News

OPINION: Time To Question Buhari

Published

2 years ago

February 26, 2024

By Lasisi Olagunju

Preparatory to his exit from power last year, President Muhammadu Buhari warned all of us to let him be after office: “Nobody should ask me to come and give any evidence in any court; otherwise whoever it is, he will be in trouble because all important things are on record.” Buhari uttered those words in one of his very rare media interviews. That was in January 2023 – one year, one month ago. And truly, every horror so far traced to him as president has been deflected to some minion somewhere. Whatever was lost under his watch, whatever we seek after his exit, whatever we can’t find in the presidential drawer, we’ve carefully avoided going to the man we handsomely paid to look after them. The chief priest is never guilty of anything. There is always a scapegoat tethered in his honour. The orphaned animal carries the guilt.

Some of the key ‘secular’ supporters of the present president are my friends. I engaged one of them last week on the cost of living crisis ravaging the country. He told me what we’ve been reading on social media: Buhari is the culprit; he is the edá rat that peed into Nigeria’s soup pot. He left a badly managed country. My Èmilókàn friend blamed everything, including the worsening power supply situation, on the former president.

I reminded my friend that the past can’t be solely blamed for the rashes of today. Buhari didn’t float the naira and hack petrol subsidy at the same time. Today’s president did. We’ve run all our lives in this country blaming the next person. I keep reading strenuous efforts being made to do devolution of blames down to state governors. It is ridiculous. Were governors consulted before the naira was fed to the dogs of market forces? Leaders at the very top should accept the consequences of their actions. Buhari in power didn’t. He blamed his past throughout his eight years. His successor cannot be allowed to go that road. As America’s Harry Truman put it, “The president—whoever he is—has to decide. He can’t pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That’s his job.” My friend agreed but insisted that Buhari left a very badly managed Nigeria, then added: “But, you know, we can’t come out against him.” I smiled, nodded and reminded him of Buhari’s 2023 promise of trouble if anyone asked him “to come and give any evidence in court.” My friend laughed. We moved our talk to other matters.

But, that is not to say Buhari should not explain what he did to Nigeria. I hope he is following his probe by the Senate. Buhari in power boasted repeatedly of his ‘integrity.’ His people call him Maigaskiya (truth teller). But what kind of integrity disdains accountability, rendering accounts? There is a 2006 book, ‘Responsible Leadership’ edited by Nicolas Pless and Thomas Maak. A chapter in that book is useful here. The chapter, written by George G. Brenkert, is on ‘Integrity, Responsible leaders and Accountability’. Integrity and accountability share an inner connection. They are, in the words of Nigerian playwright, Zulu Sofola, “lightning and thunder inseparable.” George Brenkert maintains that a leader “who is not willing to be subject to conditions involving giving an account of his or her behaviour to others” cannot claim to have integrity. I agree with him. You mouth and wear ‘integrity’ everywhere and still threaten us with trouble if we dare question you.

FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Our President’s Love Affair With The IMF

Former President Buhari did not tell us why he had to threaten his successors against potentially calling him to account. He also did not define or explain what he meant by ‘trouble’. But, you remember Shakespeare’s witches and their chant of ‘trouble’ in Macbeth: “Double, double toil and trouble;/ Fire burn and cauldron bubble” Steaming hot cauldron is elevated boiler. Whatever Buhari had covered up in his boiling kettle is coming out. His warning was a cauldron of guilt.

The Senate told us last week that a total of N30 trillion was printed by the government of Muhammadu Buhari and the money appears to have disappeared. I whispered “Goodbye, Giant of Africa” when I listened to the heart-rending deliberation of our Senate on that disaster. Ahmed Lawan, Buhari’s Senate president, interjected deliberations and said what Buhari printed was N23 trillion, not N30 trillion. Godswill Akpabio, Bola Tinubu’s Senate president (who was also Buhari’s minister), interjected the interjection. He said the extra N7 trillion was interest on the original sum.

We – you and I – are the ones paying principal and interest on Buhari’s misrule. Different strokes. In the United States, convicted former President Donald Trump pays for his bad acts. Reports say he owes an additional $87,502 in post-judgment interest every day until he pays the $354 million fine slammed on him two weeks ago by Judge Arthur Engoron in his civil fraud case. So, a court can convict a big man who had been president?

It happened also in South Africa. Not here. Where I come from, a man is never allowed to be bigger than the village. A community that cowers before a bully is a town of kids. And Nigeria should not forever be J. M. Barrie’s (1911) Neverland, a land of eternal childhood, island of people who refuse to grow up. Or the puer, Carl Jung’s archetypal error-man, who is forever afraid of challenges; who is forever waiting for ‘divine intervention’ to solve all his problems. We cannot be weaned of the disease of bad leadership until the leader knows that his feet will be held to the fires of justice after his reign. Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls, while stating the position of the law on equality before the law, says: “to every subject in this land no matter how powerful, I would use Thomas Fuller’s words over 300 years ago; “be you never so high, the law is above you.”

FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Tinubu, Matter Don Pass Be Careful

We’ve seen in the US judgement that President Trump is not bigger than his country. That is in the United States. Here, trouble awaits anyone who may want to query Buhari on why he wrecked our economy, printed N23 trillion plus N7 trillion interest, and what he used the printed money for. Or that he took a $3.4 billion loan without a trace of how the money was spent and on what. The former president said the consequence of asking him to account is trouble. That is the stuff master-wrestlers are made of. We call them àgbà ìjàkadì in Yoruba. They always tell their victims that they would be victims unless they know their level.

An elected president threatening trouble if asked to render an account is a guilty mind. We should, at this moment, outgrow our fear of strongmen and serve them queries. Can we be man enough for once and square up to Buhari, the heavyweight? The man’s successors in jittery whispers blame their troubles on him. They say his government wreaked today’s woes. They should ask him to come and account for his deeds – good and bad. And the masquerade should be man (or spirit) enough to step out of his guttural grove. He owes everyone who suffers hunger today an explanation that he is not the cause. His successors say he is.

The Buhari government printed money which disappeared as they came out of the mint. That is what our Senate says it is probing without mentioning the name that professed the heist. They will pan the camera away from the one who should be in the dock. There are other issues. Early this month, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project asked Tinubu to probe the whereabouts of the $3.4bn loan obtained in 2020 by Buhari from the International Monetary Fund. Buhari took that loan to fight COVID. But SERAP is asking Tinubu to promptly probe the allegations that the IMF loan is missing, diverted or unaccounted for.” It hinted that the 2020 annual audited report recently published by the Auditor-General of the Federation “documents damning revelations, including that there was ‘no information or document to justify the movement and spending of the fund’”. There may be many more of such disappearances.

FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Ibadan Blast, Makinde And Federalism

If I were Buhari, I would not wait for the Senate to call me before storming the chambers with details of the N30 trillion and other scandalous matters. I would come out and show the nation where the money is. But Buhari won’t. He is above the law and bigger than Nigeria, a serially abused country.

Is it not futile for leaders to insist they can’t be questioned? Idi Amin of Uganda recklessly printed money like Buhari and ruined his country. No one could caution or question Idi Amin, who boasted repeatedly that he was the conqueror of everybody, including the British Empire. Then he fell and maggots crept out to feast on his bloated belly. Films, books, fiction and non-fiction, have not stopped asking Idi Amin questions even after his death. Wole Soyinka’s A Play of Giants is one; Francis Imbuga’s Man of Kafira is another. Idi Amin is Boss in Imbuga’s play. He flaunts integrity and transparency. Just like today’s Nigeria in which hunger is the most uttered word north and south, Drunk and Sober, two characters in Man of Kafira, wallow in hunger while corrupt Boss lives in transparent ostentation. The two poor characters speak their frustration about a society that provides “three square meals for the transparent man and not a single trianglar one for us.”

We wait to see how the Senate handles the N30 trillion naira scandal and others. We also wait to see how Bola Tinubu will smell after his own tenure and if he will be willing to be questioned. Ultimately, leaders personally answer for their deeds and misdeeds. No fly follows the corpse of leaders into the grave. Not followers, not associates, not their dogs.

FROM THE AUTHOR: Gaza Or Jerusalem: Where Should Nigerians Be Found? [OPINION]

I saw senators struggling to disown Buhari last week. Even dogs that fawned over him and graciously ate his phlegm are barking at him now. That is life. No one admits to using a missing knife to peel their yam. If I were the man of today, I would go watch or read ‘Everyman’, a 15th-century play of man appearing before God naked and all alone. Power and Strength abandon him; Beauty and Knowledge leave too. All he is left with are his Good Deeds. There are modern adaptations of that play. In Dutch, it is Elckerlijc; in Latin, it is Homulus. Duro Ladipo’s Eda is the Yoruba version.

Some governors recently warned that we were on the road to Venezuela. I have written twice on that country; the first was when Buhari’s plantain was decaying and we were told it was ripening. And we were asked to see it so, and we agreed. Venezuela is a burst country where local traders set the price of anything in US dollars and sell everything in US dollars. No one takes the country’s currency, the bolivar, seriously; it is worth less than the wrapper on sweets. But, Venezuela’s head did not go bad overnight. The destruction was gradual, step by step, leader by leader. Long before the bubble burst for that country, Venezuelan playwright and theatre director, José Ignacio Cabrujas, was asked to speak on the curse that rules his country. He said “the state is a magnanimous sorcerer”; it creates illusions and fantasies. He described the reign of one president as “the debut of the myth of progress” and the next as the myth’s “hallucinatory… flamboyant revival.” Powerful imagery that describes our case. I think of the mythical strides of yesterday and the mist in today’s promises.

Shading the truth and exaggerating optimism led us to this day of pies in the sky. Our dog is back to the same behaviour that denied it dinner yesterday. It looks like a foundational curse.

Bola Tinubu cannot renew any hope without showing us how (and why) previous hopes expired. Throughout Buhari’s eight years, the former president feasted on designer shoes and wrapped himself in expensive gowns. He ate big and belched loudly. He tooth-picked his time away while the plane drifted. We demanded to know where the pilot was, we were abused. We asked why he was imperiling a country of 200 million people, we were asked to shut up. Today, some of those who insulted us are in the cockpit; they are whispering alarms at the perilous state of the flight. ‘Where and how is the pilot?’ is the question distraught passengers would ask in life-threatening turbulence. We asked yesterday, we are asking now. All who ask the question today genuinely seek an answer. They ask it just as troubled trees of the forest whine and crackle in terrible storms.

With Buhari, there was no leadership. “In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still,” Harry S. Truman, 33rd president of the United States, uttered that statement long ago and he had reasons to say so. So that today does not end up as yesterday did, we should keep asking questions, even if they are rhetorical. We can make them
epiplectic, forked questions of outrage and rebuke. Whatever flavour we choose, what is important is that we do not stop querying power and demanding answers. Buhari was absent, or pretended to be so. His reign ruined Nigeria; he should be made to account for his deeds.

News

OPINION: Nigerian Leaders And The Tragedy Of Sudden Riches

Published

10 minutes ago

October 8, 2025

Editor

By Israel Adebiyi

It is my sincere hope that by now, the wives of the 21 local government chairmen of Adamawa State are safely back from their exotic voyage to Istanbul, Turkey, a trip reportedly bankrolled by the local government finances under the umbrella of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON). A journey, we are told, designed to “empower” them with leadership skills. It’s the kind of irony that defines our political culture, an expensive parade of privilege masquerading as governance.

But that is what happens when providence smiles on an ill-prepared man: he loses every sense of decorum, perspective, and sanity.

I am reminded of a neighbour from nearly two decades ago, a simple man who earned his living as a welder in a bustling corner of Alagbado, in Lagos. One day, fortune smiled on him. The details of how it happened are less important than the aftermath. Overnight, this humble tradesman was thrust into wealth he never imagined. His first response was to remodel his one-room face-me-I-face-you apartment. He then bought crates of beverages for his wife to start a small trade. Nights became movie marathons, days were spent entertaining friends and living large. Within a short while, both the beverages and the money were gone. The family consumed what was meant to be sold, and before long, they were back to where they began, broke and disillusioned.

That, in many ways, mirrors the tragedy of Nigerian leadership. It’s the poverty mindset in leadership.

The story of my neighbour is a microcosm of the Nigerian political elite, particularly at the subnational level. When sudden riches come, wisdom departs. When opportunity presents itself, greed takes over. In the past years, since the removal of fuel subsidy and the subsequent fiscal windfall that followed, all levels of governments, particularly both state and local governments have found themselves with more resources than they have had in over a decade. Yet, rather than invest in ideas that would stimulate production, jobs, and infrastructure, what we have witnessed is an epidemic of frivolities, unnecessary travels, wasteful seminars, inflated projects, and reckless spending.

Across the country, the story is similar: councils and states spending like drunken sailors. Suddenly, workshops in Dubai, leadership retreats in Turkey, and empowerment programs that empower nobody have become the order of the day. The sad reality is that many of these leaders lack the intellectual depth, managerial capacity, and moral restraint to translate resources into development. Their worldview is transactional, not transformational.

Nigeria’s tragedy is not the absence of resources; it is the misplacement of priorities. Across the states, billions are allocated to vanity projects that contribute little or nothing to the people’s quality of life. Roads are constructed without drainages and collapse at the first rainfall. Hospitals are built without doctors, and schools are renovated without teachers. Governors commission streetlights in communities without power supply. Council chairmen purchase SUVs in towns where people still fetch water from muddy streams. This is not governance; it is pageantry.

The problem is rooted in a poverty mindset, a mentality that sees power not as a platform for service but as an opportunity for consumption. Like the welder who squandered his windfall, our leaders are more preoccupied with display than development. They seek validation through possessions and patronage. They confuse spending with productivity. After all, these guarantee their re-election and political relevance.

Take for instance, the proliferation of “empowerment” schemes across states and local governments. Millions are spent distributing grinding machines, hair dryers, and tricycles, symbolic gestures that make headlines but solve nothing. In a state where industrial capacity is non-existent and education is underfunded, these programs are nothing but political theatre.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:Nigeria @65: A Long Walk To Freedom

Part of the reason for this recurring tragedy is the near absence of accountability. At every level of government, public scrutiny has been deliberately weakened. The legislature, which should act as a check on executive excesses, has become a willing accomplice. Most state assemblies now function as mere extensions of the governor’s office. Their loyalty is not to the constitution or the people, but to the whims of the man who controls their allowances. When oversight is dead, impunity thrives.

The same is true at the local government level. The councils, which should be the closest tier of governance to the people, have become mere revenue distribution centres. Their budgets are inflated with cosmetic projects, while core community needs – clean water, rural roads, primary healthcare, and education – remain neglected. In most states, local governments have been stripped of autonomy, no thanks to the governors, and turned into cash dispensers for political godfathers.

A functioning democracy depends on the ability of citizens and institutions to demand explanations from those in power. Unfortunately, Nigeria has normalised a culture of unaccountability. We applaud mediocrity, celebrate looters, and reward failure with re-election.

Leadership without vision is like a vehicle without direction, fast-moving but going nowhere. Our leaders often mistake motion for progress. A road contract here, a stadium renovation there, a new office complex somewhere, yet the fundamental problems remain untouched.

When a government cannot define its priorities, it becomes reactive, not proactive. It responds to crises rather than preventing them. The consequence is that we keep recycling poverty in the midst of plenty.

Consider the fate of many oil-producing states that have earned hundreds of billions from the 13 percent derivation fund. Despite their enormous earnings, the communities remain among the poorest in the federation. The roads are not just bad but are deathtraps, the schools dilapidated, and the hospitals understaffed. The money vanished into white-elephant projects and political patronage networks.

Visionary leadership is not about having a title or holding an office; it is about seeing beyond the immediate and investing in the future. It is about building systems that outlive individuals. Sadly, most of our leaders are incapable of such long-term thinking because they are trapped in the psychology of survival, not sustainability.

There is a proverb that says: “The foolish man who finds gold in the morning will be poor again by evening.” That proverb could have been written for Nigeria. Each time fortune presents us with an opportunity, whether through oil booms, debt relief, or global trade openings, we squander it in consumption and corruption.

The subsidy removal windfall was meant to be a moment of reckoning, a chance to redirect resources to development, improve infrastructure, and alleviate poverty. Instead, it has become another tragic chapter in our national story, a story of squandered wealth and wasted potential.

When money becomes available without the corresponding capacity to manage it, it breeds recklessness. Suddenly, every council wants a new secretariat. Every governor wants to build a new airport or flyovers that lead to nowhere. The tragedy is not in the availability of money but in the absence of vision to channel it productively.

Nigeria does not lack bright minds; it lacks systems that compel responsibility. What we need is a new civic consciousness that demands accountability from those in power. Citizens must begin to interrogate budgets, question policies, and reject tokenism. Civil society must reclaim its watchdog role. The media must rise above “he said, he said” journalism and focus on investigative and developmental reporting that exposes waste and corruption.

Equally, the legislature must rediscover its purpose. Lawmakers are not meant to be praise singers or contract brokers. They are the custodians of democracy, empowered to question, probe, and restrain executive recklessness. Until they reclaim that role, governance will remain an exercise in futility.

The solution also lies in leadership development. Leadership should no longer be an accident of chance or patronage; it must be a deliberate cultivation of character, competence, and capacity. The tragedy of sudden riches is avoidable if leaders are adequately prepared to handle responsibility.

Ultimately, the change we seek is not just in policy but in mindset. Nigeria must confront the culture of consumption and replace it with a culture of productivity. We must move from short-term gratification to long-term investment, from vanity projects to value creation, from self-aggrandizement to service.

Every generation has its defining moment. Ours is the opportunity to rethink governance and rebuild trust. The tragedy of sudden riches can become the triumph of sustainable wealth, but only if we learn to manage fortune with foresight.

Until that happens, the Adamawa wives will keep travelling, the chairmen will keep spending, and the people will keep waiting for dividends that never come.

News

JUST IN: Court Orders IGP To Arrest Mahmood Yakubu, Ex-INEC Chairman

Published

3 hours ago

October 8, 2025

Editor

Despite his exit as the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, has again ordered the Inspector General of Police, Mr Kayode Egbetokun, to arrest the former INEC chairman, Prof Mahmoud Yakubu, for an offence relating to contempt of court.

The Court order came a few hours after Yakubu left office as the INEC chairman.

The Action Alliance, AA, had instituted a case before the court challenging INEC and its former chairman, Prof Yakubu, over their non-compliance with the judgment of the Court delivered by Justice Funmilola Demi-Ajayi in suit number FHC/OS/CS/194/2024.

In the said judgment, the court ordered INEC to put the names of the National Chairman of the Action Alliance, Adekunle Rufai Omoaje, and other members of the party’s National Executive Committee, NEC, on the INEC portal.

The Court also held that the names of all the state chairmen of the party be uploaded on the INEC portal.

The court held that the elective convention of the party held on the 7th of October, 2023 which produced Omoaje as the national chairman of the party and other NEC members of the party was authentic as it was properly monitored and supervised by officials of INEC in accordance with the party’s constitution and the electoral acts.

However, INEC claimed to have complied with the court judgment, but the party disagreed with the commission, as the name of Omoaje was yet to be uploaded on the commission’s website despite the orders of the Court.

Although the names of the state chairmen of the party under the leadership of Omoaje and those of the NEC members are already on the INEC portal, Omoaje’s name is yet to be uploaded as of press time, a development that the court frowned at.

The court order obtained by our correspondent dated 7th October, 2025, and signed by Mr O.M. Kilani on behalf of the Court Registrar reads in part, “it is hereby ordered that the Inspector General of Police shall cause the arrest and shall charge the defendant/judgment debtors for contempt and committal proceedings within seven days of this ruling.”

The court also awarded a cost of #100,000 against the judgment creditors.

News

Lagos Closes Adeniji Adele–CMS Lane For Six Weeks Of Repairs

Published

5 hours ago

October 8, 2025

Editor

The Lagos State Government has announced a partial closure of the Adeniji Adele Interchange Junction to CMS for six weeks to allow for rehabilitation works by the Federal Government.

According to a statement issued on Wednesday by the Commissioner for Transportation, Oluwaseun Osiyemi, the repair works will run daily between 11:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m., starting Sunday, October 12, and ending Sunday, November 23, 2025.

Osiyemi explained that only one lane of the road will be closed during the period, while the remaining lanes will remain open to traffic to minimize disruptions.

He assured motorists that traffic management officers will be stationed along the corridor to ensure smooth vehicular movement and reduce inconvenience during the rehabilitation.

“Motorists are implored to be patient, as the lane diversion is part of the traffic management plan for the rehabilitation of the road by the Federal Ministry of Works,” the commissioner said.

He also urged drivers to comply with the directives of traffic officials on duty to ensure safety and efficient traffic flow throughout the repair period.