Category: Politics

By Tunde Olusunle

One of the most intriguing volumes of poetry written by the globally respected poet, scholar, essayist and dramatist, Niyi Osundare is titled The Word Is An Egg. At the last count, Osundare had published nearly 20 collections of verse, establishing himself as one of the world’s most formidable and most notable bards of all time. I have been a career researcher into Osundare’s oeuvre in the past four decades and also inspired in my writing career as a member of the generation immediately succeeding his. I have also been most fascinated by The Word Is An Egg which derives from the intricate depths of Yoruba lore. It establishes a congruence between the reality of the irretrievability of the spoken word, and the unsalvageability of a broken raw egg, once both have left the confines of their various enclosures. At that point, they become unguardable and unstoppable tumbling boulders.

Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, the “batman” of Rivers State politics is famous for his affliction by loggorhoea. He is perennially obsessed by both the microphone and the lectern. What he lacks in perseverance for paperwork, he has aplenty in often needless garrulity and grandiloquence. At the height of his endless attrition with his political godson and successor as Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, Wike in August 2024, threatened to “put fire in the states of governors supporting Fubara” against him. Wike spoke in reaction to a solidarity message by the Forum of Governors of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, (PDP), which met in Jalingo, Taraba State at the time, to the troubled Fubara.

Wike who lost the presidential ticket of the PDP to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar at the May 2022 primary and was overlooked as running mate ahead the February 25, 2023 presidential election, has been on a singular mission to “put fire” in the PDP ever since. Apart from working against the party to secure a foothold in the post-election governance structure of the opposing All Progressives Congress, (APC), Wike has superintended over the decapitation and interment of the party which brought him to political prominence 27 years ago. From a hitherto virile and robust opposition party of over a dozen governors, the PDP has shrunken to just about half that number, its offices at the local government, state and national levels under lock in most places, arising from litigations and counter-rulings.

In recent weeks, however, Wike’s invocation of fire on the house under which roof he grew into adulthood, has transmogrified into self-immolation. And he has been told so in unmistakable terms by those on whose behalf he incinerated his father’s house. Following the defection of Siminalayi Fubara to the APC and his official designation as leader of the party in the state, Wike suffered an initial bout of insomnia. For the avoidance of doubt, the APC National Chairman, Yilwatda Nentawe, a Professor, said in the immediate aftermath of Fubara’s switch to the APC, that he is henceforth the party’s Numero Uno in the state. He admonished him to demonstrate accommodating leadership and earn popular trust to win the gubernatorial primary which will presage his return to office.

Wike, who postures as the sole proprietor and indisputable emperor of Rivers State, promptly countered by saying Fubara will not be returned to Brick House, Port Harcourt, the original name of Government House in the Rivers State capital, under his watch, come 2027. According to Wike, he will not allow the state “to repeat the mistake of 2023,” the emergence of an non-pliable Fubara being the error under reference. Ajibola Bashiru, an academic, rugged activist and National Secretary of the APC, buttressed the position of the party Chairman when he noted subsequently that even members of the National Working Committee, (NWC), of the APC must defer to sitting governors as party leaders in their various states. A perennially paranoid Wike shot back cautioning Bashiru to steer clear of the politics of Rivers State, warning not to get his hands “burnt.” Wike is obviously totally enamoured by the concept of infernos and conflagration as it were. But he got more than he bargained for from Bashiru an erstwhile Senator.

Bashiru told Wike unequivocally that the last time he, Bashiru checked, Wike was a member of the PDP and not the APC. To that extent, Wike could not be a rottweiler and alsatian at the same time, guarding two separate gate houses! In Yoruba, Bashiru would probably have told Wike the proverb about the fact that gluttony is not tolerated in the homestead of Alade, a folkloric figure who availed farmers and country folk refuge beneath the roof of his thatched hut during the rain, and something to snack on. Bashiru further told Wike that if he is so psychotic about the politics of Rivers State, he could well resign his job as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, (FCTA), and relocate to full time local politicking in Rivers State! Bashiru cannot be any correct. At no time since the return of democracy in 1999 has the FCT been any dirtier and unsafe as it has been in recent months under Wike’s supervision, as he continues to distract himself with the concurrent political overlordship of Rivers State.

In parts of the capital city, its been several months since garbage was last evacuated, a situation which bears very grave epidemic prospects. Wike who prides himself as the best thing that ever happened to the FCT, has not been able to rout bovinae and similar animals from the streets and thoroughfares of Abuja in over two years of riding around the FCT in obscene motorcades, complete with outriders. Criminals are having a field day abducting unsuspecting residents in places and sending innocents to untimely deaths. All of these, while Wike trades with the politics of Rivers State. Most surpringly, Wike’s tongue which characteristically engages before rigorous rumination, has not found an answer to Bashiru’s pungent tirade, especially the bit about quitting his ministerial job, to assume the full, functional role of Amanyanabo of Rivers State politics. It would seem Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s Overtake Don Overtake Overtake, (ODOO), is at play in the current uneasy ceasefire.

Wike may attempt to make light of his situation next time he mounts the campaign dais on his self-serving “thank you tour” of Rivers State. He may display and dramatise buffoonery in the name of attempting to work his motley audience. Beneath Wike’s regalia, however, is a man traumatised by the burns and blisters of self-immolation on his torso. As it stands today, Wike has no political “house.” He has since “put fire” on his “paternal family house,” the PDP, the rubbles still smouldering in the dry season wind. This PDP made Wike Two-term Council Chairman; Chief of Staff; Minister of State and Two-term Governor. The critical core of the opposition, led by Atiku Abubakar who long saw through his chicanery and shenanigans have since energised the African Democratic Congress, (ADC).

For his award-winning success as the ultimate undertaker of the PDP, Wike is very largely viewed with suspicion and resentment in the ruling party, much as he construes himself as one of the “star boys” of the incumbent administration. He cuts the image of a controversial, divisive, disruptive, even destructive jobber in the eyes of the APC. He is unguarded in his utterances and was quoted to have once said he invested a whopping “N50Billion in the installation of President Bola Tinubu in 2023 and will not be dumped just like that.” Tinubu was effusive in his adulation of Wike as one of the standout performers in his government in the congratulatory message he sent to him last December. Wike is ever present at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja on Tinubu’s travels and returns, his genuflections non-typical for the political tigritude he professes.

Wike is staking a claim for a place in the Guinness Book of Records. After making history as the single individual who has served in five different executive positions since the dawn of democracy in 1999, he wants to be seen as the first politician to “amalgamate” two parties in support of the President’s reelection. But the people of Rivers State have seen through him, he’s in for a bumpy ride henceforth. Wike is severely loathed by his people for appropriating the political capital of Rivers State for his personal aggrandisement. He gave himself away recently when he said the reelection of Siminalayi Fubara will culminate in his political extinction in Rivers State. Simply put, the state has been Wike’s article of trade on the nation’s political stock market. And he has been the sole collector of accruing dividends, bonuses and royalties.

Whether Wike will field an aspirant to upstage Fubara in the APC gubernatorial primary when it is eventually scheduled, will yet be seen. Whether he will be sponsoring a candidate on the “rainbow political movement” he claims to have just established in Rivers State, to run against Fubara in the governorship election of March 2027, in the event that Fubara gets the APC ticket, will be some spectacle. Wike’s principal, Tinubu, whose reelection he claims to be prioritising will also be running on the APC superstructure. Indeed, the platform on which Wike will hawk his wares in the run up to 2027 for a man who has set himself up for systematic self-destruct, is yet to be seen. Hopefully, Wike’s several foibles on his political trajectory will remind him in a sober moment that the “word,” is very truly as fragile as the egg.

Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja

Aide to ex–Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Mr. Phrank Shaibu, has criticised the Presidency over what he described as misplaced priorities amid Nigeria’s worsening economic and security challenges.

In a press release disclosed on Facebook by Paul O. Ibe, Media Adviser to Atiku Abubakar, Shaibu faulted the Presidency for issuing what he called a “Stop Press” focused on the President’s lunch engagements in Paris, rather than addressing pressing national issues.

According to Shaibu, the briefing came at a time when many Nigerians are grappling with hunger, insecurity, business closures and a severe cost-of-living crisis. He described the emphasis on dining companions, photographs and image quality as “tone-deafness in power,” arguing that Nigerians are demanding leadership, not explanations about meals abroad.

He further questioned the Presidency’s response to public skepticism over claims of photo manipulation or artificial intelligence, stating that an administration previously linked to controversies over questionable documents should not be surprised by public doubt.

“When credibility is eroded, doubt follows naturally,” Shaibu said, adding that instead of rebuilding trust, the Presidency had resorted to lecturing citizens and attacking the media.

The former presidential spokesperson argued that the real issue was not a photograph but what he termed a distortion of leadership priorities, insisting that while parts of the country face insecurity and economic hardship, the focus of government communication appeared misplaced.

Shaibu called on the Presidency to move away from what he described as public relations theatrics and to urgently confront Nigeria’s challenges, including hunger, insecurity and economic decline.

He said this was the minimum expectation of Nigerians from those in power.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has recorded a major boost in Abia State, with about 5,000 new members joining the party barely a week after former Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, announced his move to the ADC.

The mass defection was led on Sunday by the 2023 Accord Party governorship candidate in the state, Bishop Emeka Nwankpa, at his hometown of Umuaku, Ntigha, in Isiala Ngwa North Local Government Area.

Addressing the gathering, supporters who defected alongside Nwankpa said they resigned from their former political parties and structures, including the South East Mandate for Good Governance, before collectively pitching their tent with the ADC.

Explaining his decision, Nwankpa said his choice of the ADC was driven by conviction, noting that the party’s manifesto closely reflects his political beliefs. He said his ideology is rooted in people-focused governance, social justice and sustainable development.

He described the ADC as a credible and forward-looking platform capable of delivering inclusive and people-centred leadership, adding that the party represents a fresh chance to restore public confidence in Nigeria’s political system.

The defectors were formally received into the party by the Abia State Chairman of the ADC, Don Norman Obinna, who said recent developments indicate that the nation’s political momentum is gradually shifting in favour of the ADC.

By Ebinum Samuel

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Services and Senator Representing Kogi West Zone, Sunday Steve Karimi, says the National Assembly fully backs President Bola Tinubu’s admonition on practical and unfettered financial autonomy for the local government tier of government. He said the parliament will enact relevant laws to compel strict adherence to the Supreme Court judgment on fiscal autonomy for the third tier of government.

Karimi who spoke when he hosted his constituents during the yuletide break, recalled the landmark ruling of the Supreme Court of Nigeria of July 25, 2024, which directed seamless federal allocation of funds to the 774 councils. He quoted the judgement to have said that “state governors’ control over local government resources as unconstitutional, while also voiding caretaker committees as illegal.” Senator Karimi observed that the judgement aimed to “strengthen grassroots democracy and governance by ensuring that allocations go directly to elected officials, without state interference.” He recalled that the overall aim of the ruling is also to improve service delivery at the critical local government level of the governance pyramid.

Despite this very clear, explicit and unambiguous declaration by the highest court in the land, however, Karimi observed that some states have continued to disregard and disrespect the ruling. According to Karimi, “cognisant of the errant conduct of some state governors on the issue, President Tinubu warned at the recent National Executive Committee meeting of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) a fortnight ago, that he may be compelled to issue an Executive Order to whip defaulting governors into line.” The President, Senator Karimi observed, had exercised restraint for so long with non-conformists, despite the fact that he has the powers to impose on them to do what is right.

Said Karimi: “The National Assembly will prioritise the matter of the non-adherence of certain governors across the broad spectrum, to the subsisting Supreme Court ruling on local government financial autonomy. We will back the President with relevant laws which will be retroactively effective. The laws will track the kleptomania and squandermania of governors who have been looting the commonwealth of the people of Nigeria. They will be prosecuted, compelled to make returns and punished for undermining the wellbeing of the generality of the people, by wilfully stealing what rightly belongs to them.”

Speaking further, Karimi said that trillions of naira had been pilfered from the resources of Nigerians by gluttonous governors. His words: “There is general consensus that no administration in contemporary history has made as much resources available to states and local government areas as the Tinubu government, but the people are barely feeling the impact in many places. During the screening of service chiefs recently, the chief of Defence staff noted that not allowing LGAs to function has contributed to insecurity in the country, creating lots of ungoverned space in the country. Some governors, their godfathers and members of their cabals, put a knife on local government funds every month, as their own “dessert” after meals.”

This, the Kogi West Senator noted, “is why the local government system is dysfunctional and incapable of rendering the most basic services to their constituents. It is the reason many parts of the country have become dangerous ungoverned spaces and operational bases for terrorists. Governors who have been wilfully denying the people the resources for development, their aiders and abetters, and their rabid defenders in the media will meet their comeuppance when the parliament enables the appropriate legislations.”

According to Senator Karimi, in some states of the federation, what is being done is outright stealing of LGAs allocation. While local government funds are transferred to the LGAs bank accounts, the state then operates voucher racketeering schemes, where documents are processed for fictitious jobs that are never executed, while the relevant supervisory councillors and chairmen are compelled to sign and approve such fraudulent vouchers which run into billions of naira monthly. No jobs are carried out, while funds are looted steadily and regularly. Chairmen dare not complain for the fear of their lives because the ruling gangs in some states are deadly.This type of fraud shouldn’t be happening in the 21st century in Nigeria.

By Tunde Olusunle

Frequent invasion of unsuspecting communities; random abductions-for-ransom and killings in Kogi West Senatorial Zone compel the question: Exactly what role is the administration of Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo playing in the mitigation of insecurity in the district? In the age of the internet, information processing and dissemination is real-time. Happenings in Sokoto in the North West; Borno in the North East; Kwara in the North Central; Oyo in the South West; Edo in the South South and Enugu in the South East are relayed via terrestrial channels, instantaneously and the world is aware and abreast by the minute. Responsive governments swing into action immediately tracking the criminals and dialoguing with them with the aim of securing the safe release of victims.

Apart from their well-earned prominence in the media owing to their positive, productive and impactful service to their constituents, Governors Baba Gana Zulum of Borno; Umaru Bago of Niger, and Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq of Kwara states have been seen on several occasions, receiving freed abductees. The victims of the gunmen attack on the Christ Apostolic Church, (CAC), Eruku, Kwara State, November 19, 2025, were released to Governor Abdulrasaq Sunday November 23, 2025. It is a measure of the direct involvement of the Kebbi State Government in the management of the kidnapping on November 19, 2025, of 25 students from the Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, (GGCSS), in Maga, Kebbi State, that Governor Nasir Idris frontally challenged the security sector for ignoring the actionable intelligence which he provided well ahead of the invasion of the school.

The victims of the abduction were released November 26, 2025, following the direct intervention of President Bola Tinubu who dispatched the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle to Kebbi State immediately after the incident, to lead the rescue operation. The 315 schoolchildren who were taken by hoodlums from St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, Friday November 21, 2025, were released in batches to Governor Umaru Bago, with the last group gaining their freedom on Monday December 29, 2025. All of these attest to the genuine concern of the leaderships of the states under reference and the federal government, for safety of their citizens, where the guarantee of the safety and security of the citizenry is the foremost responsibility of leadership.

It is common knowledge that Kogi West has been the unfortunate hotbed of a motley of criminal activities. The wilful invasion of settlements and communities by vagrants; the audacious blockage of roads and highways in the district; attacks and kidnappings from homes, farms and churches, have become dangerously recurrent. Monday June 16, 2025, 72-year old farmer and Chairman of the Kogi State Poultry Farmers Association, Samuel Ajayi Bello, was kidnapped from his farm in Ponyan, Yagba East local government area. Chief Ajayi a diabetic, who was released several weeks after upon the payment of a hefty ransom, was denied access to his medications while in extended captivity. Sadly, he had one of his legs amputated after the horrific incident, no thanks to gangrenous infection. Tuesday October 21, 2025, Moses Tuesday Omokore, younger brother of the business mogul, Jide Omokore and his wife were abducted from their home in Idofin, Isanlu, Yagba East council area and a N100million placed on them.

Weeks after the Eruku incident, terrorists attacked the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Ejiba, Yagba West local government area Sunday November 30, 2025, and took with them the Pastor, his wife and some parishioners. Sunday December 14, 2025, armed men on motorcycles violated the Evangelical Church Winning All, (ECWA) in Aiyetoro-Kiri community in Kabba-Bunu council area and took at least 30 residents of the sleepy settlement with them. Videos of the victims of the Aiyetoro-Kiri incident were made by their captors who kept them under very inhuman conditions. The hoodlums initially pursued the hard-line that they would only negotiate the release of their victims with the state government. The trademark insensitivity and nonchalance of the Kogi State Government, however, compelled the kidnappers to negotiate with community representatives. Out of “magnanimity,” they have dropped their demands to N20million. The Bunu Development Association, (BDA), recently told newsmen in Lokoja the Kogi State capital, that 21 villages in Bunuland had been sacked by marauders; 30 residents killed and 50 people still in captivity, following accentuated terrorism in recent months.

In all of these incidents, the response of the Kogi State Government has been at best tepid, if not totally unavailable. True, Ododo paid a fleeting visit to Isanlu-Esa in Yagba West on Monday October 6, 2025 following the sacking of Okunran, Okoloke and Isanlu-Esa communities by kidnappers and killers. He was indeed pictured in a military camouflage even as he promised that his administration would be ruthless with criminals. That so much evil, so much trepidation, sorrow, tears and blood have been visited on Kogi West in the aftermath of Ododo’s whistle-stop in Yagbaland attests to the ineffectuality of the battle-cry issued by Governor Ododo on that visit, three months ago now. The people have been practically left helpless and hapless, a situation which continues to task the resources of elected representatives of the zone and well-meaning, well to do individuals.

Following the abductions of the traditional ruler of Okoloke in Yagba West, Oba Dada Ogunyanda, Thursday May 15, 2025, and Chief Ajayi Bello, weeks later, Sunday Karimi, Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial Zone, and Leke Abejide, Member Representing Yagba federal constituency in the House of Representatives, were among those contacted to crowd-fund the ransom demands. Oba Ogunyanda for example was only released upon the payment of a N20million ransom, Karimi and Abejide being substantial contributors to the effort. Karimi and Duro Meseko, Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), who is from Bunuland in Kabba-Bunu council area, have been contacted to support efforts being polled for the release of the Aiyetoro-Kiri captives.

As Member Representing Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu federal constituency in the House of Representatives years ago, Tajudeen Yusuf it was who paid the bulk of the ransom demanded by the abductors of the man who would later succeed him, Salman Idris. Yahaya Bello was the sitting governor of Kogi State and was reportedly nonplussed and totally unconcerned by the incident. The pattern has remained the same as bloodhounds continue to cash in on the vulnerability of local communities, bleeding the resources of the public-spirited. Criminality has become a thriving enterprise in the traditionally clement and welcoming Kogi West.

With so much fiscal exertion repeatedly devolving on private individuals and the personal resources of a handful of public officers, it becomes imperative to interrogate the depth of the commitment of the Kogi State Government to mitigating insecurity in Kogi West. Recent media reports have indeed pointedly accused a former governor of the state as being the precipitator of insecurity in Kogi West, arising from his involvement in illegal mining activities in the mineral-rich zone. The incumbent governor is said to be incapable of any security containment strategy for the troubled senatorial district because he is a pliant, whimpering beneficiary of his predecessor who is incapable of dissent in any way. Except for the visible initiatives of Karimi, Abejide and specific communities, there seems to be no visible plan, no discernible strategy to restore order and sanity to the troubled Kogi West.

Karimi in October 2024, completed the development of a Forward Operating Base, (FOB), domiciled in Egbe, Yagba West, capable of accommodating 100 troops, and provided operational vehicles. The complex was commissioned by a representative of the erstwhile Chief of Army Staff, the late Lt. Gen Taoreed Lagbaja. Abejide recently launched an *Operation No Mercy* which is made up of trained vigilantes who will complement the efforts of existing security outfits. Their area of responsibility, (AOR), is Yagbaland, made up of Mopamuro, Yagba East and Yagba West councils. Clearly, these lawmakers are doing beyond their briefs to make up for lacunas precipitated by chronic state failure.

With so much resources accruing to the Kogi State Government from the federation account as statutory allocation; value added tax, (VAT); ecological funds; excess crude and indeed 13 percent derivation for oil producing state, governance ineptitude in the state is inexplicable. It is a total shame if a state which has produced a Chief of Defence Staff, (CDS); three Chiefs of Army Staff, (COAS), including the incumbent; two Chiefs of Air Staff, (CAS); one Chief of Naval Staff, (CNS); one Inspector-General of Police, (IGP) and two Chiefs of Defence Intelligence, (CDI), cannot develop a template to manage seething insecurity in one of its districts. It is evidence of glaring lack of capacity and sheer incompetence. The people of Kogi West may be inclined to believe the conspiracy theory in the security unsettledness in the zone as defined by the state government’s continuing inertia. Except the government acts swiftly to take charge of the drift.

*Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja*