots to make sacrifice while he luxuriates at their expense  

42. The president who travels to banditry and kidnapping den called Katsina state and finds the time to frolick and celebrate with an ignorant musician called Rarara. 

43. The president under whose nose a retired General of the Nigerian Army was kidnapped for months before release 

44. The president who stays the longest time without replacing Nigerian ambassadors while conducting foreign policy through solo effort. 

45. The president whose son has been accused of dabbling into state matters, including nominating ministers and setting thugs against student leaders who refuse to do his bidding. 

46. The president who forcefully returned the impeached speaker of the Lagos House of Assembly to office. 

47. The president who has spent more time politicking than governing. 

48. The president, who says Nigerian presidency, is his entitlement. 

49. The president who said he spent his own money to win the presidency. 

50. The president who arraigned Nigerian youths in court for treason because they protested against hunger. 

51. The president who has not been able to visit the United States of America or be received by its president in two years of his administration. Pls note that attending the UNGA meeting in New York is different from a state visit to the US. 

52. The president who has been fighting in court to keep the records of his stay in the USA in the 1990s from being accessed by the people. 

53. The president, for whom the CIA and FBI and DEA are all fighting to keep his business records hidden from the public. 

54. The president who has given the fewest live media interviews in the two years since he became the president.  

55. The ONLY Nigerian president who forfeited $460,000 to the US government on the suspicion that the money was proceeds from trade in narcotics. 

56. The president whose political party continues to attract defectors for reasons that are unclear. 

57. The president, who announced one of his fiercest critics as his spokesman, only to unceremoniously REVERSE himself shortly after. 

58. The president who refused to heed the advice of the people to withdraw the tax bills for further consultation and is determined to hoist the bills on the country come what may. 

59. The president, whose tax bills committee chairman, one Oladele, recommended jacking up VAT to 15% in 2025 after rejecting proposal for a similar increase by the previous administration. The name of the game is hypocrisy. 

60. The president, whose hand is seen in multiple crises bedeveling the major political parties, and now there's fear that he's railroading the country into a one-party state. 

61. The president, whose minister of the FCT is evidently causing political crisis in Rivers state but is unable to call him to order. 

62. The president who benefitted most from dissent and political opposition but is today closing the space for others. 

63. The president who's pursuing ethnic supremacy for his stock. 

64. The president whose latest approvals for road construction voted N1.394 TRILLION for his own corner of the country while granting less than N340 billion to the THREE other sub-regions of South East, North West & North East. 

65. The most brazenly partial, inconsiderate, and unjust president Nigeria has ever seen. 

66. The president who won election on a deceptive Muslim/Muslim presidential ticket and today the Muslims are asking what's their gain for electing him. 

67. The president whose hand is suspected in the emergence of TWO emirs in Kano. 

68. Corruption has run riots in Nigeria, and almost every day, there's one story or another of how public officials are bleeding the treasury. Corruption is alive and well in Nigeria, and this government has neither the sincerity nor the capacity to fight it. 

69. Another big achievement of this government is the mass disbelief in the country and hopelessness about whether tomorrow will be any better. The renewed hope is a gimmick and a mere slogan by this administration to buy time and (mis)lead this country into decay. Folks, Nigeria is drifting, misguided by the hands of those wey say dem sabi road. Now we know say dem no sabi road, atol atoll. Dem don put us in a dark tunnel wey no get end. 

70. Crime is surging in Nigeria. The country is being overrun by criminals of different hues on the roads and in offices. Who would have thought that Nigerians could roast in a fire another group of Nigerians? Stories of kidnapping, robbery, murder, rape, etc., are on the increase. 

71. The president whose "bold reforms" have plunged more than 100 million Nigerians into poverty and yet has no counter-policies or timetable for lifting those multitudes out of the  poverty he has put them 🫠 

        

My name is Abu Najakku

THE TRUTH GANI DARED TO SPEAK: Revisiting the Courageous Legal and Moral Battle Against Tinubu’s Identity.

Aare Amerijoye DOT.B

“The greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the heat of 1999, as Nigeria staggered out of the long night of military dictatorship into the hazy promise of democracy, a storm was already brewing. The streets of Lagos buzzed with whispers. Newspapers flooded with conflicting biographies. A new governor had emerged,chest out, agbada flowing, eyes sparkling with ambition,but behind his rise stood a towering question: Who exactly is Bola Ahmed Tinubu?

The man had claimed prestigious education, named schools that denied him, brandished records that seemed forged, and yet, a nation wearied by dictatorship clapped for a mystery. But not everyone clapped.

In that critical moment, when many bowed in silence, Chief Gani Fawehinmi (SAN), the titan of Nigerian human rights law, rose like a blazing torch in the fog of deceit. His voice, already thunderous in the courtroom of conscience, became a sword in the battle for truth. Gani dragged Tinubu to court over forged academic claims and identity fraud. It was not a mere lawsuit,it was a crusade. A moral revolt against the compromise that had become Nigerian politics.

Though the law’s cold armor of constitutional immunity shielded Tinubu from prosecution, the people saw what had been done. The case pierced the armor of myth. Gani did not win the case. He won the truth.

“You may silence a man, but you cannot silence his truth.” – Gani Fawehinmi

But Gani was not alone.

Long after his legal fire was put out, others picked up the flame. The late Comrade Yinka Odumakin, one of the finest minds of Yoruba resistance, never allowed the deceit to sleep. A committed spokesman of Afenifere, Odumakin called Tinubu’s story a “suspicious mosaic of forgeries, falsehoods, and shifting identities.” His voice was unrelenting. He cried for justice. He warned that Tinubu’s politics was built on a foundation of fraud that would end in disgrace.

And then came the band of legal warriors, bold as eagles and dangerous to the comfort of lies.

Alhaji Seriki and Dr. Balogun, men of honour and conscience, took Tinubu to court. The charge? Forgery. They demanded that truth be measured not by power, but by the yardstick of fact. They saw through the opulence and challenged the paper trail.

Dr. Dominic Agboola, a man better known for saving lives in hospitals, decided it was time to rescue the nation from a dangerous precedent. He filed a forgery lawsuit against Tinubu too,because in the Nigeria he dreamed of, no one was above the truth.

So did Mike Enahoro Mbah, a vigilant legal mind who refused to be cowed by status. His suit against Tinubu over forgery joined the growing army of Nigerians who had finally said, Enough is enough.

Then came 2023. The presidential race. The stakes were global. And once again, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and the PDP’s torchbearer, picked up the gavel of truth. In an extraordinary legal move, Atiku subpoenaed Chicago State University in a U.S. court, seeking verification of Tinubu’s alleged academic claims.

What they found was staggering. Conflicting records. Ambiguous transcripts. Names that didn’t match. Files that raised more questions than answers. It was no longer about politics,it was about the credibility of Nigeria in the eyes of the world.

“Justice delayed is justice denied.” — William E. Gladstone

The story deepened.

Dr. Femi Aribisala, a renowned theologian and piercing columnist, called Tinubu a “master illusionist.” He stripped down the cloak of invincibility and exposed what he described as a travesty of statesmanship, a man of contradictions, cloaked in carefully-crafted lies.

David Hundeyin, the fearless journalist whose pen burns hotter than fire, dropped a bombshell dossier: a deep dive into alleged drug-linked money forfeiture in the United States, multiple identities, mysterious origins, and forged academic documents. His work shook the global scene and forced a long-muted scandal back into the light.

And then came the oracles of reason, those whose names alone send tremors of reflection through the corridors of power.

Femi Falana (SAN) did not stay silent. He echoed Gani’s warnings and affirmed the legal merit of the forgery cases. He lamented how immunity, that legal parasite, killed the infant truth in its cradle.

Ayo Adebanjo, the indomitable leader of Afenifere, warned that the Yoruba race had been hijacked by fraud, and Tinubu stood as the chief hijacker. A man, he said, whose path to power was littered with inconsistencies and betrayal.

Omoyele Sowore, with the might of Sahara Reporters, pulled the mask off Tinubu’s empire. He revealed how his control of Lagos finances, questionable land acquisitions, and questionable past painted a dark mural of elite impunity.

Prof. Wole Soyinka, though often cautious, warned Nigerians to beware of those who rewrite history and shroud their pasts in silence. His subtle commentary was a moral thunderclap in an age of deaf governance.

“If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.” – Che Guevara

And even those who once occupied the highest seat in the land could not stay silent.

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former President and elder statesman, wrote pointedly in his memoir My Watch about Tinubu’s murky record, raising unsettling questions that still echo across Nigeria’s political landscape. Obasanjo wrote:

“Where and how did Tinubu make all the money he is said to have? How can Lagos State be so rich and yet so poor in terms of infrastructure and living conditions of its people?”

In that brutally honest reflection, Obasanjo did not mince words. He alleged that Tinubu had turned Lagos into his personal kingdom, subverting democratic norms, and controlling its resources with unchecked imperial power. He painted a picture of a city governed by one man’s whims, a political fiefdom masquerading as a democracy.

On Tinubu’s moral qualifications for higher leadership, Obasanjo posed the ultimate question

 “If there are allegations of drug crimes, forgery, and identity manipulation hanging on someone’s neck, and such a person refuses to address them transparently, is that the kind of leadership Nigeria deserves?”

To Obasanjo, Tinubu was not just a politician; he was a cautionary tale. A stark warning about what happens when a country trades truth for power, and allows mystery to eclipse morality.

 “He has turned Lagos into a kingdom of one man. He decides who becomes what, and how state resources are used.”

This wasn’t a partisan attack,it was a presidential reckoning.

By referencing Tinubu’s alleged entanglements with drug-related forfeiture in the U.S., his controversial educational claims, and the tight political grip on Lagos, Obasanjo called for national vigilance. His words were not whispers, they were thunder.

And now, here we are. Twenty-six years later. A nation still ruled by a man whose true story remains a puzzle. Questions have not been answered. Allegations have not been cleared. History has not been cleaned.

This article is not an accusation. It is not a condemnation. It is a chronicle, a meticulous journey through time, voices, and evidence. It is a mirror held up to a nation that chose silence over scrutiny, and loyalty over logic.

Why are we ruled by questions, and not answers?

The time to speak was yesterday. The time to act is now.

“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” – Edmund Burke

Aare Amerijoye DOT.B

Director General 

The Narrative Force 

honamerijoye.b@gmail.com

*Rethinking Party Politics and Governance in Nigeria.* 

********************************"

In Africa, particularly in Nigeria, a widespread misconception exists among the populace, especially among party loyalists, equating party structures and hierarchies with governance. This flawed perspective assumes that political parties can control and monopolize public resources through the government. However, this notion contradicts the core principles of democracy.

A political party's structure encompasses various positions designed to ensure its smooth operation, growth, and success. These roles include:

 *National:* 

National Chairman

Deputy National Chairman

National Secretary

National Treasurer

National Financial Secretary

National Legal Adviser

National Organizing Secretary

National Publicity Secretary

National Women Leader

National Youth Leader

Zonal Organizing Secretaries.

 *These roles are replicated at the State:* 

State Chairman

State Vice Chairman

State Secretary

State Treasurer

State Financial Secretary

State Legal Adviser

State Organizing Secretary

State Publicity Secretary

State Women Leader

State Youth Leader.

 *Local government:* 

Local Government Chairman

Local Government Vice Chairman

Local Government Secretary

Local Government Treasurer

Local Government Financial Secretary

Local Government Legal Adviser

Local Government Organizing Secretary

Local Government Publicity Secretary

Local Government Women Leader

Local Government Youth Leader.

 *Ward levels:* 

Ward Chairman

Ward Vice Chairman

Ward Secretary

Ward Treasurer

Ward Legal Adviser 

Ward Organizing Secretary

Ward Publicity Secretary

Ward Women Leader

Ward Youth Leader.

With minor adjustments for each level's peculiarities.

Governance, by contrast, involves the formal administration of government following elections. In Nigeria, the governance structure operates across three tiers:

 *National Level* 

The President and Vice President

Cabinet Members

National Assembly: Senators (109) and House of Representatives Members (360).

 *State Level* 

The Governor and Deputy Governor

Cabinet Members

State House of Assembly Members.

 *Local Government Level* 

The Local Government Chairman and Vice Chairman

Cabinet Members

Councilors representing various wards.

While political parties provide platforms for political participation, their primary role is internal: managing party affairs, fostering growth, and ensuring electoral success. Conversely, governance entails implementing policies and programs for the welfare of the people, as mandated by the electorate.

It is imperative that political parties and their structures do not interfere with governance by monopolizing resources meant for public service delivery. Party leaders and state officials, even when emerging from the same political party, must operate within their distinct roles to avoid undermining democratic principles.

The dividends of democracy must be equitably distributed across localities to ensure fairness, transparency, and the proper utilization of public resources for societal benefit.

(C) Usman Abdullahi

*What Trump’s Comeback May Mean for Africa.*

By Farooq A. Kperogi

A few weeks ago, I spoke at a symposium in my university here in Georgia on the implications of the U.S. presidential election for the African diaspora. To the bemusement of my audience (who were a mix of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris supporters), I explained the curious phenomenon of African support for Donald Trump, particularly among Nigerian and Kenyan evangelicals.

 I described how a surprising number of African Christians (and, in fact, some Muslims) consider Trump “God’s chosen one,” a valiant defender of conservative religious values whom they imagine will take on global LGBTQ rights with righteous vengeance.

 The audience was incredulous and struggled to reconcile Trump’s infamous moral transgressions with his appeal to African conservatives. When I explained that these supporters see Trump as a warrior against the “cultural liberalism” they believe threatens their faith, eyebrows raised.

The eyebrows raised even further when I pointed out that there are Muslims who are so disillusioned with the Biden/Harris administration’s support for Israel that they prayed for a Trump win even when Trump is more manifestly hawkish than Biden/Harris and so disdains Muslims that he enacted a “Muslim ban” (which actually included non-Muslims) within the first few months of his first presidency.

But here’s the crux: Donald Trump is no more interested in religious morality than he is in the theological reveries of his African fan base. He is, in truth, a transactional man, a walking paradox of deals and calculations, utterly bereft of the very spiritual or moral foundation his African supporters so naively project onto him. 

Trump’s “faith,” such as it is, is at best a performance, an asset to be deployed for strategic gains among America’s own conservative Christians, whom he has calculatedly courted for votes. To imagine Trump as the champion of conservative religious values is to mistake calculation for conviction and propaganda for principle. 

His record speaks louder than his rhetoric. In 2015, for example, at a gathering of conservative Christians in Iowa, he openly admitted he never asks God for forgiveness, a theological anathema for any believer. 

Later, on the campaign trail, he betrayed his biblical unfamiliarity, when he clumsily referred to “Two Corinthians” rather than the more common “Second Corinthians.” A slip of the tongue, perhaps, but in a subsequent interview, he tried to salvage his Christian credibility but ended up quoting a verse that doesn’t even exist: "Never bend to envy," he offered, an adage Christians say is found nowhere in the Bible. 

Even when cornered about his favorite Bible verse, he misfired by citing “an eye for an eye,” a command Jesus explicitly repudiated. These are not the errors of a deeply religious man but the floundering of someone who considers faith a tool, not a calling.

Two Trump biographers sum up his attitude to Christianity and God nicely. Timothy O’Brien, in a 2007 book titled TrumpNation: The Art of Being Donald, wrote: “Donald has never been a spiritually or religiously serious person.” 

And in 2001 book titled The Trumps: Three Generations That Built an Empire (which was revised and reissued as The Trumps: Three Generations of Builders and a President), Gwenda Blair wrote: “He's a transactional guy with humans, and it's no different with God — it's all about whatever is to his advantage with regard to his supporters, and referencing God is exactly and only that.”

Yet for all his transparent artifice, Trump has nonetheless cast a beguiling spell on certain parts of Africa and the African diaspora, who see in him a savior of conservative values. They seem unfazed by the fact that his administration’s policies, his rhetoric, and his track record show little regard for Black humanity.

This disdain was palpable during his last tenure, and his recent rallies have done nothing to dispel it. Take, for instance, his unfounded claim during the first and only presidential debate that Black Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating cats and dogs, a baseless assertion that isn’t just false but revelatory: it reveals a mind committed to degrading Blackness wherever he sees it.

There’s a dark and disheartening history here. Trump’s disdain for Black people isn’t new, nor has it emerged from thin air. His bigotry is old news, woven through an embroidery of disparaging comments, discriminatory practices, and racially motivated policies dating back decades.

 In 1973, the Department of Justice sued Trump for refusing to rent apartments to Black families, citing his blatant violation of the Fair Housing Act. He fought the case before reluctantly signing an agreement to stop his racist practices.

 His remarks afterward? He railed that the government was forcing him to rent to “welfare recipients,” the vile code by which he aligned poverty with Blackness. The sentiment was clear: in his mind, Black people didn’t belong, and it was his duty to keep them out.

Such is Trump’s enduring perspective, made all the more alarming by his political ascendance. The implications of his return for Africa are both direct and symbolic. During his previous presidency, Trump cut aid programs that many African countries rely on and dismissed African immigrants as a detriment to American society. 

His rhetoric went beyond mere words; his policies made a statement, a policy posture that informed his supporters, shaped the broader narrative around Black immigration, and foreshadowed his now-infamous “shithole countries” comment in 2018.

 When Trump disparaged Haiti, Nigeria, and other Black-majority nations in favor of immigration from Norway, it wasn’t just a one-off gaffe; it was a worldview rooted in negrophobic disdain.

In truth, Trump has never reckoned with the humanity of Black people. Even before his “shithole countries” remark, he lambasted a Black accountant in 1991, citing “laziness as a trait in Blacks.” 

Years later, during his 2016 campaign, he praised Ann Coulter’s venomously xenophobic book, which decried the arrival of Nigerians in the United States as a criminal invasion.

His decision to block the appointment of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerian-American, to lead the World Trade Organization in 2020, was yet another evidence to his disregard for Black excellence—American citizenship or no.

 This is not a man whose opinions have been shaped by reasoned disagreement but by ingrained prejudice and an unwavering belief that Black lives, both within and outside of America, are lesser. Such a man at the helm of one of the world’s most powerful nations isn’t just a potential diplomatic nightmare; it’s a moral catastrophe for those who value the dignity of human life.

For Africa, the implications of a Trump resurgence are manifold. His approach to immigration alone could lead to increased restrictions on Africans seeking opportunity or refuge in the United States.

 His contempt for Africans doesn’t only taint those who seek to immigrate but extends to those who remain. His willingness to denigrate entire nations with his vile language reinforces a global view of Africa as “the other,” a place he deemed too backward to deserve respect or dignify.

But Trump’s leadership affects more than just immigration. His previous administration gutted health programs that African nations relied on to tackle AIDS, malaria, and other epidemics. His withdrawal from multilateral agreements and climate initiatives destabilized African countries that disproportionately suffer from the effects of global warming and benefit the least from its economic causes.

 Africa is neither immune to nor shielded from Trump’s reign. From economic pressures to ideological disrespect, his contempt manifests as policies that undermine progress and sow the seeds of isolationism.

For Africans, Trump’s victory isn’t just a foreign policy issue; it’s a personal affront. It’s a slap in the face to the millions of Africans who know America as a country that historically symbolized freedom, opportunity, and hope.

 Africa’s bond with the United States transcends politics; it is the memory of independence movements supported by the promise of democracy, the aspiration for economic opportunity, and the reverence for cultural exchange. Trump’s worldview, with its utter disregard for Black humanity, threatens to erode this bond, leaving in its wake a continent left to question its ties with the West.

The challenge before Africa is to use this moment as an opportunity for unity and self-determination. 

Trump’s contempt is an ugly mirror, a stark reminder that Africa cannot rely on foreign validation. Leaders and citizens alike must demand dignity, both in their interactions with the United States and in their own national narratives. 

The message should be clear: Africa is neither a pawn nor a supplicant. It is a continent rich in resources, diversity, and human potential, undeserving of the scorn Trump so freely dispenses.

Trump’s victory may symbolize a return to darkness, but it is also an opportunity to galvanize resilience. Africa need not waste energy on a man who cannot see beyond his prejudice; instead, it should look to the future with resolve. 

Africa’s destiny lies not in the hands of a foreign leader, and certainly not in one so blind to its humanity. Let his disdain be a rallying cry, not for despair, but for Africa to rise on its own terms.