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OPINION: For Ganduje And Kabiyesi

By Lasisi Olagunju
Useful Abdullahi Ganduje kissed the canvas on Friday. Many more will go his way. His fall was the wish of his maker, the king: cold, calculating, ruthless.
Ganduje said he resigned as APC National Chairman to take care of his failing health. APC governors, deities that they are, assisted him with a different reason. They held a meeting in Benin at the weekend and said the man’s exit aligned with internal reforms and ongoing efforts to strengthen their party. “His Excellency, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje’s resignation is in tandem with the party’s continued evolution,” the governors said. How could someone’s sickness be part of a party’s reforms?
If the voice of an elder does not sprout yams that are good for pounding, it will sprout yams good for planting (Ohùn àgbà, bí kò ta isu gígún, á ta èèbù). The president is the elder here; nothing he utters or orders goes unheeded. We have since learnt that Ganduje had to go because the president needed a clearer view of the future. The president is busy weeding the field and mounting the stakes to the applause of the indentured. The whole country is behind the one who hires and fires; like the old lion, all walks lead into his tent.
The stage President Bola Tinubu is today was the stage Zulu king, Emperor Shaka, was at the peak of his glory. From 1816 to 1828, from River Pongola to the Tugela River, Shaka conquered this enemy and defeated that foe. In deft, strategic moves, he allied with all rivals around, massed for himself a vast empire of 200km-wide area, north of the present-day city of Durban, South Africa. He built an empire of marvel that has been difficult for history to ignore. Shaka moved from king to emperor; he dominated, ruled, developed and plundered as he wished. Then, one day, God said “enough!” The man suffered the final loss, but his reign left ugly scars.
Emperor Shaka did no wrong no matter how gross the things he did were. Everything he did was right and was worthy of his people’s applause, and the people applauded him. Even when the emperor treated and called his subjects dogs in their presence, the subjects clapped and said they were blessed. In 1824, Shaka was visited by Henry Franics Fynn, an Englishman on official duty. A fascinating exchange, which ensued between them, was carefully kept in a diary by the white man:
Shaka: “I hear you have come from umGeorge, is it so ? Is he as great a king as I am?”
Fynn: “Yes; King George is one of the greatest kings in the world.”
Shaka: “I am very angry with you.” (He said while putting on a severe countenance). “I shall send a messenger to umGeorge and request him to kill you. He sent you to me, he did not send you to give medicine to my dogs.”
All present immediately applauded what Shaka had said. (They were the ones he called dogs, and they knew).
Shaka: “Why did you give my dogs medicine?” (in allusion to the woman I was said to have brought back to life after death).
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Fynn: “It is a practice of our country to help those who are in need, if able to do so.”
Shaka: “Are you then the doctor of dogs? You were sent here to be my doctor.”
Fynn: “I am not a doctor and not considered by my countrymen to be one.”
Shaka: “Have you medicine by you?”
Fynn: “Yes.”
Shaka: “Then cure me, or I will have you sent to umGeorge to have you killed.”
Fynn: “What is the matter with you ?”
Shaka: “That is your business to find out.”
Fynn: “Stand up and let me see your person.”
Shaka: “Why should I stand up?”
Fynn: “That I may see if I can find out what ails you.”
(Source: Stuart and Malcolm, ‘Diary of Fynn, 83-5’, in ‘Tshaka and the British traders, 1824-1828’ by Felix N. C. Okoye, 1972).
If Shaka were Yoruba, he would be worshipped as Kabiyesi, an emperor, the one no one queries. “To be truly imperial, one must have an empire to govern.” Harold Larrabee wrote that in his review of Arthur Schlesinger’s ‘The Imperial Presidency.’ Larrabee was right. I add to what he said: To have an empire, you must fight and conquer all enemies, and “eat up” friendly neighbours. Shaka did that in Zululand. That is the point our ‘democracy’ is at present in Nigeria. Kabiyesi has removed all gloves, he is on a strategic offensive, building a pan-Nigeria empire.
Dutifully daily, Tinubu signs appointments, he instigates rebellion in enemy camps and inspires defections; he whispers resignations. His Imperial Majesty does unimaginable things and gets away with them with uncommon success. Yet we say Nigeria will defeat him in 2027. From the first shot in 1999, the man was clear what he wanted to do with the farm put in his hand. He has since grown strong to become a master of confounding abstraction: positioning, counter-positioning. Sometimes he fights in calculated silence. You remember that saying about the dude whose soup plate is a buffet of lamb and ram parts; the man who eats his pounded yam with relish, mounts his horse in daytime and his woman at night. Yet they say we should ignore him because he is not well. Who is not well? What he does is not a definition of insanity. That is not stupidity; it is cold steeze. His sneeze is a chill jitter. To defeat him, you need extra, extra work – and a surfeit of ‘sense’.
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Let us examine this: Rauf Aregbesola plays his politics with plenty, plenty songs of battle (orin ote). Sometimes he sings the songs and his fans dance; some other time, you see his followers take the lead while he follows with electrifying dance steps. Such a lively politician. There is a particular song from his talking drummers that I hold to: “Ení máa bá e s’òsèlú o, á ní sense t’ó pé…(anyone who wants to engage you in politics must have very good, adequate sense).” I take that song as not an ordinary blab of the bard. I take it to heart as both a warning and a war cry. ‘Sense’ in that song should be read as wile and guile varnished with mountains of money and might. Every politician from Lagos School of Politics lives by that song and is certificated in its foundational philosophy. Yet, all of them, including Rauf Aregbesola, are mere students. The school principal is Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the pilot of our imperial presidency.
The Sage of Chelsea, Thomas Carlyle (4 December 1795 – 5 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher. Thomas Carlyle saw the world of politics as a chess board with “councillors of state sitting, plotting, and playing their high chess-game, whereof the pawns are men.” Tinubu, today, plays out that allegory with chilling clarity. In just two years of his imperial presidency, he has recreated the political arena, rebuilding it from what it should be, a place of ideals to a chessboard where every defection is a ‘rook’ captured, every resignation a ‘bishop’ displaced, and every silence from the Villa a move made under the cover of strategy.
Almost all reports that announced the exit of Dr Ganduje as the national chairman of the APC said he was forced to quit by the president. I have no problem with Ganduje leaving the buffet table for another to hop there and eat. Literally, there is no issue in the use and flush of the expendable. What I find intriguing is the normality and the ease with which the ‘democratic’ system opens its door for imperial presidential invasion while we all shout “Hail Caesar”!
Chess is an Indian invention, imported into the Middle East, and exported to Europe by the Arabs. In ‘Chessmen and Chess’ by Charles Wilkinson published in May, 1943, we read of Masudi, a tenth-century Arab writer, who tells us of the various uses of the chessboard, especially “how it served for studying the strategy of war…” It is on the chessboard that you meet the ‘king’ dominated by the stately ‘queen’. “If there is trouble on the board” look for the sly old fox called ‘bishop’. There is also the most eccentric ‘knight’ “who loves a bloody fight”; and then the ‘rook’ who “will beat the ‘bishop’ any time.” There is also there the weak, expendable pawn. I am not a chess player, never played the game. I read all those in ‘Chess Pieces’ authored by David Solway. I found it good for my meditation.
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If I am allowed to bring chess into political commentary, I would set Nigeria down as a board, take the forced resignation of Ganduje, the wave of defections into the APC, and steady-handed President Bola Tinubu as the master chess player behind it all. The man plays chess, not dice; he does not place his hope on luck. What he plays is a game of precision, deep foresight, and ruthless elegance. That is unmistakable chess. With some other blocs, Tinubu created the APC years ago. The party started as a company of many directors. Now, the man is possessing it wholly. He is fast becoming the sole inheritor of not just the party, but the Nigerian state and its blessings. With his ingenuity, he is excising competition, those who may not be happy that he is recreating the party and the country in his own image.
If you don’t play chess as I don’t, watch those who do, or ask them for directions. Ganduje’s fall was a perfect act of the master moving a knight to expose a king. There are many more movements to make, going forward. Check this president’s records since Lagos; his skill at neutralising kings before they rise is topnotch and legendary. And he has not started. The man is just showing us the faint head of the bird in his pocket.
Elephant’s hide that confounds the cobbler (awo erin tíí dààmú onísònà). That is what Tinubu has become. He plants corn of trouble (àgbàdo òràn) in his neighbour’s garden; he sits back and watches if they will dare harvest the corn. When a PDP governor defects to the president’s party today, a senator yesterday, and a whole state House of Assembly follows tomorrow, we all know these for what they are. The defections are not patriotic or spontaneous acts of conviction; neither are they movements of love for the god they worship. The deity also has no feelings for them. They are what chess players would dub precise recruitments for battle; pawns, bishops, and sometimes whole castles brought to the side of the reigning monarch. If you like, keep murmuring or shouting betrayal. That is your headache. My chess teacher tells me all this is Tinubu repositioning the board ahead of 2027, removing weak links and replacing them with loyal sentinels. The APC governors said almost the same thing in their communique on Saturday: The ill health that sacked their chairman is the health of their party.
It would have been excellent if half of the energy and brilliance we see in all these political actions and movements are seen in the management of the affairs of our country. We don’t see the captain maximally at work; he is, instead, busy playing politics with everything. The nation tanks; businesses, big and small, reel in pains, and the people suffer not lightly. Over 130 million Nigerians still live in extreme, multidimensional poverty. Bandits lock fingers with terrorists and are on the prowl, unrestrained, unrestrainable. Yet, all we see is politics being played with one-hundred percent of attention and resources. Democracy has failed here.
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Social Democratic Party (SDP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Adebayo Adewole, in a recent comment scored Tinubu A1 in politics and F9 in governance. “That is a problem because the A1 in politics only means that he knows the political class very well; he knows what moves and motivates them as well as how to recruit them. He sometimes retrenches them, retires them and reengages them because he knows what they want. But I wish he knew what the Nigerian people want, which are basic services, economic stability and security. If he cannot save lives in Benue, Plateau and many parts of the country, then he has failed.” Adewole stressed and added that the only skill Tinubu has in the management of the economy “is the economisation of truth, which basically is what they do rather than manage the economy.”
Well, I won’t comment on the failure score which the SDP man gave the president – because I want to be safe. But A1 in politics I also score the grandmaster of Nigeria. I salute him.
Thomas Henry Huxley, prominent 19th-century biologist and agnostic, once described the world as a chessboard governed by hidden rules and unseen players. Well, what we have happening before our very eyes in Nigeria is not a game of hidden rules and unseen players. They do not play with masks here. The players on all sides are known and very well too. Huxley said the player on the other side “never overlooks a mistake or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance.” The president is the player on the other side. He has rewritten the rules; his fingers are seen probing every hole. He does not bend and break the rules: the rules bow, bend and break before His Imperial Majesty. And he does not care if the whole world says he is wrong. He must win every game.
On Friday, it was with heavy heart that the house of Ganduje saw their master leave the APC board. The once-useful ‘bishop’ was yanked off the board for the master’s greater control and sweeter win. The Kano man, like all expendable pawns, is out, but the game continues. And the real player is still seated, still calculating, moving the pieces. He is Tinubu, cold blooded like Emperor Shaka, the eagle, watching, calculating while his enemies counter-calculate. The grimmer the play, the more pleasurable to watch. That is where the good news is for watchers like me, and for popcorn makers. The board is resetting for 2027. Be attentive. I am.
News
Why Sowore Was Taken To Prison After Bail – Police

The court granted bail to Sowore with N500,000 and two sureties, which his legal team was working to perfect at the time of the police action.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja shortly after the incident, human rights activist, Deji Adeyanju, accused the police of violently attacking and removing Sowore moments after his bail was granted.
Adeyanju alleged that more than 50 armed officers stormed the court premises, descended on Sowore, and took him away by force while refusing to present a valid remand order.
“Sowore had just been granted bail, and while we were conferring with him here, the police suddenly launched an attack. More than 50 officers violently descended on him and took him away by force. We don’t even know where they have taken him,” he said.
READ ALSO:Why We Arrested Sowore – Police
He said the officer who led the operation briefly displayed what he claimed was a remand order but refused to allow Sowore’s lawyers to inspect it.
Adeyanju said, “The officer flashed the document, and when we insisted on reviewing it, he pocketed it and ordered that they must go.
“When we asked where they were taking him, he said Kuje Prison. We demanded to see the remand order as endorsed by the court, but he refused.”
He further alleged that during the scuffle, the police accused Sowore of insulting the Inspector General of Police, saying, “Because Sowore called the IG useless, they must deal with him.”
READ ALSO:JUST IN: Police Arrest Sowore
The lawyer said the officers tore Sowore’s shirt during the confrontation and dragged him away even as his legal team was still perfecting his bail conditions.
However, while responding to Sowore’s re-arrest via X (formerly Twitter), the Force Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, said the police acted within the law, adding that officers were empowered to use commensurate force to carry out their duties.
Hundeyin, who attached a remand warrant to his post, wrote, “Except we want to be mischievous, we all know that once court grants a suspect bail, it comes with the caveat that until the bail conditions are met, the suspect remains in custody.
“Where it is clearly spelt out on the remand warrant that the suspect be remanded in a correctional facility, not police custody, it is the duty of the police to hand over the suspect to the Nigeria Correctional Service, who would then process his bail conditions.
“This has always been the practice. Why should this be different? Also, as law enforcement officers, we are empowered by law to employ commensurate force to get our mandate achieved.”
News
FIFA’s Use Of Kebbi Stadium In Banner Sparks Outrage, Funding Row

Global football body FIFA has stirred a storm of reactions across Nigeria after showcasing the Birnin Kebbi Stadium project in Kebbi State — a facility co-funded with the Nigeria Football Federation — on its official social media pages.
FIFA on Saturday used an image of the project, dating back to 2023, as the new profile banner on its official X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook accounts.
The image, showing a half-furnished stadium in Birnin Kebbi, quickly went viral.
Built under the FIFA Forward Programme, the stadium was meant to symbolise progress in grassroots football. But as the photo circulated online, fans flooded social media with outrage and speculation.
Some netizens interpreted FIFA’s post as a subtle jab at the NFF, following recent allegations of fund mismanagement.
The uproar comes just days after football critic Chinedu Mobike, via his official Instagram handle #c_mobike, on October 23, 2025, accused the NFF of squandering millions of dollars meant for infrastructure projects, including its twin project in Delta State.
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Mobike, in his viral video, claimed that FIFA gave the NFF “1.2 million dollars for two stadiums” — one in Kebbi and another in Ugborodo, Delta State — which, he alleged, “till today did not see daylight.”
Comparing Nigeria’s FIFA-funded projects with those of other nations, Mobike alleged that while “other countries used the funds to truly develop football, Nigeria produced nothing to show.
“The NFF should sit up…There are no active projects promoting football or sports in Nigeria,” Mobike said.
According to The PUNCH, the next day, Friday, October 24, 2025, the NFF issued an official statement, which it described as a “fresh clarification to misinformation” by some social media users (names not mentioned) who claimed the NFF “collects millions of dollars from FIFA annually to misappropriate.”
The statement, retrieved from the NFF website, was titled: “NFF: Monies received from FIFA & CAF are for specific purposes, and audited in every cycle.”
While Mobike’s video reignited calls for reform, the hashtag #SaveNigerianFootball has been trending on X, as users express frustration and hope that collective pressure might finally bring transparency to Nigerian football governance.
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In its October 24 statement, the NFF firmly denied any wrongdoing, explaining that every dollar received from FIFA or CAF is tied to a specific purpose and audited annually.
“The monies meant for development purposes are tied to specific projects.
“FIFA Forward funds are properly specified and under strict adherence to financial regulations, compliance, monitoring, and auditing at every stage,” the NFF said.
The Federation cited ongoing FIFA Forward projects such as the NFF/FIFA Players’ Hostel and new training pitches at the MKO Abiola National Stadium, stressing that every phase is verified before funds are released directly to FIFA-approved consultants.
Dismissing the viral reports as “fictitious figures,” the NFF added that those spreading misinformation “would find no reason to seek clout if they had any idea how much it costs to organise a single match of any of the national teams.”
But the clarification failed to calm the storm.
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Instead, FIFA’s quiet profile update on Saturday reignited debate, with many Nigerians reading it as a silent but deliberate signal.
Many questioned how long it would take to fully complete a mini-stadium project that came to light in May 2023, after the groundbreaking event in September 2020 by the former Kebbi governor, Abubakar Atiku Bagudu.
In December 2023, it was reported that Kebbi State Governor Nasir Idris unveiled the FIFA/NFF-backed stadium project, saying it was designed to “boost the morale of youths in the state.”
He noted that the project cost $1,183,000, with the state government donating four hectares of land and paying ₦19 million in compensation to landowners.
Earlier, in May 2023, FIFA described the Kebbi project as part of its commitment to grassroots football, writing on its website InsideFIFA: “It is no surprise, then, that Birnin Kebbi, the capital of Kebbi, was chosen back in 2020 as the site for the construction of an artificial football pitch now available for young boys and girls to use.
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“Meanwhile, a second pitch is under construction in Ugborodo… these two ambitious projects have received around USD 2 million in funding from FIFA through its Forward Programme.”
Online Reactions
Social media erupted with interpretations and comparisons.
Some users viewed FIFA’s action as subtle recognition rather than mockery. One X user, @Poka741997, wrote: “FIFA updating their header is symbolic. It’s recognition for Nigeria, even if the stadium’s budget is modest by international standards.”
Others saw it as a global embarrassment.
User #_AsiwajuLerry commented: “FIFA changed their Twitter header to the $1.2m stadium built by the NFF. Global shame.”
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Echoing that sentiment, #OyokunyiOkon added: “This is embarrassing. The NFF should be ashamed that FIFA is showcasing a $1.2 million ‘stadium’ in Kebbi that clearly reflects misplaced priorities and poor accountability.”
Comparing Nigeria’s project to Senegal’s 50,000-seat Stade Abdoulaye Wade, user #FemiOguntayo2 remarked: “Nigerians want to build a world-class stadium with $1.2m… Haba! We know NFF is corrupt but haba na…
“This is Stade Blaise Sené (also known as Stade du Sénégal or Abdoulaye Wade National Stadium) in Diamniadio, Senegal. Its total construction cost was $270 million, funded largely by the Senegalese government and built by Turkey’s Summa Construction Company. FIFA’s way of mocking the NFF. How did they spend $1.2m on that stadium? Exposing the kwaruption in the NFF?”
Another user, #mario99amr29, suggested FIFA’s post was deliberate: “We know what’s at play.
“If FIFA can display this at the expense of other successful projects, maybe it’s a subtle callout. Nigeria vs Kenya: A case study.”
As of press time, FIFA had yet to issue any official comment explaining the use of the Kebbi stadium image on its banner. PUNCH
News
Police Arrests Principal Supplier Of Weapons To Bandits In Delta

The Special Assignment Team of the Delta state Police Command has arrested a key supplier of weapons to bandit groups in the northern part of Nigeria
The suspect, one Ahmed Ibrahim (31) male, resident of Ekpan in Uvwie local government area, has long been on the command’s watch list for his alleged role in several high-profile kidnapping and armed-robbery operations.
The Commands Police Public Relations Officer, (PPRO), Bright Edafe, in a statement disclosed that acting on credible intelligence from the Force Technical Intelligence Unit (TIU), Abuja, operatives of the CP Special Assignment Team (CP-SAT), led by ASP Julius Robinson, arrested a female suspects, one Jamila Abubakar, at Conoil Filling Station, Warri–Patani Road, Effurun.
READ ALSO:Police Arrest Murder Suspect, Recover Corpse In Delta
The statement revealed that upon her arrest, officers discovered the cash sum of ₦550,000 neatly concealed beneath her bag and suspected to be proceeds from illicit transactions.
According to DAILY POST her apprehension provided a crucial lead that set off a well-coordinated follow-up operation.
“Buildin on that intelligence, the operatives stormed Niger-Cat area of Warri, where they successfully arrested a notorious arms peddler, one Ahmed Ibrahim (31) male, resident of Ekpan in Uvwie Local Government Area, at about 0725 hrs on 22nd October 2025.
“A search led to the recovery of a bag containing one hundred and fifteen rounds 115 rounds of 7.63mm AK-47 live ammunition, 220 rounds of SMG rifle ammunition, and 32 live cartridges”.
READ ALSO:Police Arrest Murder Suspect, Recover Corpse In Delta
Edafe further noted, that preliminary investigations revealed that, the suspect is a key supplier of weapons to bandit groups in the north and has long been on the Command’s watch list for his alleged role in several high-profile kidnapping and armed-robbery operations.
According to the statement, Ahmed Ibrahim, is also linked to the kidnap and murder of one Ogheneovo Onemu (female), who was abducted on May 27, 2024 at Edjekota community in Ughelli North LGA, and later murdered after a ransom payment of ₦4,000,000.
Commissioner of Police, Olufemi Abaniwonda, described the breakthrough as another testament to the Command’s unwavering commitment to stemming the flow of illegal arms, dismantling criminal syndicates, and bringing offenders to justice.
The CP urged residents to remain vigilant and continue supporting the Police with timely and credible information to aid the fight against crime, assuring the public that the Command will sustain its momentum against criminal elements and remain resolute in protecting the lives and property of all law-abiding citizens.
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