By Suyi Ayodele

A dying old man was asked why he was pensive on his sick bed. He responded that he was not worried about where he was going. Then what was his worry, his relations asked him. The old man responded that he was worried because he knew he rode the horse of life roughly!

The old man had every reason to be worried. Nobody tethers a badly ridden horse for the rider after his departure. This is why our elders admonish that he who must live, must live very well, very godly and very admirably. The Yoruba concept of igbehin aye (hereafter) speaks to living well. The concept places importance on what history tells after one has departed this planet.

When a good man dies, my people say o se gudugudu meje ati yaya mefa. This simply means the departed soul’s good deeds will not be forgotten easily. When a bad person also dies, the people of my place have a way of remembering him. When you hear: aku itunku e lona ogun, aku itunku e lona ogbon (may he die twenty times over, may he die thirty times over), nobody needs any further explanation to know the one referred to did not live well.

When General Muhammadu Buhari died on July 13, 2025, and was buried, I had a feeling that Nigerians would not allow him to rest peacefully in the bosom of his maker. At least, not immediately! This has nothing to do with the scriptural injunction of “there is no peace,” says God, “for the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22). There is no way Buhari would have led Nigeria the way he did and rest peacefully thereafter! That would have been a double tragedy for Nigeria and Nigerians.

The theory of not speaking ill of the dead became the refrain shortly after the Daura-born General passed on. It became a blackmail, in some quarters. But why should we not talk ill about the dead? Why should we refrain from recalling their deeds-good or evil? We learn from the dead and the living. A lot of people did justice to the monumental failure Buhari was as a leader. One cannot but appreciate those profound thoughts on the life and times of the late President.

Even when the present set of locusts appear to be worse, Nigerians should be grateful to those who took time to remind the vampire in power today, that a day would come, when people would gather to assess him and his rudderless leadership. It does not matter if he is deaf and inorganic; the day of reckoning shall come. And not just for the veiled maximum ruler; but for everyone, including yours sincerely.

We have remained silent on Buhari not because of the blackmail of those who would not want anyone to situate the soldier man to the corner of history he deserves. History is a beast on its own. Today, members of Buhari’s households are on the rooftops telling us the evil the late President represented. The chicken has come home to roost now. Less than two months after Buhari was interred, his kinsmen are out there telling us the atrocities the retired General perpetrated in his ambition to rule Nigeria.

Datti Baba-Ahmed was on Channels Television a week ago. The man shipped himself to the television house because his half-brother, Nasir El-Rufai, had earlier appeared on the same platform to talk about how they (the political class) made life unbearable for the poor people.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: Crowns Of Crime And Shame

Listening to Datti Baba-Ahmed’s open ‘confession’ about Buhari last week, the first person that came to my mind is former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ). I don’t know how close the former President is to nature; i don’t know how much he understands about out traditional hermeneutics. But his disposition while in power, especially during the heat of the 2015 presidential election, shows that the man must be deeply rooted in the wisdom of our ages.

The elders of my place caution that when a man threatens to drag you through the bush, the one so threatened should relax, he should not argue nor resist. We ask them why. They respond thus: he who says he will drag you through the bush will first use his own back to create the path. How wise they are, the elders of our land!

Was that why GEJ packed his bags and slippers and left Aso Rock Villa for Buhari to occupy? Did the Otuoke man see something that we did not see such that even before the final whistle was blown on the presidential race, he picked up the telephone, called Buhari and congratulated him? Datti Baba-Ahmed in his last week outing on Channels Television has cleared every doubt we might have had in confirming that majority of our leaders, past and present and likely too, the aspiring ones, are devil incarnates! In most cases, our leaders make the devil green with envy as they struggle to outdo one another in the perpetration of evil.

Datti Baba-Ahmed, in that interview, stated that the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) then, was so desperate to send GEJ packing at all costs such that “…they, brought people from neighbouring countries in readiness, to remove Jonathan by all means. The desperation to get Jonathan out of power built up and added to what we call insecurity in Nigeria today.”

GEJ is out of power today. But who is bearing the brunt of the insecurity the desperate gang brought upon the nation? Those who vowed then that they must drag Jonathan through the bush; have they not used their own backs to create the paths? Can we all recall the number of innocent souls that have been killed in the North-West and the North-East geo-political zones by the same bandits and terrorists that Buhari and his gang, according to Datti Baba-Ahmed, imported from Libya?

Which part of Buhari’s North is safe today? How many members of that gang can go to their hometowns freely today? How many of them can sleep with their two eyes closed? Who is the ultimate loser; GEJ or those who did all they could to get him out of the way?

I have read comments by people asking why Datti waited for Buhari to die before ‘revealing’ Buhari’s atrocities against the nation, Nigeria and its people. Many commenters said that Datti is simply a coward. But is he?

If for the purpose of this argument we admit that Datti Baba-Ahmed is a coward, is it not equally true that it is before the carcass of the elephant that we un-sheath the sword; nobody dares bring the scimitar before a calf (èyìn òkú àjànàkú làá yo idà, taní jé yo agada l’ójú omo erin?). Could this axiom not be true of the Datti Baba-Ahmed’s outing on Buhari?

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: A Voyage To Caligula’s Rome

But in the real sense of it, is there anything Datti Baba-Ahmed said about Buhari that we all did not know when the old man was on this side of the divide? Did we not all know that Buhari was named as the patron of the bandits before we handed over the nation to him to ruin?

Yes, it would have been better if Datti had spoken when Buhari was alive. Nigerians would have had the opportunity to hear the ‘other side’. But what difference would that have made? Who in Nigeria today is not aware that Kaduna is the laboratory where the tactics of insurgency that happened between 2011 and 2015 were brewed? Who is not in the know of the fact that the eggs of the decision to take out GEJ was laid and hatched in Kaduna before the day-old chicks were sold in other cities and towns of Nigeria?

Who among us is ignorant of the fact that today’s ‘Saint’ El-Rufai, as a two-term governor of Kaduna State, presided over a state where bandits openly operated, killing and maiming people with the acquiescence of those in power? Who is also ignorant of the fact that it would take the devil itself to equate El-Rufai’s records in terms of the number of innocent Nigerians that were killed in Kaduna State while he held sway as the governor?

Who would forget that when the annihilation of the Southern Kaduna people was a State act and art in the Kaduna of El-Rufai, the voice of Datti Baba-Ahmed was loudly silent? So, if today, Datti has elected to say the ‘truth’ we all knew long ago, why should we worry if Buhari is dead or alive to counter him? Is there anytime ‘truth’ cannot be spoken; does it really matter when it is spoken?

The only worrisome aspect of Datti’s outing on Channels Television is why after all those ‘revelations’, the man is still walking our streets free! Datti, I dare say, was unequivocal when he spoke. His attempt to veil the character involved failed woefully! The reference to “a former Nigerian president” that “was attacked by terrorists”, is a failed attempt to be diplomatic. We all know that Buhari was the former President who was attacked by bandits on the streets of Kaduna.

When that ugly incident happened on Wednesday, July 23, 2014, at Kawo Market area of Kaduna, Buhari’s APC attributed it to the General’s criticism of the Jonathan administration. Many of us also believed that the attack was stage-managed by the APC to shore up Buhari’s popularity. But today, we have Datti to thank for telling us exactly what happened.

But for Datti Baba-Ahmed, we would not have known that what happened was because the late Mai Gaskiya, Buhari, “…had stopped sending the recurrent expenses of those people (bandits) who used to come to Kaduna, collect (money) and go back.” Every bad child has his own glorious day. Last Tuesday was Datti Baba-Ahmed’s day!

What Datti Baba-Ahmed ‘revealed’ on Channels Television are not just bad, they are egregiously implicating. If ours were not to be an anomic State, the Kaduna politician would by now be helping security agencies to unravel those behind the evil of insurgency and banditry in the nation. He knows too much about how we got to this level of insecurity in the nation. With what he said on Channels Television, Datti does not have the prerogative to keep other information to himself. No! If he is not willing to volunteer them, the State should get him to do so by all means.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:[OPINION] Bus Terminals: Our FG In Agbero Business

Also, with the little he has revealed, if Nigeria were to be a decent nation, in his grave too, Buhari would be stripped of all national honour and human respects he dubiously acquired while veiling his devilish postures with the cloak of a saint!

Nigerians must love Datti Baba-Ahmed for his opening remarks about the APC. We should be thankful to him for re-echoing our suspicions “…that insecurity is part of APC; insecurity has been APC’s way of getting power. Insecurity has been APC’s way of staying in power.” We should hail him for telling us that bandits did not just surface on our streets but the late Mai Gaskiya, Buhari, travelled as far as Libya to import the felons to our country.

Today makes it exactly a week that Datti spoke. It is alarming that there is no news out there that he has been invited by the security agencies to shed more light. If in 2014 and 2015, the opposition could initiate insecurity to get rid of President Jonathan, why are we blind to the similarity of the events playing out now? Where are the more than half of those who devised the 2015 evil plans today? In the ruling APC or in the various opposition camps?

If Buhari could travel as far as Libya to get money to unseat the ruling party then, where can’t today’s opposition travel to? Fortunately, the man at the centre of it all, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is a shareholder in the 2015 schemes. We have been told that Tinubu is not Jonathan. We don’t dispute that because the two don’t share anything in common. If Jonathan were to be like Tinubu, Nigeria would either have broken up or a figure like Tinubu would only enter Aso Rock Villa on courtesy visit! Today, Tinubu rules Nigeria from any part of the world because a GEJ placed the nation above self! History is there to talk about the Otuoke-born ex-president the same way history is talking about Buhari and his sanguinary inclination!

This is why I feel that today, if anybody should roll out the drums in celebration, it should be President Jonathan. There is nothing more worthy for a man to live to see his enemies fight dirty on the streets. I wonder how the former President reacts to these ‘revelations’ that in their desperate bid to get to power, the APC incubated insecurity and brought terrorists to Nigeria! How does the Otuoke man feel whenever he remembers his posture that his presidential ambition was not worth the blood of any Nigeria? Those who called GEJ “clueless” then, what do they have to say to Datti’s claim that the APC gang “wanted Nigeria to burn if Buhari did not become the president in 2015?”

And with all these revelations and the sordid state of our security in Nigeria, how would Buhari’s soul rest in peace? How do we reconcile the fact that they asked us to canonise Buhari, who was the greatest importer of terrorists to Nigeria? If we had had any doubt as to why Buhari lifted no finger to fight terrorism when he was president, is the doubt not clear now?

By Lasisi Olagunju

Why did Bola Tinubu offend Nasir El-Rufai? He should have kept him. There are three principalities the Yoruba dread to offend: The first is Osó (wizard), the second is Àjé (witch); the third is the most dreaded, their name is Aláròká. How do I translate that into English? I cannot, but you will get to know what it means when you hear the Yoruba say: Eni gbé adìẹ òtòsì, ó gbé ti aláròká (Whoever steals a poor man’s chicken has stolen from the one who will shout about it from street to street). The proverb is a warning against having as enemies those who have legs, and have mouths and who thrive on noise.

On Sunday last week, El-Rufai was his oppositional best on Channels Television, levelling allegations, issuing threats and giving assurances. The state breeds and feeds terrorists and bandits for political gain, he claimed. That was on Sunday. On Friday, he went one step further. If he had been told two years ago that he would be in a church against his Muslim brother, the president, El-Rufai would have said “A‘ūdhu billāhi mina sh-shayṭāni r-rajīm (I seek refuge in Allah from the accursed devil).” But he was in a church in the South-East last Friday doing just that, suited up like a pastor, preaching sermons of democracy and deliverance and promising to lower the flag of today’s lord in the Villa. That is the problem with all aláròká; once they start, they don’t stop unless and until they are done. This one will not stop. Where he will be today, and tomorrow and what message he will carry depends on what the Nigeria police do with him. He has been asked to submit himself to the law allegedly for being rude to the law.

The government will soon learn that neither police invitation nor detention can sew up the honker’s lips. In my part of the country, we say there is no armour against the bullets of aláròká. Never fight or underestimate the aláròká; he is the one whose voice multiplies and complicates a quarrel until the whole village hears. Huffing and puffing, and talking and threatening are El-Rufai’s strongest weapon against his victims. His present noise and the threats his cries contain are the consequences for Tinubu’s ditching of Nasir, his friend and ally. When you offend someone who looks small, you may in fact have provoked the person who has the loudest voice.

The police inviting him won’t shut him up. That was exactly the undertone when Nasir said on that TV programme: “I am not afraid of anybody. I say my mind and I don’t look back.” In those words, he defined himself as the quintessential aláròká, the one whose voice ensures that an injury does not die in silence.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: Ooni, Alaafin And Yoruba’s Endless War

So, President Tinubu and his minders would be mistaken if they thought a cheap police invitation would defeat ‘small-body-big-engine’ Nasir. Whoever has crossed El-Rufai has not just taken a poor man’s chicken; the person has, knowingly or unknowingly stirred up the town-crier who will not stop shouting until everyone knows the story of the soup that burnt down the whole house.

Now, jilted El-Rufai is determined to undo what he did for Tinubu in 2023. That is the role he has chosen for himself. He does this street to street, city to city dismantling the myth of Tinubu’s invincibility. He now waxes prophetic: “In the 2027 elections, the worst-case scenario is a runoff, and Bola Tinubu will not be on that ballot. At best, he will place third. He has no viable pathway to victory. I’ve done the maths, I’ve done the analysis; it’s simply not there.” He said that and then added the dagger: “He can continue deceiving himself, thinking, ‘I have money, I have INEC, I have the police, I have the army.’ Well, President Tinubu, go and invite ex-President Goodluck Jonathan for a chat. Ask him if he didn’t also have all these in 2015, and yet we removed him. Is the situation similar today? It’s worse.”

But, I am worried. And you should be, too. How innocent is El-Rufai in the rottenness of the system he is complaining about? He could be genuinely clean; he could be genuinely filthy. But if his hands are not clean, shouldn’t he first confess and seek forgiveness before wearing the tunic of the messiah? The Bible’s St. Luke (18:10-14) tells of “Two men (who) went up into the temple to pray: One said, ‘God I thank thee that I am not as other men’; and the other smote upon his breast, saying, ‘God be merciful to me a sinner.’” What was God’s response to the two sinners? Reading it is so instructive as we navigate the dangerous waters of Nigeria with its feuding political elite.

These days, the jilted are rebelling with daring moves and statements. The government is reacting, it is blocking rallies, north and south, and issuing summons. For now, we hear charges of betrayal; tomorrow it may be treason. These things are not new. People in government have historically seen opposition to them as either an act of betrayal or treason or both. They can be both right and wrong; most times wrong. We learnt from ‘Tyranny of The Minority’ authored in 2023 by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, Harvard professors of government, that in the early years of the United States’ democracy, “the very existence of partisan opposition was regarded as illegitimate. Politicians, including many of the founders (of America) equated it with sedition and even treason.” Indeed, in 1798, the US Congress passed the Alien and Sedition Acts “which were used to jail opposition elements and newspaper editors.” The jailed were labeled betrayers. But the repression did not last. It, in fact, blew up in the face of its makers in 1800, just two years after that law was enacted. You ask how? The government lost the 1800 election; the disgusted American voter, for the first time, elected the opposition Democratic-Republicans. You can try, like me, to read that book, particularly Chapter One; its title is: ‘Fear of Losing’. If you are from my country, you will appreciate the details, especially if you also know that those authors also wrote ‘How Democracies Die.’

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: Death Of World’s Nicest Judge

Betrayal is despicable; treason is evil. American Associate professor of history, Sally Shockro, in her ‘ Blessed Betrayal’ warns that “in a culture centred on honour, a betrayal diminishes the status of the perpetrator, and often the victim as well, destroying the personal fortunes of those involved along with the trust of the community.” Now, can I quickly add this: “if the institutions of power are corrupt, is resistance an act of betrayal or an act of loyalty to the greater good?” This question forms part of the reasoning in Larissa Tracy’s ‘The Shameful Business of Betrayal and Treason.’ The author who asks that question is a professor of Medieval Literature at Longwood University, United States. You can answer the question based on where you stand and on what you stand on. I wish we could pose it to the feuding lords of our manor and know where we and the state stand in their estimation.

They are fighting over the spoils and loot of the last war. The shut-out feel betrayed, genuinely so; now they are all out to crash the temple of power. In Crystal Parikh’s ‘An Ethics of Betrayal’, we are reminded that ‘betrayal’ as a “crime provides its own punishment” and that “where traitor feeds upon traitors, betrayal exacts its own self-consuming vindication.” If Tinubu had not offended El Rufai, we would not have been hearing the secrets we hear these days; very dark secrets couched as bad, wicked allegations. First, El-Rufai on national TV accused the ruling APC and its government of financing bandits and terrorists as weapons of politics. Nasir said this and provoked his kinsman from Kaduna, Datti Baba-Ahmed, into making a counter appearance on the same TV platform. From Datti Baba-Ahmed, we heard what the forest heard that deafened it. The man told Channels TV’s Seun Okinbaloye on Tuesday last week that insecurity in Nigeria is “orchestrated and is political.” He said Nasir El-Rufai shouldn’t be the one crying wolf; he said the man belongs in the pack of the implicated wolves.

Hear him: “Do we understand the gravity of his statement?…What I am about to say is that insecurity is part of APC; insecurity has been APC’s way of getting power. Insecurity has been APC’s way of staying in power.” He then went into accounts which I pray must not be true. He said, without mentioning names, that a former Nigerian president met with and collected huge sums of money from the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, to sponsor extremists in Nigeria’s North-East. Hear him: “Go back in time. Do you remember that a former Nigerian president was attacked by terrorists? It was unprecedented; never in the history of Nigeria did that happen. Why did some young men in the forest in the North-East…what business did they have (with him)? When Nigerian leaders leave power, they are liked, they are loved, they are forgiven all their errors and everything. But, this one, they followed and tried to kill him. Why did that happen?” He asked, paused and feigned crying. Then he continued: “What happened to all the donations leading up to 2015? Why did he decide to run in 2015 after crying and telling the whole world that he was no longer running? What was his link with North Africa? What was his link with Muammar Gaddafi? He is not alive, but others are alive to say it.

“I told you about 2015…you see… going after a former president and trying to kill him, what does that tell you? Before that, what had happened? After Jonathan won at the Supreme Court in 2011, the government called for dialogue (with the terrorists) and those young men nominated (the) former Nigerian president. It took three days to repudiate (that nomination). After those three days, go and plot the graph, you will see that between 2012 and 2014, the number of attacks in the North-East skyrocketed.” Datti Baba-Ahmed blamed the escalated terrorist attacks of that period on what he called “hunger, (and) lack of medicine (for the terrorists).” Why? “Because somebody had stopped sending the recurrent expenses of those people who used to come to Kaduna, collect (money) and go back.” He alleged (or claimed) that the funding was stopped as a punitive measure for the young men’s indiscretion of publicly naming their covert funder as their negotiator with the government. “That’s how the cycle went, in protest against ‘why did you call out that name (as your negotiator).’ They (terrorists) couldn’t bear it (hunger) anymore, so they felt the best thing was to go and attack (him). It failed; we are lucky… Jonathan provided him (the former president) with additional cars and money. And it was all about money; all about collecting money.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: ‘ADC Is A Mere Distraction’

“The truth is that someone had gone to North Africa and negotiated with Gaddafi; Gaddafi who was an international terrorist said ‘I will help you as I have been doing… I will retire to your country if you become president… He wanted to create a buffer in Nigeria. They gave crazy amount of money to that gentleman (the former president) to go and help these people with the intention of bringing them to fight in Libya. When Gaddafi died, ‘they’ sat on the money. They kept on (giving) the recurrent until (the terrorists) mentioned the name and then they stopped sending the money. Now, all these things are linked. They wanted Nigeria to burn if Buhari did not become the president in 2015. They brought people from neighbouring countries in readiness, to remove Jonathan by all means. The desperation to get Jonathan out of power built up and added to what we call insecurity in Nigeria today.” That is Datti Baba-Ahmed saying all those things after the man who was allegedly involved has died. I heard people asking why he did not say those things when the man was here. I wonder too.

Why did he have to wait till El-Rufai said his own before saying his own? And immediately he left the TV studio, someone in their party, Hon Farouk Adamu Aliyu, came in, sat where Datti sat and pointed fingers at Datti too as a disciple of the ex-president he had just accused of financing terrorism.

The you-be-terrorist-I-no-be-terrorist diatribe should lead us to ask who really these people who have been leading us are. Could it be that people who are supposed to be in the dock have all along been the court? Nigeria has faced unremitting violent insurgencies for decades. It ranks 6th on the 2025 Global Terrorism Index and accounts for 6% of global terrorism deaths in 2023. That is according to the Global Community Engagement & Resilience Fund (GCERF). Hundreds of people have been killed and millions more displaced, and the end is not yet. Now, we hear claims, accusations and confessions from these gentlemen that the cause of everything was politics and quest for power.

Whatever is the worth of the long English of the three political leaders from northern Nigeria, it should get us thinking as a nation in dire need of peace and security. Can the agencies in charge of our security and safety ‘collaborate’ with these gentlemen (Datti Baba-Ahmed and Nasir El-Rufai) to draw up an action plan for us to defeat the enemy? Those two guys sounded like they knew too much. It becomes real when you hear Datti declaring that what he said was just about 10 percent of what he had in his belly, begging to be released. How and when will he be released of the remaining 90 percent? It took Tinubu’s non-accommodation of El-Rufai to make the man angry and say what he shouldn’t say; it took a provocative statement by El-Rufai to draw out Datti Baba-Ahmed. Then Adamu Aliyu. They’ve all been in government, yet it appears we do not know them. Who really are they?

Warts and all, each of them still seeks to sleep with us. We are a nation of helpless landlords who must open their door at midnight to bloody invaders. “They say in Yoruba, Ìjàmbá ṣ’olè bí onílé bájí (The thief is in danger if the landlord awakes). But today, the landlord is in danger if he does not open the door for the thief.” That is classic helplessness – or surrender; an inversion or transposition of order and orderliness. University of Michigan art history professor, David T. Doris, has the above quote in his ‘Vigilant Things’ (2011). He goes on to sum up our situation in words of exasperation: The world has turned upside down (Ayé ti d’orí k’odò).

Activist and publisher, Omoyele Sowore, has criticised the Federal Government after the Department of State Services on Sunday asked Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to deactivate his account over a post he made against President Bola Tinubu.

Recall that the DSS had earlier on Saturday written to X, and given the corporation 24 hours to delete Sowore’s tweet that described Tinubu as a criminal.

DSS described the statement as defamatory and threatening to national security, but Sowore vowed not to delete it.

In a post on his X on Monday, Sowore said the Service has extended the sanction request to Facebook.

READ ALSO:DSS Gives X Ultimatum To Pull Down Sowore’s Tweet

In a letter he shared dated September 7, 2025, and signed by Uwem Davies on behalf of the Director General of the DSS, the agency referenced the same post made on August 26, in which Sowore criticised Tinubu’s comments during a visit to Brazil and accused him of lying about corruption.

The DSS accused Sowore of spreading “misleading information” and engaging in “hate speech” with a post dated August 26, 2025.

The letter was addressed to Meta’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, and was titled “Misleading Information and Willful Intention to Further an Ideology Capable of Serious Harm, Incitement to Violence, Cyber Crime, Hate Speech to Discredit/Disparage the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Cause Serious Threat to National Security of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The service demanded “for immediate and urgent ban/deactivation of a Facebook account owned by Omoyele Sowore through his Facebook page or any other account maintained by him.”

READ ALSO:Sowore Vows Not To Delete anti-Tinubu Tweet

The DSS cited several legal provisions, including Section 51 of the Criminal Code Act, Sections 19, 22, and 24 of the Cyber Crimes Act 2025, and the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022, to justify its demand.

The letter warns of “far-reaching, sweeping measures” if Meta fails to comply within 24 hours, a deadline set to expire on September 8, 2025.

Reacting to the DSS’s action, Sowore condemned the agency as “lawless” and “incompetent.”

He highlighted the killing of over 130 citizens in a recent incident, questioning the DSS’s priorities.

“Too idle and incompetent to secure Nigeria… has now written to @facebook, begging them to delete content they find ‘offensive’ to their equally idle, tired, and criminal Commander-in-Chief,” Sowore wrote.