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OPINION: Tales And Rhythms Of A Coup d’etat In Nigeria’s Country

Published

7 months ago

November 2, 2025

By Tony Erha

For about two weeks, the rumour mill had been agog, concerning an alleged failed coup d’état to unseat Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Nigeria president and a coterie of politicians and leaders, by a section of the Nigerian army. One’s heart wouldn’t skip the unsteady thuds of its beats, realising its extent and severity for Nigeria’s growing democracy culture and by extension its reversal effects on the hapless populace. Shocking revelations emanate from the news report, which allegedly bore the names and cadres of the alleged aberrant plotters.

Unfortunately, the Nigerian state had been tongue-tied and slyly in its reactions to the intense newsbreaks and updates on the rumours, which most of the news outlets seemingly confirmed as true. In the windstorm of the rumoured coup, presidential spokesmen and those of the military, dispelled it, but regarded the sack and replacement of the Chief of Army Staff, General Christopher Musa and his contemporaries of the Navy and Airforce as normal shakeups, which was later proved to be disloyalty on part of the key officers and many more of the lower ranks. The Presidency and the Military Information units were faulted, whereas the disloyalty allegation was another expression for a coup, with a punitive betrayal.

But, military takeovers in a democracy, as we are often reminded, are retrogressive and anti-people. It’s more so when a military coup hijacks a government that was put in place by the same commoners, who the coup plotters would say them wanted to save from misrule by the incumbent powers; where anti-coup d’états are upset that the gun entrusted on soldiers to safeguard the populace, is the same that silences, kills and maims the people to submit to their power-hijack.

When soldiers, who swore on oath to remain in their barracks and trenches; pledging to defend the people and their sovereignty at all time, and to be buried with their rifle along their sides, now turn their arms against defenceless people, it becomes very frightening and a subject of great concern. That is where those sacked and those allegedly arrested should face the rebellious act of a coup or disloyalty.

Yomie Johnson, the gun-toting late Liberian warlord, who killed Samuel Doe, in ambush of the Nimba county neigbourhood of Liberia, a capital and presidential seat of the power of the West Africa country, readily comes to the mind. With his ‘tail to his heart’ Sergeant Doe, the man who killed, maimed and misruled his country, was shot to death, by Johnson, culminated in a Nemesis or retributive justice, similar to the maxim of ‘he who kills by the sword dies by the sword”. In his Ikoyi, Lagos asylum, Johnson, the guitarist and womaniser, had written a moralistic book, “The Gun That Liberates Shouldn’t Rule”. Yomie Johnson, the mysterious die-hard soldier, who stopped the killing fields of Samuel Doe, wouldn’t be bugged that General Sani Abacha, his host and the late Nigerian dictator, who similarly gained presidential power through the barrel of the gun, would have nothing to do with a book title that sneered innuendo at his fistic rule of the country, after a bloodless coup, killings and maiming that marred his reign.

Nemesis may have forgiven Yomie Johnson his sins, for his was outright dedication to the commoners of Liberia, who he saved from the Samuel Doe’s cruelty. He later passed on after some failed contests for the same presidential seat, not by gun-putsch, but through popular election. But Nigeria’s gurgle-wearing general and the most prolific military coup-maker, was scandalised to have been killed in the ‘Garden of Eden’, by eating an apple courtesy of ‘Eve’, the roving mistress. And there is only a little dissimilarity between the late maximum leader and his ‘twin-in-arm-and-looting’, the Minna-based general and gap-toothed king of military coup d’etats, who God has apparently given the benefit of longevity, in order to witness the deadly consequences of his despotic reign of a country and its people that have continually given him a life-support.

It couldn’t be that it is for the love for the hapless populace that the plotters move to overthrown, than for the greater desire to feather their own nests and bleed the people’s treasury. Particularly, page 39 of the year 2000’s edition of H. B. Momoh’s book, “The Nigerian Civil War, 1967–1970: History and Reminiscences”, decoded the first Nigeria’s military coup, that prompted the civil war as follows;

“Either by design or default, Lieutenant Colonel Odumegwu-Ojukwu held on to 5 Infantry Battalion and refused to cooperate with the coupists, particularly in their bid to obtain money from Kano Central Bank under the pretext of settling troops salaries by intercepting the aircraft sent to Kano by Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu”.

The Nigerian army, that was in 1993 dubbed in unflattering appellation of “an army of anything goes”, by a one-time revered Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Salihu Ibrahim, can’t vouch that it heeded the salient wake-up call, until now that a once-indomitable force, has become a near-mincemeat to makeshift Boko Haram and its complement bandit groups. Again, an intrepid former and late National Security Adviser (NSA), Owoye Azazi, in 2002, even though was serving under a People’s Democracy Party (PDP), was courageous in his memorable public comments that the escalation of insecurity in the country, particularly the rampaging activities of the dreaded Boko Haram, was traceable to some undemocratic practices by the political parties during elections, especially carried out by the ruling PDP.

A Muhammadu Buhari’s presidency and its ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which kicked the PDP from power, with the promise that it was going to stamp out the ‘Boko boys’ and others, was the same that opened the country’s boarders to extreme rebels and herders, and their de-radicalization and enlistment into the army. Now, what we seem to have on hand is an army of occupation, in furthering in-house and external colonialism.

Excepting for the alleged involvement of Timipre Sylva, a former Minister of State for Petroleum and ex-governor of Bayelsa, who is said to be a kingpin of the coup that might have been goaded from outside the country’s southern zone, nearly all the 16 names, so far allegedly arrested as the failed mutineers, are from the northern part of the country. If the media accounts are authentic, it therefore means that for a first time, a Nigerian coup was engineered from a section of the country, unlike the coups of 1966, Muritala Mohammed’s, Gideon Okah’s, and that of the erudite Mamma Vatsa, which unified literary giants like Christopher Okigbo, the late Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka, whose joined notable Nigerians, pleading for leniency, but was tricked by IBB’s hastened execution of him.

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Otuaro: Baseless Allegations, Disregard Them, Group Urges Public

Published

16 hours ago

May 17, 2026

Editor

The Ijaw People’s Development Initiative, IPDI has reacted to a statement circulating online regarding the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), describing it as baseless.

The statement under the disguise ‘Niger Delta Stakeholders Forum and Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities,’ had demanded accountability regarding the management of the Programme and its administrator, Dr Dennis Otuaro.

Reacting to the statement, National President, IPDI, Comrade Austin Ozobo, said: “We consider it necessary to respond point by point to correct misconceptions, reject unsubstantiated claims, and keep the record straight in the interest of PAP beneficiaries, stakeholders, and the general public.

“It is worthy of note that the PAP operates under strict federal financial regulations and is subject to routine audits by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, the Ministry of Finance, and other oversight bodies.

“All disbursements, including stipends, vocational training, education support, and third-party contracts, are processed through the Treasury Single Account, TSA, with verifiable records”, the statement read.

According to the IPDI, the Programme welcomes lawful criticism and scrutiny at any time. However, linking such a call to specific individuals without evidence amounts to trial by the media and undermines due process.

“Dr Dennis Otuaro, administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme has maintained a good record of financial management, hence no formal petition with verifiable evidence has been submitted to any anti-graft agency till date”.

“It may interest you to know that the N65,000 monthly stipend is fixed by the Appropriation Act and can only be reviewed through a budgetary process approved by the National Assembly and the Presidency.

‘The PAP management has consistently conveyed beneficiaries’ concerns on cost of living to relevant authorities”.

“Again, claims that allocations to the Programme have risen significantly while stipends remain unchanged misrepresents the budget structure.

“Note, increased allocations in recent years have been tied to expanded reintegration programs, education sponsorships, skills acquisition, and infrastructure support for training centers, not solely to stipend payments”.

The group reiterated that the allegation that the Amnesty Programme Office “kidnaps and detains delegates” is false, reckless, and defamatory, adding that the PAP has no paramilitary or law enforcement mandate, nor does it operate detention facilities and that any incident involving law enforcement is outside the control and purview of the Programme.

“We challenge the authors to provide verifiable details of time, place, and persons involved so the matter can be addressed through appropriate legal channels,” the group said

On Claims of Selective Empowerment and 500% Payment Increases, the group maintained that payments to contractors, ex-agitator leaders, and service providers were governed by existing contracts and agreements predating the current administration.

“No individual or camp has received unilateral increases without contractual basis or due process. Allegations of 500% increases are unsubstantiated and designed to stoke division among beneficiaries,” it added.

“The current administration has maintained a policy of transparency in engagement with leaders and has expanded inclusion by verifying and capturing previously omitted beneficiaries where due“, IPDI added.

The group further said, “The PAP remains a neutral, peace-building institution established under the 2009 Amnesty Declaration. Its mandate is to coordinate disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration. The Office does not engage in political victimization, intimidation, or exclusion of stakeholders. Engagement with ex-agitator leaders and community structures is conducted based on their role in maintaining peace and facilitating reintegration, not political alignment”.

“The PAP under Chief Denis Otuaro’s leadership remains committed to transparency, fairness, and the original mandate of the Amnesty Programme. Constructive criticism is welcome and has informed policy adjustments in the past. However, campaigns of calumny, unverified allegations, and attempts to drag the Programme into commercial or political disputes do not serve the interest of peace in the Niger Delta”, IPDI said.

“We urge all stakeholders to channel grievances through the established engagement channels of the Programme and to avoid statements that threaten the fragile stability we have worked to sustain”.

Consequently, the IPDI urges members of the public to disregard what its described as “flimsy and unsubstantiated allegations, misconception, and missives by faceless groups above“.

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[OPINION] Olukoyede’s EFCC: Taming The ‘Fantastically-Corrupt’

Published

16 hours ago

May 17, 2026

Editor

Since its creation 23 years ago, by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, as president of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous and influential country, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had apparently not gotten a head, who had piloted the affairs of the commission, like Mr. Olanipekun Olukoyede, its Executive Chairman, a chief-operations-officer of the Commission.

It could be said that Olukoyede, the Czar thief catcher and arrestor of economic saboteurs, has given the EFCC’s enemies such a tough time as he has taking the anti-graft fight to the doorsteps of the high-profile individuals across the country. These range from former state governors, serving and former ministers, retired and serving civil servants, businessmen, clergies, traditional rulers, cyber-influencer, entertainers, professionals and numerous others.

Olukoyede brings years of experience in law, fraud management, and business intelligence to bear on the position. Before him, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was EFCC’s inaugural chair; succeeded by the first and only female, Mrs. Farida Waziri; Ibrahim Lamorde, Ibrahim Magu, and Abdul Rasheed Bawa.

The anti-graft agency has its hands full with massive financial fraud and money laundering cases. In the clause of “physicians, look at thyself”, EFCC in its resolve is known to have been flushing out officers within the body, who run foul to the law.

In the past, before Olukoyede’s appointment, it was widely believed that it was only the “fries and not the big fishes”, who the Commission could summon the courage to prosecute; and that most culprits were also left from the hook, because of compromise by some corrupt officers of the Commission, and feeble litigation processes.

Mr. Godwin Emefiele, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), happened to have opened to Olukoyede’s a deluge of “big-men and women”, who have been arrested, investigated and cooling their feet in detention or those bailed, that are facing severe court trials. There is the biggest 19-count charge at the Ikeja Special Offences Court, involving an alleged $4.5 billion fraud.
Immediate-paste governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, faces two massive, but separate legal battles totalling over N190 billion on fraud allegation. EFCC secured from the Court of Appeal, forfeiture of 14 properties and huge money linked to him.

Abubakar Malami (former Attorney-General of the Federation), with his son, Abdulaziz and his wife, is currently charged on a-16-count of money laundering. The court has stayed interim forfeiture of 57 properties valued at over N213 billion.

EFCC had also secured the arrest of Sadiya Umar-Farouq, a female former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, and a former Permanent Secretary, through a Federal High Court, on a 21-point alleged fraud and corruption charge, involving $1.3 million and N746.6m and others amounting to 37.1 billion.

Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, also female and former Minister of Women Affairs, was removed from office by President Bola Tinubu, over alleged misappropriation and diversion of N138.4 million, and had been under EFCC questioning.

A recent discovery, which startled Nigerians and the world, the Commission (EFCC) had reportedly arrested a serving Director-General of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, Dr. Mustapha Abdullahi, over alleged money laundering involving about ₦500 billion.

Somewhat, this had deflated the claim that those arrested and persecuted are political opponents and not serving officers of the Tinubu’s government.

EFCC is a “Nigerian law enforcement and anti-graft agency that investigates financial crimes, such as advance fee fraud (419 Fraud) and money laundering. It was also set up to fight against corruption and to protect the country from economic saboteurs”.

The Commission, whilst responding to pressures from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), that named Nigeria as one of 23 countries not cooperating in the international community’s efforts to fight money laundering, had revved in performance, in a bid to roll back the blights.

And so, it is a strenuous goal for EFCC, as entrenched in the ‘EFCC Establishment Act 2004’, which gives it specialist jurisdiction against severe financial and commercial crime – covering multiple high and lower levels.

Born on 14 October 1969, Olukoyede, a civil servant, has had a clear break from past, where past executive chairmen of the Commission had left the Commission, where all serving officers were drafted from the Nigerian Police Force (NPF). However, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is widely commended for Olukoyede’s appointment to the position, with the Senate also eulogized for screening him.

Whilst briefing the Press in Abuja, on his two-year activities in office, on October 23, 2025, the Commission’s boss certainly made unprecedented progress in the fight against economic and financial crimes. He spoke through the Director of Public Affairs of the Commission, Wilson Uwujaren, as he listed the recovery of N566 billion, alongside other currencies and assets, among the achievements of the Commission.

He further revealed that the Commission received over 19,000 petitions, conducted 29,240 investigations, filed 10,525 cases in court, and secured 7,503 convictions.

Olukoyede asserted that the Commission recovered ₦566,319,820,343.40, $411,566,192.32, £71,306.25, €182,877.10, and other foreign currencies from proceeds of financial and economic crimes. Added to this was the recovery of 1,502 non-monetary assets, comprising 402 properties in 2023, 975 in 2024, and 125 so far in 2025.

“Among these recovered assets are two notable landmarks: the final forfeiture of 753 units of duplexes in Lokogoma, Abuja, and the forfeiture of Nok University, now the Federal University of Applied Sciences, Kachia, Kaduna State,” he said.

He listed several high-profile cases prosecuted within the period, including those involving former governors Willie Obiano, Abdulfatah Ahmed, Darius Ishaku, Theodore Orji, and Yahaya Bello. Others are former ministers Olu Agunloye, Mamman Saleh, Hadi Sirika, Charles Ugwu, and former Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele.

EFCC was also said to have reentered and invigorated some longstanding fraud cases, such as ones linking Fred Ajudua, former People Democratic Party, PDP National Chairman Haliru Bello Mohammed, ex-National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, and former Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF boss, Ngozi Olojeme.

The EFCC said it arrested 792 suspects involved in asset and cryptocurrency frauds in Lagos, among who were 192 foreigners who were prosecuted and deported.

A Task Force on Naira Abuse and Dollarisation of the Economy was established by EFCC, which accordingly, had notable impacts in sanitizing money actions countrywide. “The campaign against naira abuse, racketeering, and speculative currency trading has helped reduce pressure on the naira and complemented the Central Bank’s efforts in stabilizing the economy,” he said.

Olukoyede also spoke on the Commission’s strengthened partnerships with foreign law enforcement agencies, including the Korean Police, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Spanish Police, and German Police.

He also mention benefitting synergy with the FBI, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), INTERPOL, and Japan’s JICA, in subsequent joint investigations and the repatriation of stolen assets to victims from Spain, Canada, and the United States.

Strengthening EFFC’s mandate at the regional level, and in Africa, Olukoyede and the Commission are said to be up and doing. For instance, a thing that had never happened to EFFC, he had been twice elected as President of the Network of National Anti-Corruption Institutions in West Africa (NACIWA), which led to the founding of a permanent secretariat in Abuja.

A strong media presence is needed to successfully inform the public of the ideals of EFCC and its update activities. And so, ‘EFCC Radio 97.3FM’, Nigeria’s first anti-corruption radio station, was established Olukoyede. EFCC should count itself very lucky for having in its fold, tested, diligent and veteran journalists who are ostensibly seasoned in the ideals and watchdog principles of the Commission.

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APC Primaries: Johnny Rallies Support For Senator Thomas’ Re-election Bid

Published

17 hours ago

May 17, 2026

Editor

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Delta State, Chief Michael Johnny, has called on Delta South Senatorial District’s party faithful to come out in large tomorrow and vote for Senator Joel-Onowakpo Thomas (JOT) in the party senatorial primary election.

Johnny, widely regarded as a leader par excellence within the APC, described the primary election as a critical moment that will determine the political stability, unity, and future direction of Delta South.

According to him, Delta South needs a detribalized leader with the capacity to unite people beyond ethnic sentiments and political divisions.

He warned against leaders whose style of politics promotes ethnic division and unnecessary tension within the region.

Chief Johnny stated that Senator Thomas has continued to distinguish himself as a leader who carries everyone along, irrespective of tribe, political background, or local government affiliation.

He noted that JOT’s leadership style has strengthened cooperation, peace, fairness, and political inclusion across Delta South.

Speaking further, Chief Johnny declared that the Ijaw people have resolved to stand firmly behind Thomas because fairness, justice, and political balance must prevail in Delta South.

“As Ijaw people, we have decided to support Senator Joel because this is the turn of the Isoko nation, and Ijaw stands for truth. That is our position,” he stated.

He also appreciated what he described as “genuine Itsekiri sons and daughters” who believe in fairness, equity, and peaceful coexistence, adding that Delta South can only move forward when the various ethnic nationalities work together in unity and mutual respect.

Chief Johnny maintained that the senatorial district must not be dragged backward by divisive politics or ethnic interests capable of weakening the collective strength of the region.

He stressed that all APC members in Delta South must remain united in their support for Senator Joel-Onowakpo Thomas.

“Delta South is bigger than personal interests. This election is about unity, stability, fairness, and the future of our people. Senator JOT represents continuity, experience, and inclusive leadership for all ethnic groups in Delta South,” Chief Johnny added.