Tinubu hasn’t done half of his term. But he already thinks he is entitled to a second and perhaps more terms. The obsequious lackeys he has surrounded himself won’t let him catch a moment for sober reflection,  a glimpse of reality. They seem bent on making him the Oba of Nigeria, unaccountable to no one but his whims and caprices. They are gradually conscripting the entire political class into the Tinubu bandwagon. And emboldened by the relentless flattery, Tinubu is now unfurling his disdain for democracy. 

Tinubu had promised a trillion-dollar economy. He has done nothing to give the people a stable power supply and resuscitate dying industries. Rural farmers have been conveniently sidelined. The food security program, it appears, has been outsourced to India and others. The government now proudly talks about food importation like it requires some genius. Tinubu had promised surplus agbado and told the masses to reject him if he didn’t provide power in his first term. But halfway into that term, Tinubu is no longer bothered about how the masses feel. He listens to his fawning aides and grovelling political hustlers in the corridors of power. His preoccupation is political conquests. Tinubu is not troubled by the perception of naked presumptuous. Politicians do not like to make people feel they are being taken for granted. Not Tinubu. He is perhaps too astute a politician to be hindered by mere optics and conventions. Since he controls many instruments of coercion and persuasion, once he wins or forces all the politicians over to his side, nothing else will matter. 

The last time a president tried to win an election by being the sole candidate was in 1998. Abacha, the military dictator, had formed five parties. The leadership of all the parties were programmed, prodded or paid to project Abacha as a messiah. Before Abacha died, all five parties had adopted him as their presidential candidate. All genuine potential presidential contenders were either in exile, hiding or in utter prohibitive contempt of Abacha’s Charade.  

Ironically, Tinubu of NADECO is now being compared to Abacha, who was once touted as the very anti-Christ of democracy. Tinubu has barely completed half of his first term. Still, the governors of the major opposition parties, mimicking Daniel Kanu, the very emblem of youthful political opportunism and savage obsequiousness of the Abacha years, are earnestly yearning for Tinubu. Unlike the Abacha ecumenical worshipers, these 2025 senior yesmen are willing not just to organise million-man marches on the streets of Uyo, Asaba, Portharcourt and Enugu, but they are also dismantling the main opposition parties and carrying the beams to Tinubu. 

Perhaps, Abacha was more mindful of the ugly appearance of a one-party dominant system. So, he created a farcical multiparty system, which Bola Ige termed the five fingers of a leprous hand, to prosecute his transition to a life presidency. On his part, Tinubu, who was in the opposition for 15 of the 26 years of the current multiparty democratic dispensation perhaps prefers a clenched fist.  In less than two years of his assumption of power,  major opposition figures and elder statesmen have blamed him for masterminding a slow and steady liquidation of the opposition parties to instigate a deluge into the ruling party to create a one-party dominant state. 

At the recent summit of the ruling party, the senate president called on lawmakers from all parties to join hands with the lawmakers from the ruling party to install Tinubu as the only presidential candidate for the country. He said Tinubu had overachieved. Akpabio’s flippancy is remarkable. Many political observers think he clowns a bit too much. However, that brazen call in May 2025 to make Tinubu the sole candidate for the presidential election in 2027 was not another act of buffoonery. It is perhaps the denouement of the clandestine democracy destabilization plot to which the opposition has alluded. Moles, they said, had been used to seed and nurture intractable crises in the opposition parties to make them unviable platforms. The law enforcement, they argue, is being used to intimidate and coerce the dispirited opposition to seek refuge at the president’s feet. And possibly what is left of the opposition will be dragged by the herd effect, greed and cowardice into the president’s temple. Now, Akpabio has cleared all the doubts. 

The desperation to make Tinubu the Oba of Nigeria and make any future presidential election redundant has exposed many politicians and institutions to ridicule. But our constitution and laws are also bearing the brunt. Electoral campaigns are subject to strict regulations. It’s irresponsible to start another bout of campaigns so early in a term. Starting campaigns for the 2027 elections in 2025 is illegal. But Tinubu is above the law. His posters decorate the major highways in Abuja. He alone can paste campaign posters now. Perhaps he isn’t just above the law; he is now too important, too indispensable to be subjected to electoral laws. In the fullness of time, he might become the law. The defecting legislators know the law. Their seats ought to have been declared vacant. However, the architects of the Tinubu Forever  Project understood their mission and did their spade work before dawn. The Supreme Court in an awkward interpretation of the law on defection in February 2025,  decided that courts could no longer remedy a deliberate refusal by the head of any legislature to obey the law and declare the seat of defecting lawmaker vacant. In effect, the law on defection now has to be rewritten to cure the intended mischief. When the Supreme Court determines the case filed by eleven states against  Tinubu, who on a whim suspended democracy in Rivers State, we might discover if section 305 of the constitution also has to be rewritten. 

But rewriting laws only yields benefits where there is a virile opposition, strong institutions, independent judiciary, legislative checks and balances, and good faith. If the National Assembly is now a department in the presidency, the lawmakers will only rewrite ambiguous laws to make them less ambiguous and make the president more powerful or make the laws more ambiguous to allow the president room for greater arbitrariness.

Tinubu knows this country needs a virile opposition. He knows his focus on political conquests rather than transformative leadership that nurtures freedom and protects the opposition will hinder the country in the long run. But it appears Tinubu is negligent of history and unmindful of posterity. The gloating man servants in the Tinubu temple won’t remember a certain  Daniel Kanu. Tinubu wants to become a  Mandela by behaving like Adedibu. Without a virile and competent opposition, Tinubu will invariably become a despot. And when he becomes one, many senior members of the Tinubu Forever Choir will go into exile. Because absolute power doesn’t just corrupt, it breeds rampant paranoia. 

A compulsory voting bill is said to have passed the second reading stage at the National Assembly. The aim of the bill is to compel every Nigerian of voting age to vote during elections; failure of which punitive measures would be taken against violators. The youths form the majority of Nigeria's population and, tell me, how many of these GenZ or Alpha generations are interested in voting - even in the country itself! As per the Electoral Act 2010, the voting age in Nigeria is 18 years. So, the "catchment area" of the proposed law, so to say, are the youths. Get ready, then, for #ENDCOMPULSORYVOTINGNOW campaign, probably in the same fashion as #ENDSARSNOW campaign!

If the bill becomes law - though its journey in that regard is still long and tortuous - anyone of voting age who fails or refuses to vote will be liable to whatever penalty is stipulated by the law. Elementary Civics describes voting as a civic responsibility or duty which a good, responsible, and responsive citizen is expected to discharge enthusiastically and without compulsion. That being the case, why do we need a law to compel observance? Some will argue that this is because not all citizens are good and not all are aware of the importance of their discharging this onerous responsibility, especially in a country where illiteracy is rife and political education is low.

There are other reasons why citizens may consciously - and as a deliberate political action - choose not to vote. Indeed, political apathy, rather than being apolitical, may, in fact, qualify as one of the highest and most informed forms of political action. We shall soon return to this.

The reason why a compulsory voting bill may be tenable these days is because we operate what is known as universal adult suffrage; meaning that everyone - male or female, serf or freeborn, wise or foolish- has the vote. It was not so in times past. Through the ages nobility, property rights, gender, nationality, residency, age, tax and income requirements, educational qualifications, among others, were the qualifications that determined who possessed the rights to vote and be voted for. In Nigeria, for example, while women in the south gained voting rights in 1954, their northern counterparts did not gain theirs until the Second Republic in 1979.

The current struggle is for the Diaspora Nigerians to be able to vote, a right long enjoyed by over 110 countries, not less than 23 of them being African. It is an embarrassment that the self-proclaimed “Giant of Africa” is yet to attain this milestone. Extending the vote to Nigerians in the Diaspora appears a more feasible project than the wild goose chase of compelling Nigerians of voting age to vote, willy-nilly. How many millions of such Nigerians do we know exist? And how do we enforce the law? If we have found it practically impossible to enforce the law against election malpractice - selling and buying of votes, election rigging and thuggery, falsification of election results, etc - which usually involve a lesser number of people who can be easily identified and apprehended, how do we go about arresting and penalying people who can simply stay in the comfort of their homes and shun the voting centres?

All over the world, it is not everyone who registers to vote in an election that turns out to vote. And this, if you may care to know, is in exercise of their fundamental human rights of freedom of movement (to go or not go to a polling station) as well as freedom of association (to associate or not associate with a political party or group)! The level of voter participation on election day varies from place to place.

Voter participation is a barometer employed to gauge the health of the political system. The higher the level of voter participation, the healthier the country’s political system and vice-versa. Where voter turnout is massive and a candidate in an election polls a commanding number of votes, he/she is said to be popular and his/her government is likely to enjoy the support and confidence of the people.

The popularity of candidates in an election and or of governments is, however, not static. A popular candidate or government today may become unpopular tomorrow or over time. In the case of former United States President Joe Biden, his health issues, which came stubbornly to the fore during his lacklustre debate performance against then challender Donald Trump, caused his popularity rating to dip abysmally, prompting him to eventually quit the presidential race.

On the other hand Trump, whose popularity soared, leading him to win the election with a landslide, had since seen his popularity rating drop as a result of controversial policies that have alienated a chunk of his support base. In Nigeria, former President Muhammadu Buhari rode into the presidency on the crest of huge popularity but left as one of the most derided Nigerian leaders ever, as a result of incompetent and ineffective leadership.

So many factors account for political apathy; such that law alone cannot cure the malaise. Let us now take a look at the various segments of eligible voters who do not vote: the first set are the ignorant. These ones do not know that it is their duty or right to vote. They do not also know the advantages involved and the grave dangers to themselves and the polity of their indifference. Literacy and political education, not law, is what this group of eligible voters need.

The second set are those who are willing to vote but circumstances beyond their control, such as insecurity and economic hardship, constrain them. What this group needs is not a law compelling them but policies that will remove the roadblocks on their way to the polling station.

The third set are those who want to vote but the bureaucracy, rep-tape and corruption of INEC and other agencies involved in the electoral process would not let them. They registered but could not collect their Permanent Voter’s Card. Getting to the polling station, the card reader or whatever would not let them cast their vote. What is needed here, again, is not a law compelling voting but for the authorities concerned to organise a seamless electoral process.

Another group of voters who keep a safe distance from the polling station are those who fear for their life because of the activities of political thugs who constitute themselves into laws unto themselves. Most of the time, even the presence of law enforcement agents does not deter those roughnecks and their sponsors.

Do votes count in Nigeria? There are lots of Nigerians who believe that going to vote is a waste of precious time and energy. Elections are mindlessly rigged. Results are falsified. The winners as well as losers are known well before votes are cast. And the voter is powerless - from the polling booth right to the highest court of the land. So, why waste your time - and risk your life - for nothing? Will the compulsory voting law excise that cancer?

From experience, many Nigerians have come to the conclusion that all the politicians are the same - liars, pretenders, looters, wicked and selfish people - who are going into office to feather their own nests and not serve the interest of the people. So, why help them; why give them the stamp of legitimacy of saying they were elected into office?

There is another group who does not believe in the political system in operation. This group wants a return to the parliamentary system of government. To them, the present presidential system is too expensive, too wasteful, and too brazenly corrupt: Change it or else they wont come out to vote!

Another group of Nigerians believe that what the country needs before any election is restructuring. Without that, they believe you are only putting the cart before the horse.

Of course, then, there are Nigerians who have lost all confidence in Nigeria as a country. They want the country dismembered. Their battle cry is: To your tents, O Israel! The Biafrans want Biafra. The Yoruba want Oodua or Yoruba Nation, etc. No law promulgated by the National Assembly will move those ones to line up to vote for what they derogatorily call the Lugardian (ill-fated) experiment (which, as far as they are concerned, expired in 2014, the 100th anniversary of Frederick Lugard's amalgamation of southern and northern British protectorates ofNigeria).

Finally, the proponents of the proposed compulsory voting law appear to erroneously think that voter apathy is non-voting; it is not! Voter apathy is one of the many options available to eligible voters: they can decide to vote for this or that party or candidate. They can get to the polling booth - in the event that they are forced to - and void their vote. They can also stay clear of the polling booth and the entire political process - in which case they are voting against the system as a whole. Each and every one of these voting options have far-reaching political implications.

While the intentions of the promoters of the compulsory voting law may be altruistic, their one-medicine-cures-all proposition will fall flat on its face on the field of play, even if it scales through in the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly and the President assents to it.

FEEDBACK

JAMB: They want to kill CBT before it reaches SSCE!

Let’s not play dumb! Just a few days after the Minister of Education went on air to announce that WAEC and NECO will go CBT by November, JAMB, the poster child of successful CBT exams in Africa, suddenly had its biggest technical failure in over a decade. Call it coincidence. I call it coordinated. Because what you just witnessed might not be a crash. It might be a warning!

Let’s break it down: The Minister announced CBT expansion and the system failed immediately after! The Education Minister said it clearly: “JAMB conducts its exams using a computer-based testing system. They’ve implemented strong security measures and, as a result, fraud or cheating has been nearly eliminated.” Translation? No more miracle centers. No more leaked question papers. No more impersonation networks. No more “special arrangements.” It was a bold move toward sanitizing Nigeria’s broken education system.

But barely a week later: JAMB goes dark. System failure. National headlines. Mass panic. The very exam body they were using as a reference point publicly collapsed! Too perfect. Too fast. Too suspicious. Miracle centers are not ready to die. Understand this: Exam malpractice is not just cheating. It’s an economy. An entire shadowy industry is built around it.

Now imagine NECO and WAEC switching to CBT: You just killed a billion-naira black market! Do you really think they’ll sit and clap? No. They’ll sabotage the blueprint—before it scales through. And JAMB was the target. So what’s the fastest way to stop the government from replicating JAMB’s model? Make JAMB look unreliable.

Let’s not be naïve... There are powerful people whose entire revenue streams depend on keeping education corrupt. They will fight reforms like their life depends on it. Because, for many of them, their life does, in fact, depend on it. - O. M. O. Oludoye.

It was quite a show at the Oval office in the White House a few days ago when South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met with American President Donald J. Trump to discuss bilateral issues and world affairs. 

It began with Trump's unsubstantiated and frankly asinine allegation that the white Boers of South Africa are being subjected to mass murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide. 

This is not only false but also painfully absurd. 

Sadly it did not stop there. Trump went on to assert that Julius Malema, the inspirational charismatic and colourful M.P. and leader and founder of the South African Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), is a hate-filled black supremacist and racist and a cold-blooded murderer and ruthless terrorist whose intention it is to kill every white person in South Africa. 

Needless to say these allegations are baseless and false. The Americans are attempting to give a dog a bad name in order to hang it. It is nothing but yet another well-crafted but unsubstantiated mendacity. 

Even though Malema is very vocal and highly controversial he does not strike me as a hater of whites but rather as a hater of injustice, oppression, persecution and institutional racism. 

He is a man with a social conscience who speaks for the poor, the weak, the vulnerable and the oppressed and who has constituted himself into a major thorn in the flesh of the political establishment and the ruling elites in South Africa both white and black. 

He is very eloquent, well-informed, well-read and quick off the mark and these qualities, coupled with his obvious courage and strength, make him a formidable adversary which every person of class, rank or privilege in his country has every reason to be wary of. 

He also speaks a good deal of sense and his passion for truth, justice and equity for the black majority population of South Africa and commitment to the emancipation of the African continent from the forces of imperialism and neo-colonialism cannot be denied. 

To millions of South Africans Malema is a deeply courageous, insightful and profound man and possibly the greatest post-Mandela hero and rising star that their nation has ever known. 

To add to this millions of Africans (including Nigerians and Zimbabweans) who live in South Africa regard him as a loyal and trusted friend who has always spoken up for them and sought to protect them from the rabid xenophobia that most black South Africans suffer from and who has a strong and commendable Nkrumaist Pan-African vision.   

For Trump and his White House to attempt to disparage such a man that brings so much to the table and that has done so much to restore the self-respect and dignity of black South Africans and Africans all over the world simply because he sang an old outdated, pre-independence, apartheied-era, anti-Boer war song at his political party rally is uncharitable and unkind. 

To turn down the lights of the Oval office, watch a film on him on television for four good minutes and make him the centre of discussion at a bilateral meeting between the Presidents of two of the most respected nations on earth only proves the fact that he is no longer only an African phenomenon but also a global brand and a rallying point for blacks from all over the world. 

To that extent Trump has inadvertently elevated his profile rather than diminish it. 

Like in the case of the Biblical Joseph, what Trump meant for evil, God meant for good. 

Yet perhaps the most shameful thing that Trump did on that day was not what he attempted to do to Malema but rather the following. 

He presented a picture to Ramaphosa and his delegation of what was purportedly "1000 white South African graves with white crosses on them of white South African farmers" that were supposedly "dispossessed of their land by black terrorists" and "murdered in cold blood". 

Contrary to the American Presidents assertions it was later confirmed that the picture was NOT of the graves of white farmers in South Africa but rather of a burial ground in a completely different country called Congo! 

One wonders how the President of the most powerful nation on earth could make such an egregious and monumental blunder and indulge in such deceit and doublepeak all in an attempt to humiliate the South African President. 

Sadly it didn't stop there. Trump literally ambushed Ramaphosa, lectured him, bullied him, spoke down to him, accused his Government and people of heinous crimes, kept interrupting him when he attempted to speak, mocked his role as a peacemaker in the Ukraine/Russia conflict and sought to utterly humiliate him. 

To behave in this unacceptable manner and indulge in such mendacious falsehood is below any President let alone the most powerful one in the world. 

I see the hand of Elon Musk, who himself is a South African and who has not hidden his contempt and disdain for the ANC-led South African Government and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu, whose Government has been accused by South Africa of genocide and indeed taken to the International Court of Justice and to the International Criminal Court both at the Hague, in all this.

Both must have thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle! 

Yet the truth is that even if his predominately white right-wing MAGA base in America may have been excited and thrilled by his proverbial lynching and carpeting of a helpless and whimpering black President at the Oval office it has also alienated a lot of black and particularly African Trumpers like yours truly who have always refused to regard Trump as a racist but rather as a man who was specially chosen, prepared, raised and anointed by God to destroy the American Deep State, to terminate the Godless agenda of the globalists, to stop the wars of the world, to put God at the centre of affairs when it comes to politics and governance, to re-establish and re-instill the Christian virtues and values that America was built on, to break the back of the unholy, Luciferean trinity and anti-Christ philosophy of Obama, Clinton and Biden in world affairs and American politics. 

I sincerely hope that we do not end up regretting our support for him but if he continues in this way that support shall undoubtedly dwindle. 

Why do I day this? Consider the following. 

First it was "let us grab Greenland, Canada, Mexico, the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal and rename the Gulf of Persia", then it was "let us turn Gaza into an American Riviera", then it was "let us wage a tariff war against the nations of the world", then it was "let us alienate and abandon our European allies", then it was "let us provoke China", then it was "let us go to the three richest nations in the Middle East and compel their Kings to invest trillions of dollars in America and even give us a new presidentiel jet", then it was "let us bring the little African leader who leads a country with the largest and most properous economy on his continent to the Oval office, humiliate him before the world and bully him into leaving our white brothers in South Africa alone" and the latest is "let us stop foreign students from attending Harvard University because the authorities of that school have refused to bring to an end the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that are taking place on campus".  

These actions are increasingly troubling and whether we have hitherto admired, loved and prayed for Trump or not we cannot support a confirmed bully and racist. That would be ungodly. 

We cannot support a man that finds it difficult to empathise with the suffering of others or that is fast losing his humanity. That would be incorrigible. 

Trump needs to retrace his steps, divest himself of these glaring and obvious symptoms of meglomania, obsessive vanity and extreeme narcissim and get real. 

God did not deliver him from the hands of his enemies and make him President to do this sort of nonsense but rather to make America great again and to make the world a better and safer place. If he fails to do this God will leave him, remove him and replace him with another. 

Back to the episode at the White House. 

Cyril Ramaphosa's responses to the grilling were equally embarrassing and frankly disappointing. 

Most western commentators have described his disposition, body language and reaction as "weak", "cowardly" and "cringeworthy" and I am constrained to concur. 

No President should bow and tremble before another no matter how rich and powerful the latter may be. 

In the African context Nelson Mandela would not have done so and neither would Murtala Mohammed, Olusegun Obasanjo, Jerry Rawlings, Thomas Sankara, Ahmed Ben Bella, Muammar Ghadafi, Patrice Lumumba, Gamal Nasser, Sani Abacha, Ibrahim Babangida, Kwame Nkrumah, Muhammadu Buhari, Robert Mugabe, Samora Machel or Ibrahim Traore. 

This ritual of inviting foreign leaders to the Oval office like King Hussein of Jordan (who literally had to bow and lick Trumps posterior), President Vlodomer Zelensky of Ukraine (who was insulted, rubbished, humiliated and finally thrown out) and now Cyril Ramaphosa (who was forced to watch an embarrassing scene about his country on television) and belittling and denigrating them must stop. 

The humiliation of the South African President particularly was painful for me to watch because of the frightful history of his country and the terrible atrocities and apartheid system that the white Afrikaaner Boers subjected the black Africans to for hundreds of years. 

They went through all that and now they have to suffer this in the hands of yet another white man. 

This same white minority that oppressed and enslaved them in their own land for hundreds of years control 80% of the economy and own 90% of the land in their country today despite the fact that they only constitute 8% of the population. 

These are the people that Trump is claiming are being subjected to genocide and is offering asylum in America. 

These are people that in the main and in the past have regarded black Africans as being "no better than animals". 

These are people that practised apartheid and that described black people as the biblical "hewers of the wood and drawers of the water". 

These are the people that once regarded a black man as being a quarter of a human being and that not only refused to have legal inter racial sex or marriages but compelled black people to live in shanty towns that were little better than concentration camps and subjected them to pass laws much in the sane way as the Israelis are subjecting the Palestinians to such inhumanity and degradation today. 

If a Nigerian leader had been treated like this at the Oval office and I was in the room believe me all hell would have broken loose and Trump, his VP, his Ministers, his team and the American White House Press Corps would not only have got more than they dished out and bargained for but they would have been given a curt history lesson about the past and present atrocities of their nation and a thorough and precise lecture about the matter at hand. 

I am a Trump supporter but in all matters my nation and continent must come first. 

I despise the way he bullied Ramaphosa and I hope and pray that if he or any other foreign leader tries this with any Nigerian leader that I am in the room.

The days of talking down to African Presidents are long over. 

More importantly the days of cowardly, weak, subservient, spineless, grovelling, corrupt, compromised and ignorant African lichspittles and

quislings who call themselves leaders but who lack self-esteem, self-respect and pride in their people and who have no shame or dignity, who are hopelessly compromised, who have no knowledge of world affairs or world history, who are pawns of the neo-colonialists and imperialists and who have sold their soul and destiny of their nation to the western powers are long over. 

This fact can be confirmed by what can best be described as the "Traore spirit" that is blowing into all the nooks and corners of our continent today. 

As much as I love and support Trump his attitude and policy on Africa and Gaza leaves much to be desired. 

He needs to do better and he must understand that the Palestinians and the Africans, though facing challenges, are far more resilient than his people ever were and come from a far older and greater civilisation than his country ever did. 

We may not have their money and power but we have God. 

Their time is now but tomorrow belongs to us. That God that put them up there and established their hegemony and empire shall remember us. 

We too shall rise and at that time all men shall say that the rejected stone has become the corner stone, that the Lord uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wisdom of the wise and that in truth all things are possible with God. 

(Chief Femi Fani-Kayode is the Sadaukin Shinkafi, the Wakilin Doka Potiskum, a former Minister of Aviation and a former Minister of Culture and Tourism)

Mohamed Salah has been voted Premier League player of the season for the second time after inspiring Liverpool’s march to a record-equalling 20th English title.

Salah earned the prize after scoring 28 league goals — five more than anyone else — and producing 18 assists for Liverpool so far this term.

Heading into Sunday’s final game against FA Cup winners Crystal Palace, the 32-year-old Egyptian superstar is two assists off the single-season record held by Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne.

This award is decided after votes from the public are combined with those from a panel of football experts. He also won it in the 2017-18 campaign.

He has broken the run of Manchester City players winning the award for the past four seasons.

Salah’s teammate Virgil van Dijk was the last non-City player to win the award in 2018/19.

Van Dijk — who like Salah signed a new contract with Liverpool earlier in the campaign — was one of the players Salah beat in the voting.

The others were Liverpool midfielder Ryan Gravenberch, Arsenal’s Declan Rice, Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White, Newcastle striker Alexander Isak, Brentford talisman Bryan Mbeumo, and Chris Wood of Nottingham Forest.

Earlier this month, Salah was named the Football Writers’ Association player of the year, securing almost 90 percent of the votes, marking the biggest winning margin this century.

AFP

In the symbolic and political nucleus of the Sokoto Caliphate, an imperial, illiberal, power-drunk governor who is held hostage by what seems like politically conditioned rejection-sensitive dysphoria (i.e., unhealthy hypersensitivity to even the mildest, most well-intentioned criticism, often associated with sufferers of ADHD) is oppressing an 18-year-old critic identified as Hamdiyyah Sidi Sharif.

I first became aware of Hamdiyya’s woeful plight in the hands of Sokoto State governor Ahmad Aliyu when respected former Kaduna State governor Colonel Dangiwa Umar (retired) called attention to it in a November 2024 BBC Hausa interview, which caused the Sokoto State Government to launch caustic personal attacks against him in the media.

According to news reports, in November 2024, Hamdiyyah posted a daringly defiant video on TikTok in which she urged internally displaced persons (IDPs) to occupy the governor's office in Sokoto to protest the unceasingly escalating insecurity in the state and compel the governor act. Her defiance obviously flowed from a deep wellspring of righteous anger and well-justified frustration.

Although only a couple of people saw the video (most IDPs, in any case, have no access to smartphones, much less TikTok), someone or some people comfortably ensconced in the inner recesses of the political power structure in the Sokoto State government saw it. 

They were so livid that a teenage girl with almost zero political, cultural, symbolic, or persuasive power dared to ventilate her angst over insecurity in the state that they got the Sokoto Police Command to arrest her and charge her with "use of insulting or abusive language" and "inciting disturbance." 

She was intimidated into deleting the video, issuing a public apology, and retracting her statement. “I wish to retract the statement I made where I advised all the internally displaced people that have no homes to forcefully invade and occupy the government house,” she said on November 22, 2024. “I am very sorry for trying to instigate such a disorder. Nobody has the right to invade the government house.”

She offered “apologies to the governor, his team, and whoever I offended with my unprovoked outburst.” But that didn’t placate the governor and his henchmen. 

She was abducted by armed men, beaten, and thrown from a moving tricycle, which caused her severe bodily injuries amid her legal battles in both Sharia and Magistrate courts. 

A few days ago, just hours before a scheduled court appearance, Hamdiyyah disappeared again. She was later found in critical condition at Bakura General Hospital in Zamfara State, with security agents present at her bedside.

Her lawyer, Abba Hikima, disclosed during a recent court session that the hostile environment had forced him to request armed police protection, which the court subsequently granted. Additionally, while attending the trial in Sokoto, they experienced stalking at their hotel and were confronted and intimidated by unknown individuals.

“These actions represent an alarming abuse of power and a calculated attempt to intimidate and punish those who speak out for their society and lawyers defending them,” Amnesty International Nigeria said in a statement. “The hostilities being faced by Hamdiyya Sidi Sharif and Barrister Abba Hikima are increasingly making their appearance in court in Sokoto dangerous.”

I am still struggling to come to terms with what threat a poor, frightened, bruised 18-year-old girl poses to a powerful 55-year-old governor. What was it about the girl’s words in the deleted TikTok video that was so profoundly offensive, that couldn’t be placated by her apologies, and that she must be murdered for? 

The governor's reaction bears all the hallmarks of rejection-sensitive dysphoria, a psychological condition marked by an extreme, disproportionate emotional response to perceived criticism or rejection, often associated with people who suffer a neurological disorder called Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

 In this case, the mere reproach of a teenage girl, however mild or grounded in truth, seemed to pierce a fragile, gubernatorial ego wrapped tightly in the trappings of unchecked power.

Instead of brushing off or constructively addressing the concerns raised by Hamdiyya, Governor Aliyu unraveled. He met the girl’s criticism about the mounting insecurity in the state he governs with petty, personal vendetta instead of policy reflection or a reasoned rebuttal.

 He mobilized the resources of state machinery not to secure his citizens, but to crush the daring dissent of a girl younger than his children. It is a crying shame. This isn’t governance. Nor is it bravery. It’s emotional fragility and cowardice masquerading as authority.

Governor Aliyu’s overreaction reveals a man for whom public office is less about public service and more about personal validation. The governor, it seems, doesn't merely dislike being criticized; he experiences it as a threat to his very identity. 

And like many with rejection-sensitive dysphoria, he responds not with introspection, but with hostility, seeking to punish the perceived offender rather than confront the uncomfortable truth. In doing so, he transforms a teenage citizen into a political enemy, and a cry for help into a battlefield for his wounded pride.

In Nigeria, our national discourse remains fixated, almost obsessively, on the federal government, often to the neglect of the far more immediate and insidious abuses unfolding at the state level. Yet it is in the states, not Abuja, that the most urgent battles for civil liberties are being waged and lost.

Across many states, dissent is not merely discouraged; it is crushed, often with ruthless efficiency and, in some instances, with fatal consequences. The recent ordeal of teenage activist Hamdiyyah Sidi Sharif at the hands of Governor Ahmad Aliyu of Sokoto is a chilling case in point. Her only “crime” was daring to urge the government to address spiraling insecurity, a plea that, in any functioning democracy, would be met with reflection, not repression.

Instead, she has been subjected to a campaign of vindictive persecution, seemingly designed to make an example of her. The message is Speak out, and you will suffer. 

There is simply no moral justification for a sitting governor who is armed with all the powers and privileges of his office to wage a vindictive, even violent, campaign against a teenage girl whose only offense is speaking uncomfortable truths. It is a grotesque abuse of power, made even more disturbing by the stark age and power asymmetry between the accuser and the accused.

Sadly, Hamdiyyah’s case is not an outlier. It fits a distressingly familiar pattern. Consider the fate of Abubakar Idris Dadiyata and Stephen Kefason in Kaduna and Gloria Okolie in Imo. They all ran afoul of state authorities and subsequently vanished or were subjected to extrajudicial abuse. Their stories share the same sequence: public criticism, sudden silence, disappearance, or indefinite detention, and, in too many cases, no resolution.

The silence of the public only emboldens this descent into authoritarianism at the state level. While national attention remains glued to Abuja, state governors have become mini emperors, operating with alarming impunity and crushing dissent in ways that rarely make national headlines.

This is why every person of conscience must speak out clearly, forcefully, and persistently. Hamdiyyah Sidi Sharif must not be left to face this tyranny alone. Her persecution is a national indictment, and her courage deserves protection, not punishment.

As citizens and advocates for justice, we must amplify voices like Hamdiyyah's and hold our leaders accountable. Silencing dissent undermines democratic principles and perpetuates a culture of fear and repression. It's time to stand in solidarity with those who risk everything to speak out against injustice.

Programme: City Talks with Reuben Abati

Time: 12:00

Guest: Evans Ufeli Esq.

Principal Partner, Chambers of Evans Ufeli

Topic: Compulsory Voting Bill and Electoral Reforms.

Date: 24th may 2025

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