9-4-2025.

When the present President was a ‘mare’ senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu boldly stated on the floor of the Senate that he did not believe in Nigeria. But the same Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu is NOW the President of the Nigeria he did not believe in. Why is that so? It may be because it is “our turn”, as he infamously told an all Yoruba audience before his swearing in that it was ‘EMILOKAN’.

And when Nyson Wike was the Governor of the oil rich Rivers State, he once told a television interviewer, with an element of some airs, that the Fourth Republic had no place for, and would not tolerate, godfatherism in Nigeria. He stated that he had at one time told his Lagos State counterpart, Akinwumi Dapo Ambode, that he should not give in to the constant fiscal demands of his so called godfather, and one time governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

In the same Fourth Republic, the same Nyson Wike, who is now the powerful Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in the cabinet of THAT godfather and a person who does “not believe in Nigeria”, is himself a godfather. He allegedly demanded $6 billion monthly from his godson, the Governor of Rivers State, Similayi Fabura. Is it because it is  “our turn”.

 And because Governor Similayi Fabura refused to honour the insensitive financial demand of the FCT minister, he was sacked for a period of six months, and a state of emergency imposed on his state by the dictator, President Tinubu, allegedly at the behest of his godson, imperial Wike, because it is “our turn”. The dictator rules as he pleases.

Despite the president making the self confession of “I do not believe in Nigeria”, some unpatriotic people, who only consider themselves and their immediate families, continue to support the tribalist dictator, who would rather serve his insatiable corrupt interest, and the interest of his tribespeople, than the interest of a united Nigeria, all because it is “our turn”. 

His lopsided appointments in favour of his tribespeople (85%) to date, has forced many to believe that the next sacking would be done with the intention to make way for his tribes person to takeover the available space, even if there are more qualified persons belonging to another tribe. ALL the Commanding Heights of the economy ministries are headed by his tribespeople. The Nigerian number one citizen is unapologetically being dictatorial because it is “our turn”.

The Northern part of the country appeared to be the President’s least concern, because in all he does, weather democratically or undemocratically (which is most of the time), President Tinubu demonstrates his age old dislike for the region. The retention of the Power Minister, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu, in the cabinet, despite his glaring failure, which results in the regular absence of electricity in most parts of the North, is definitely not by mistake. So is the retention of the non performing Ministers of Defence, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru (senior) and Honourable Bello Matawalle (junior). As well as the retention of the Chief of Defence Staff, and the boss of the Nigerian Airforce, for the many ‘accidental’ bombings on Muslims in the North, in the name of fighting bandits in the affected places.

The earlier Northern Nigeria woke up from its self induced slumber, the better for the giant region. Except for his Northern apologists, who care NOT for the millions of their poor compatriots, but for themselves and their immediate families, only a few of his tribespeople and an even fewer people from the South East and the South South are with the Nigerian president. But because of his near total control of the media space and the security agencies (agents of coercion), he appears to be in control of the situation. It is a fake impression, despite the fact that it is “our turn”.

To be sure, Tinubu has for long favoured the desire of the break up of the country with the Northern region going anywhere but Nigeria. For his grand design, the President has been providing for the Southern part of the country all manner of amenities that are for modern living, at the same time denying same to the North. 

His divide and rule tactics are also reserved for the Northern region. And all the Senators that have been illegally suspended, or are about to be suspended, are from the North. Whether we like it or not, the suspensions and the impending suspension are okayed by the president of the country, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who appears to be totally unsatisfied with amassing money.

It is therefore worthwhile that the Northern region avoids the mistake of 2023 in 2027, because the North will then understand what Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu meant by “I do not believe in Nigeria”, when he stated it in the hallowed chamber of the Senate during his Social Democratic Party (SDP) days.

Nigeria is a country where a serving minister in a very important ministry, who was also a former state governor, owns one of the most expensive hotels (named after his son) in Port Harcourt, without any of the anti corruption agencies doing anything about it. Yet, the head of one of the anti corruption agencies is a supposed religious man who belongs to the Redeemed Church of Christ in the country, where the First Lady, Senator Remi Tinubu, and the immediate past Vice President, Professor Yomi Osinbajo are notable Pastors. This is because it is “our turn”.

The same head of the anti graft organisation has recently claimed that some serving ministers had given him N500 million (half a billion) to “assist me bury my dead mother”. But still did nothing about this brazen corruption, which is in line with the desire of the present regime of President Tinubu, because it is “our turn”.

Nigeria is also a nation where the unelected, and Constitutionally unrecognised First Lady, frequently donates billions of naira to some institutions, ‘good charitable causes and foundations’, in the Southern part of the country, while  ‘donating’ a few millions in the North. Millions of the real owners of the stolen money wallow in abject poverty, misery and an almost unbearable hunger, for that matter. Can that happen in a real democracy? Yet the charade continues because it is “our turn”. 

May God rid Nigeria of corruption and those who have turned it into the reason for their inordinate quest for power, just because it is “our turn”.   

Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.