Headline

The Second Coming of Buhari: Kleptocracy in High Places

Published

2 years ago

December 2, 2023

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

Listening to the Chip Whip of the 10th Senate, who is representing Borno South senatorial zone, Senator Ali Ndume, during a live interview on Friday, one cannot help but reminisce on the colossal looting that was reported during the eight inglorious years of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Ndume, also a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), had in no hidden terms alluded to the ineptitude that existed while Buhari held sway as president, stressing that the country was run aground, even as the president showed little or no supervisory role, as result of the massive corruption and thievery of commonwealth, which became rampant among public officers and their cronies, and unchecked.

Speaking on the live TV show, Ndume claimed that the Buhari administration was replete with men and women, who were kleptomaniacs in nature.

He said, while making an attempt to defend the present hardship under President Bola Tinubu, “The President here is in charge. He takes charge, unlike our former President. That President will just give you an assignment, he will not look over you,”

He added, “That is where the problem is and he (Buhari) knows that. That was the mistake President Buhari made. He ended up confessing these days that he had more kleptocrats in his government. I said it before, and now he admitted it that there were some kinds of people that took over power to themselves.”

Ndume, however, is not the only APC stalwart that has criticised the administration of Buhari, regarding it as a failed venture. Earlier in November, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, said the past administration, led by Buhari bankrupted the nation.

Ribadu spoke during the Chief of Defence Intelligence annual conference, saying that the incumbent government inherited a “bankrupt country”, adding that the federal government is “paying back what was taken” by Buhari and officials, their cronies and family members.

Buhari had been foisted on Nigerians following the 2015 general election as a saint; glorious, incorruptible, above board and disciplined. However, the former military ruler, who was making a comeback to the Nigerian seat of power, practically frittered all the goodwill and integrity away in an eight years, many stakeholders have described as clueless, topsy-turvy and devoid of administration mechanism.

While Buhari came as the one, who was supposedly going to fix alleged maladministration of the 16 years of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rule, reports available to The Boss shows that massive corruption and looting took root in the government with members of the first having a substantial dose of the inanities.

In 2018, it was reported that a scandal brewed.within the household of Buhari, when the Aide De Camp of Buhari’s wife Aisha Buhari, was accused of fraud to the tune of N2.5 billion

Mrs. Buhari alleged that her ADC, Sani Baba-Inna, a Chief Superintendent of Police, received huge donations from politicians and business people on her behalf and then kept the cash to himself, and went ahead to request the then Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to arrest and compel him to refund the money. The officer in question however, denied the allegation.

Immediately the police received the petition from Mrs Buhari, the ADC was arrested on Friday last week and investigation launched.

The IG said the matter must be investigated immediately and the house of the ADC was raided,” one of our sources said.

“Shockingly, investigators only found N1,200 cash in the House. His bank account was also investigated and had only a balance of N30,000 while the transaction records showed that most credits to the account were his salaries and allowances.”

The police, it was gathered, concluded that Mrs Buhari must have been wrongly informed as there was nothing to show or prove that such huge sums of money was in the custody of Mr Baba-Inna.

An associate of Mr. Baba-Inna said the police contacted those named as donors of the controversial funds but that they all denied making the donations attributed to them.

“For instance, one of those named was the IG of Police himself,” the source said. “But the IG said he has never passed any money through Baba-Inna.”

When Mrs Buhari was informed of the outcome of police investigation, the source said the first lady flared up and accused the police of colluding “to protect one of their own”.

She then reportedly asked the State Security Service (SSS) to take over the case and get her money back”.

A stakeholder told the Boss that that was corruption worked as at the time with stringent alibis, supported by some law enforcement agencies.

The case of Buhari’s nephew, Sadie Yisuf, also know as Tunde Idiagbon, who is the son of Mamman Daura’s immediate younger sister, Hajia Halima, who died in 2018, was also widely reported regarding his ‘looting’ tendencies.

Known as billionaire (some even refer to him as a trillionaire, Yusuf was said to be previously a recharge card seller before his uncle hit limelight in Aso Rock.

According to reports, the youngman, who is in his 30s, quietly retired to the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA) supposedly with the biggest retirement benefit from loot said to run into billions of dollars.

According to SaharaReporters, Yusuf, said to be the youngest wealthiest men, secured a form of diplomatic immunity from prosecution through his appointment to the National Intelligence Agency, according to sources in the Presidency, an appointment he got despite not attending the compulsory training for cadets.

The paper also reported that Yusuf spent $100 million to help Kano-born oil billionaire Alhaji Auwalu Abdullahi Rano, the executive chairman and CEO of holding company A. A. Rano Group, start Rano Air.

Rano Air is a licensed airline, incorporated in 2021 with its operational base in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. When it started, it proposed to operate in Nigeria and beyond but start with eight local stations – Abuja, Kano, Lagos, Sokoto, Maiduguri, Kaduna, Yola and Asaba.

He is also said to be the proud owner of several mansions in Abuja, sources available to the paper confided.

In 2020, there allegations of high scale stealing by members of the Buhari family including Sabiu Yusuf.

Reports monitored on the media space said that authorities in the United States commenced investigations into the massive looting of Nigeria’s treasury by members of President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabal.

The report claimed that sources at the U.S State Department and the Department of Justice, DOJ, tracked money laundering activities of Buhari’s Personal Assistant and Private Secretary, Sabiu ‘Tunde’ Yusuf, Senior Special Assistant, Domestic, Sarki Abba, Mamman Daura, and Ismaila Isa and Abubakar Isa Funtua from 2016 to 2019 in the United Arab Emirate and the United Kingdom.

The embattled former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, has also been fingered as one of those who supervised looting of the economy under the watch of former President Buhari. His emergence as governor in 2014, according to a columnist, created a ‘powerful three-man cabal and it quickly designed a roundtripping scheme and made billions under President Buhari. Again, Emefiele was a willing tool in their hands because they too kept telling him that “the president is in the know and he is part of it”. It was a big bazaar!’

“All they did was roundtripping the dollars from one market to the other. Every morning, they would wake up with calculators to compute the billions of naira they were making in profit.” The columnist added that “these people were so wealthy that one of them bought a bank and a mobile telecommunications company without moving from his chair.”

Rumors had it that one of Buhari’s uncles, Mamman Daura, took ill immediately it was announced that Emefiele has been arrested by the DSS on June 14, 2023. It’s not hard to imagine as the so called member of the powerful Aso Rock cabal, was in cohort with the apex bank on the FX trade scandal.

Adding a new twist to the Emefiele and Buhari administration corruption scandal saga, aformer member of the house of representatives, representing the Kazaure, Roni, Gwiwa, Yankwashi Constituency of Jigawa State, fingered 12 persons to be investigated in order to “recover Nigeria’s stolen money”.

As captured by TheCable, he described the former CBN governor is the most powerful person in the country, who could make anyone a billionaire within an hour.

“If he wants to make you a billionaire, you’ll be in less than 1hr; he’ll just give you $10m at the official rate and you sell at the black market,” he said.

“There are twelve people the president should investigate. The first person, if we want to bring back the economy of this country, we have to arrest and investigate CBN governor who is now under investigation.

“Thirdly, the GMD of the NNPC. Number four, the former minister of justice, Malami. Number five, Sabiu Tunde, who was the personal private secretary to former President Buhari.

“Number six, the chairman of FIRS. Then there is Jamoh, the NIMASA DG. Then there is Koko from the NPA, and Hadiza Bala, the former NPA chairman.

“All present CBN deputy governors that are working with Emefiele should come and open their eyes and mouths and tell what they know, if we are serious and want to restore the economy.

“Then number ten, we have to arrest and investigate Sadiya Umar Farouk, former minister of humanitarian affairs, because when you invite her, many of her colleagues will come into the investigation.

“Then the entire leaders of National Inter-bank Settlement System (NIBSS). The entire leaders and the ICT officers are supposed to be investigated because they are the ones who will tell you where all the bank charges and the stamp duty went. Because it’s from there the money goes to CBN.”

Kazaure also said the way corruption is fought in the country has become known to individuals who embezzle money.

Again, following the failed Air Nigeria project, a former Minister of Aviation, Hadi Srika, is said to pocketed a whopping N15.9 billion, for doing nothing. A wholesome others are also enameled in this odious cycle of kleptocracy.

A very sad development to the corruption saga involving the Buhari administration is that most of the public officers suspected to be enemies of the Nigerian economy are still walking free except for Emefiele. This is a story that does not only say that Buhari did not just made a second coming of proven kleptocracy, but everything is pointing to the fact that the present administration is looking like the third coming of Buhari.

Headline

Israeli Ambassador Accuses Iran of Spreading Terror, Sponsoring Extremist Activities in Nigeria

Published

13 hours ago

March 6, 2026

Eric

Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Michael Freeman, has accused Iran of sponsoring extremist activities in Nigeria and other parts of the world, alleging that Tehran supports groups aimed at destabilising countries while pursuing its hostility against Israel.

Freeman made the remarks on Friday while speaking during an interview on The Morning Show on Arise News.

The envoy claimed that Iran is the only country within the United Nations that openly expresses a desire to destroy another sovereign state, referring to repeated threats against Israel.

According to him, the Iranian government has, over several decades, supported militant groups and terror organisations around the world in pursuit of that objective.

Freeman alleged that Iran has backed groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, adding that Tehran was also behind the October 7 attack carried out by Hamas against Israel.

He further claimed that Iranian activities aimed at spreading instability have been observed across several regions, including Europe, Australia, and parts of Africa.

Speaking specifically about Nigeria, the Israeli ambassador alleged that the Islamic Movement of Nigeria receives backing from the Iranian government.

According to Freeman, statements of support from Iran’s leadership, including posts by Ali Khamenei on social media, have openly indicated such ties.

He said: “The issue here is about Iran. Iran is the only country in the world, in the United Nations, who expressly desires to wipe another country off the face of the earth. Iran has stated its very policy is to destroy Israel. Is to wipe Israel off the map is to make sure they kill every single person and no regime, no country that has an express desire to destroy Israel, and it’s not only an expressed desire.

“We’ve seen over 47 years, they’ve taken all the actions they can in order for that to happen. We’ve seen them sponsor terror organizations. They were behind October the seventh massacre of Hamas. We’ve seen them sponsoring Hezbollah. We’ve seen them acting in Europe. We’ve seen them acting in Australia. We’ve seen them acting in Nigeria.

“We’ve seen these people acting all across the world in order to spread disturbance for them to try and carry out their aim of destroying Israel, and Israel will not allow another country to have nuclear weapons when they’ve expressly stated they want those weapons to destroy Israel”.

“I think that it is well documented. We know that there are certain movements, for example, the Islamic movement of Nigeria is sponsored and is backed by the Iranian regime. This is not me saying this, we’ve seen that documented by the Iranian regime.

The Supreme Leader posted on X his support and his backing there. So that’s very open. And there are other areas as well that Iran is working for, destabilizing, not only Nigeria, but all of West Africa.”

Headline

Why Nigerians Must Reject INEC’s Revised Timetable – ADC

Published

6 days ago

February 28, 2026

Eric

By Eric Elezuo

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), during the week, released a fresh elections timetable, with major amendments to accommodate the just passed and signed Electoral Act 2026 by the National Assembly and President Bola Tinubu respectively.

Following the repeal of the Electoral Act, 2022 and the enactment of the Electoral Act, 2026, which introduced adjustments to statutory timelines governing pre-election and electoral activities, the Commission has reviewed and realigned the Schedule to ensure full compliance with the new legal framework.

Accordingly, the Commission has resolved as follows:

Presidential and National Assembly Elections will now hold on Saturday, 16th January 2027 as against the earlier stated February 20, 2027
Governorship and State Houses of Assembly Elections will now hold on Saturday, 6th February 2027 as against the former date of March 6, 2027

Also in accordance with the approved Schedule of Activities, the electoral bidy noted in the revised timetable that:

Conduct of Party Primaries, including resolution of disputes arising from primaries, will commence on 23rd April 2026 and end on 30th May 2026.

Presidential and National Assembly campaigns will commence on 19th August 2026.

Governorship and State Houses of Assembly campaigns will commence on 9th September 2026.

As provided by law, campaigns shall end 24 hours before Election Day. Political parties are strongly advised to adhere strictly to these timelines. The Commission will enforce compliance with the law.

But in a swift reaction, the opposition coalition, African Democratic Congress (ADC), rejected the revised 2026–2027 general election timetable, describing it as a politically biased schedule designed to favour the re-election agenda of President Bola Tinubu, and calling on all Nigerians to speak up enmasse to reject the revised timetable.

The ADC, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, on Friday argued that the new deadlines and compliance requirements under the Electoral Act 2026 create near-impossible hurdles for opposition parties seeking to field candidates.

On February 13, INEC initially scheduled the 2027 Presidential and National Assembly elections for February 20, 2027, while the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections were fixed for March 6, 2027.

The timetable, however, faced objections from some Muslim stakeholders who noted that the dates coincided with the 2027 Ramadan period.

Following the concerns, the National Assembly amended Clause 28 of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, reducing the required election notice period from 360 to 300 days, allowing INEC to adjust the election dates.

Subsequently, INEC released a revised schedule on Thursday, signed by its Chairman, Joash Amupitan, moving the Presidential and National Assembly elections to January 16, 2027, and the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections to February 6, 2027.

Reacting, the ADC said the requirement that political parties submit a comprehensive digital membership register by April 2, 2026, effectively bars opposition parties from participating.

The party stated: “The African Democratic Congress rejects the updated 2026–2027 electoral timetable released by the Independent National Electoral Commission. What has been presented as a routine administrative schedule of the upcoming general elections is, in fact, a political instrument carefully structured to narrow democratic space and strengthen the incumbent administration ahead of the 2027 general elections.

“According to the timetable, party primaries are to be conducted between April 23 and May 30, 2026, just 55 to 92 days from today. However, more significant is that, pursuant to Section 77(4) of the Electoral Act 2026, political parties are required to submit their digital membership registers to INEC not later than April 2, 2026.

“That is only about 34 days away. Section 77(7) further provides that any party that fails to submit its membership register within the stipulated time shall not be eligible to field a candidate. These are not routine administrative rules but are deliberately constructed barriers designed to exclude the opposition from participating in the election.”

The party further noted that Section 77(2) of the Electoral Act 2026 requires the digital register of members to contain name, sex, date of birth, address, state, local government, ward, polling unit, National Identification Number (NIN) and photograph in both hard and soft copies, while Section 77(6) prohibits the use of any pre-existing register that does not contain the specified information. It warned that failure to meet these requirements would lead to disqualification.

The ADC questioned the fairness of the digital membership requirement, noting that the ruling All Progressives Congress began its registration process in February 2025, long before the requirement became mandatory.

“It is not a product of foresight but insider advantage. They knew what was coming. They therefore had one full year to carry out an exercise that other political parties are expected to complete in one month, during which they must collect, process, collate and transmit large volumes of digital data to INEC under the threat of exclusion. This is practically impossible.

“Democratic competition is based on a level playing field that does not give any contestant an undue advantage. A system where one party exploits incumbency to gain a one-year head start on a requirement that other parties only became aware of when it was nearly too late is a rigged system.”

The ADC said it has joined other opposition parties in rejecting the Electoral Act 2026, adding that the INEC timetable is equally rejected as it appears designed to serve what it described as a self-succession agenda.

“Let it be clear that ADC will not take any action that appears to confer legitimacy on a fraudulent system. We are reviewing our options and will make our position known in the coming days,” the party said.

The party also called on civil society organisations, democratic stakeholders and Nigerians to scrutinise the timetable and demand fairness, stressing that democracy cannot survive when electoral rules are structured to produce predetermined outcomes.

The party has consistently accused the Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) of scheming to silence the opposition as the 2027 General Elections draw closer, citing his manipulation of state governors and Assembly members from jumping ship, and settling with the ruling party.

Presently, the president’s party has a total of 31 out of 36 states governors, more than majority of the national and states Houses of Assembly.

A frontline publisher and chieftain of the ADC, Chief Dele Momodu, has warned that Tinubu is gradually transforming into full-blown dictatorship, stressing that his second term in office would turn state governors into ‘total slaves’.

Headline

Second Term for Tinubu Will Turn Governors into Total Slaves, Dele Momodu Warns

Published

7 days ago

February 28, 2026

Eric

Chairman, Ovation Media Group, and former presidential aspirant, Aare Dele Momodu, has expressed strong concern over what he described as growing political support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu among state governors across the country.

Speaking during an interview on News Central TV, Momodu said he was shocked by the level of backing the president is reportedly receiving, warning that Nigeria’s democracy could face serious risks if the current political trend continues.

The media entrepreneur cautioned that allowing Tinubu to secure a second term in 2027 could, in his view, lead to excessive concentration of power. He particularly criticized what he described as a growing wave of opposition figures aligning with the ruling All Progressives Congress> (APC).

Momodu referenced reports of opposition governors, including Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, allegedly moving closer to the ruling party, describing the development as politically troubling.

According to him, some governors are allegedly competing to demonstrate loyalty to the president ahead of future elections.

“The governors are fighting to ensure Tinubu wins a second term, fighting to be the biggest thug for him. If a man in his first term can capture the bodies and souls of Nigerians this way, imagine what he would do with a second term. It will be a full-blown dictatorship, and the governors will regret it as they become total slaves to him,” Momodu said.

He concluded by urging Nigerians to remain vigilant and actively protect democratic institutions, warning that unchecked consolidation of political power could threaten the nation’s democracy and future stability.

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