Home Blog Page 89

When democracy loses its voters

By Umar Ardo, Ph.D

  1. Yesterday’s (Saturday, February 21) voter turnout of 7.2 per cent in the Federal Capital Territory council elections is the lowest electoral participation recorded in Nigeria since independence. It is not merely a statistic; it is an indictment on our political class and should alarm anyone who still pretends that our democracy is functioning as intended. Democracies do not die only through coups, decrees or when ballots are stolen; they also die when citizens conclude that voting is pointless and quietly withdraw their participation. This is what we have seen yesterday in the nation’s capital!
  1. This historic voter apathy in the FCT is not accidental, nor is it surprising. It is the predictable outcome of prolonged elite betrayal, institutional decay and the steady erosion of trust between the Nigerian state and its citizens. The hardship currently ravaging the country under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has reached excruciating levels. Inflation has hollowed out incomes, food and energy prices, suffocating taxes have become punitive and basic survival has turned into a daily struggle for hundreds of millions.
  2. ⁠Yet, in obscene contrast, members of the ruling elite, beginning from the president himself, governors, ministers, legislators, political appointees, to Local Government chairmen and councilors are seen living in wealth and flamboyant affluence, insulated from the pain they themselves have imposed upon society. This grotesque disparity has convinced many Nigerians that their elected government is no longer a public trust but a private racket. They are being asked to sacrifice, but those who call for these sacrifices are not seen sacrificing themselves. The electorate have naturally become despondent.
  3. Section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution states that “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government”. On both counts, the state has failed the electorate. Insecurity persists, livelihoods are destroyed and social protections are absent. Meanwhile, those elected to serve grow wealthier by the month. Such a system cannot command trust or turnout. Worse still is the open contempt for constitutionalism displayed by those entrusted to defend it. Undertaken mainly by the Presidency and the leadership of the National Assembly, unconstitutional practices have become normalized. The rule of law is treated as a nuisance rather than a restraint. Executive overreach goes unchecked. Legislative oversight has collapsed into complicity. Institutions that should protect democracy are the ones now seen destroying it.
  4. This collapse of civic participation violates the spirit – if not the letter – of the 1999 Constitution. Section 14(2)(a) “declares unequivocally that sovereignty belongs to the people of Nigeria from whom government derives all its powers and authority”. When over 92 per cent of eligible voters stay away from the polls, then that sovereignty has effectively been withdrawn. Perhaps nothing illustrates this decay more clearly than the casual destruction of the ballot’s meaning. That politicians routinely abandon political parties on whose platforms they were elected, defecting without consequence or moral hesitation, is now standardized. Thus, party affiliation has been rendered meaningless, voter choice mocked and ideological accountability erased. When electoral mandates can be casually transferred like personal property without compunction, citizens are justified in asking: Why vote at all?
  5. Campaign promises have become ritualistic lies. Oaths of office and allegiance are recited, then violated without shame. Insecurity persists unabated, with communities left to fend for themselves while officials issue hollow statements from fortified residences. Nigerians grow poorer by the day; their elected representatives grow astronomically wealthier. This is not governance – it is extraction!
  6. Oversight failure is central. The National Assembly, constitutionally empowered to check the executive, has largely abdicated that role. Executive excess persists without consequence, violating the separation of powers that undergirds constitutional democracy. Most alarming, especially to international constitutional lawyers, is the authorization of foreign military action and basing without constitutional process. That on Christmas Day last December, the United States forces have conducted kinetic operations on Nigerian territory and lately established military bases in Maiduguri and Bauchi raise grave constitutional questions. Nigeria’s Constitution is explicit in protecting our sovereignty. It stipulates that military treaties and international agreements require legislative domestication (Section 12); the armed forces are established to defend Nigeria from external aggression and are subject to legislative regulation (Sections 217–218); executive power under Section 5 is bounded by the Constitution; and Section 1(1) proclaims constitutional supremacy. Authorizing foreign bombing or basing without National Assembly approval would be ultra vires – an affront to sovereignty and democratic control of the use of force!
  7. The ruling All Progressives Congress must bear a heavy share of responsibility. Having campaigned on reform, discipline and change, it now presides over economic misery, institutional vandalism and moral exhaustion. Instead of rebuilding public confidence, the party has perfected political arrogance by openly shielding incompetence, rewarding loyalty over performance and dismissing popular suffering as collateral damage. The Presidency, for its part, appears either unwilling or unable to recognize the gravity of the moment. Democratic legitimacy does not reside in court validations alone; it rests on the consent and participation of the governed. When fewer than one in ten eligible voters bother to show up in the nation’s capital, legitimacy itself is in question.
  8. The implications for 2027 are stark. Elections require belief – belief that votes matter, mandates endure and power is constrained by law. That belief is fast evaporating under the Tinubu style of leadership. Persisting on this path risks converting the 2027 general elections into procedural rituals devoid of democratic substance in which ballots are cast, results are declared, but legitimacy is absent. The danger ahead is indeed profound, in that a system sustained by apathy rather than consent cannot endure.
  9. History offers a sobering lesson: when citizens disengage en masse, the vacuum is rarely filled by reformers. It is often occupied by extremism, authoritarianism or chaos. Nigeria stands at that threshold. This moment demands urgent introspection from those in power. Democracy cannot survive on propaganda, repression or elite consensus alone. It survives only when citizens believe their voice matters, their vote counts and their suffering is acknowledged.
  10. The 7.2 per cent turnout in the FCT is not a failure of voters. It is a verdict on Nigeria’s political class. If that verdict continues to be ignored, the next casualty will not be an election; it will be our democracy itself.

The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.

FBI director’s appearance at US men’s hockey team celebration invites fresh scrutiny over travels

When the American men’s hockey team retreated to their locker room to celebrate their Winter Olympics gold medal win, they were joined by a special guest from the United States: FBI Director Kash Patel.

For some supporters of the embattled law enforcement official, it was a patriotic, good-natured show of support for a team bringing home the first gold medal in the sport since 1980. For Patel’s critics, though, it was yet another questionable use of government resources by an FBI chief already facing scrutiny over his personal travels aboard a government plane.

Click here to continue reading.

Niger State: Where Nigeria’s economic memory meets its food future

How forgotten historic towns hold the blueprint for Nigeria’s agricultural renewal and food security.

Food, Memory & Healing Series

By Kirsten Okenwa

The long train ride from Jebba, Kwara State, to Mokwa in Niger State, on many of our holiday trips from Lagos to Kano, was always one of my quiet favourites. Hours of slow movement through vast plains, fertile soils stretching endlessly into the horizon, rivers glinting in the distance, farmlands stitched together by footpaths, rural women working on the farms, naked children waving as we passed by, and villages rising gently from the earth. The landscape felt ancient, patient, and generous, as though it had been nurturing generations of people.

Years later, when work brought me to Minna, that memory returned. Walking its streets felt like stepping into the embrace of a warm, old, dignified, yet impoverished woman; one who had given everything, asked for little, and been quietly forgotten. Niger State, I realized, was not just a place. It was memory itself; carrying both abundance and neglect in equal measure.

I believe Niger State is where Nigeria’s economic memory meets Its food future. There are places that hold a nation’s story not in monuments, but in their soil, rivers, markets, and old trade routes. Niger State is one such place.

Scattered across its wide plains are towns whose names once shaped commerce across West Africa: Bida, Zungeru, Kontagora, Suleja, Minna, Kainji, New Bussa, Shiroro. Long before Nigeria became a country, these towns functioned as food production centers, industrial clusters, trading posts, and administrative hubs. They fed populations, sustained markets, and connected ecological systems to economic life.

Today, many of these towns appear quiet, their former influence barely visible. Yet beneath this stillness lies one of Nigeria’s strongest blueprints for food security, agricultural transformation, and rural economic renewal.

To understand the future of Nigeria’s food systems, we must first return to its economic memory because our history built food systems.

Niger State’s geography explains its destiny. Sitting at the convergence of ecological zones, river networks, and trade corridors, it became a natural center for farming, fishing, commerce, and settlement. The River Niger and its tributaries shaped agricultural calendars, fishing traditions, and transportation routes that integrated production with trade.

Niger State’s historic towns each carried a distinct economic identity. Bida, the capital of  Nupe Kingdom, was both an industrial and agricultural powerhouse. Its brass works, glass beads, textiles, pottery, and floodplain rice farming supplied markets far beyond its borders.

Zungeru, once the colonial capital of Northern Nigeria, combined governance, river transport, and agriculture, becoming an early administrative and commercial nerve center.Kontagora controlled major livestock and grain corridors, linking pastoral economies to southern markets through thriving trade networks.

Suleja, perched at the gateway to today’s Abuja, served as a logistics and trading bridge between northern and central Nigeria, a role it still quietly plays. Minna, now the state capital, grew along rail and road routes connecting farm belts to urban markets, evolving into a center for agricultural aggregation and processing.

Then there is Kainji and New Bussa, anchored by one of Africa’s largest inland lakes, supporting Nigeria’s richest freshwater fisheries economy.

Together, these towns formed a decentralized but deeply integrated food and trade system, one that balanced production, processing, transportation, and community life.

What is striking about Niger State’s historic economy is how naturally sustainable it was. It perfectly fits the Indigenous Economic Design framework. Food was produced close to where people lived, farming followed ecological rhythms, fishing respected seasonal cycles. Processing happened near production centers, trade routes followed rivers and footpaths that minimized environmental strain. Communities built economic systems that were productive yet regenerative.

Today, we describe such models as climate-smart agriculture, local food systems, and circular rural economies. Niger State had been practicing these principles for centuries. When we forget these systems, we lose not just history, we lose solutions.

Agriculture is Nigeria’s quiet breadbasket. Niger State possesses over 70 percent arable land, making it one of Nigeria’s most agriculturally endowed states. It produces significant quantities of rice, maize, millet, sorghum, yam, cassava, legumes, and livestock. Its irrigation potential remains largely untapped, while its dry-season farming capacity could stabilize our nation’s food supply. Yet this abundance is constrained by weak processing infrastructure, poor storage, post-harvest losses, and limited market integration.

Targeted investment in irrigation, modern milling clusters, farmer aggregation systems, logistics corridors, and rural financing could reposition Niger State as Nigeria’s primary food security anchor, supplying affordable food year-round while generating mass employment.

Perhaps Niger State’s greatest hidden asset is its inland fisheries economy.Fisheries is Nigeria’s untapped protein engine. Kainji Lake and its surrounding waters form the largest freshwater fishing zone in Nigeria, supporting tens of thousands of households. Yet most of this sector operates informally, with limited aquaculture development, inadequate cold storage, and fragile market access. With strategic investment in cage aquaculture, hatcheries, cold chain infrastructure, and processing hubs, Niger State could emerge as West Africa’s leading inland fish production corridor, drastically reducing Nigeria’s dependence on imported frozen fish while boosting rural incomes.

We must rebuild from memory, not from scratch. One of Nigeria’s recurring development errors is the belief that progress requires erasing the past. Niger State reminds us that thriving food economies already existed. Our challenge is not reinvention, but intelligent renewal; modernizing old systems while preserving their ecological logic and social foundations. Reimagining historic towns as agro-industrial clusters, fisheries processing zones, logistics hubs, and renewable energy corridors would spark rural industrialization, stabilize food prices, and restore dignity to farming and fishing livelihoods. This is development rooted in continuity, not disruption.

Food systems hold the blueprint for national healing. They shape more than nutrition. They influence dignity, identity, stability, and peace. When rural economies collapse, migration surges, poverty deepens, and social tensions rise. Revitalizing Niger State’s agricultural and fisheries ecosystems therefore becomes not just economic policy, but national healing work. In reconnecting with Niger State’s economic memory, Nigeria reconnects with a deeper wisdom: that prosperity grows best when it is local, inclusive, and rooted in place.

Niger State is more than Nigeria’s largest state by landmass. It is one of its richest archives of economic intelligence. Its old towns are not relics. They are blueprints. By rediscovering and reinvesting in these historic food systems, Nigeria can build a development pathway that is resilient, equitable, and regenerative,  one that feeds its people, dignifies its farmers and fishers, and heals the fractures of economic neglect. Sometimes, the road forward begins by remembering where we started.

Kirsten Okenwa is a writer, industrial chemist, and food systems–peacebuilding practitioner working across rural Africa. Her work explores indigenous foods as memory, medicine, and pathways to healing and resilience.

Ave Tinubu, morituri salutamus te

By Suyi Ayodele

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu proved critics wrong last Wednesday. Those who hold the belief that the President is old, tired and physically inactive were damned when, with the speed of light, Tinubu appended his signature to the controversial Amended Electoral Bill 2026. By the stroke of his presidential pen, the strong man of the moment has shut down all protests and agitations against the controversial law.

It is not funny. The National Assembly led by the whippy Senator Godswill Akpabio passed the Bill on Tuesday, February 17, 2026. Only 12 senators voted against the Bill. The rest of the yes-men senators endorsed the Bill. In the House of Representatives, opposition lawmakers left the chamber, singing and denouncing the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) majority.

At the end of the day, our novel democracy was at play. The minority had their voice, and the majority had their way. Then came Tinubu and his speed. Less than 24 hours after our legislators threw us back to the Stone Age of ballot snatching and election results doctoring, President Tinubu said yes and gave life and blood to the Bill!

 I don’t speak Latin. I did not take any elective courses in Classics. I stumbled on the Latin phrase morituri salutamus te, during an interaction with a retired octogenarian broadcaster with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Tony Abolo. Ose (meaning an elder in Urhobo Language) Abolo is a delight any day, anytime.

I have yet to come across an avid reader like the 83-year-old journalist; he turned exactly 83 on Saturday. Ose Abolo does not read; he studies his books. That is not even totally correct! Abolo edits all his books. I take a bet that when it is time for him to transition, he may do so holding a book. I say this because while sitting at his table with his favourite Heineken beer and a small bottle of groundnuts, Abolo holds a book, a pen and he talks to you while stealing a glance at a page he has marked, underlined and made several footnotes!

I never miss any opportunity to engage him. I had that chance last Wednesday evening. A group of men were gloating over the speed with which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the Amended Electoral Bill 2026 into law. The guys were happy because, according to them, Tinubu had given the opposition “another master stroke.”

Ose Abolo took his leave of the group and held my hand, drawing me aside. He asked: “Have you ever heard the Latin phrase: morituri salutamus te” I answered in the negative. He laughed and said: “It means we who are about to die salute you.” The old man tore a piece of paper, wrote the words and asked me to read more about it, adding: “You will find it funny and sad at the same time”, and looking at the direction of the discussants, he added: “They are over there; those who are about to die.”

I went in search of the phrase. Morituri salutamus te, has different variants. The one I consider most fascinating is Avē Imperātor, moritūrī tē salūtant. It means “Hail, Emperor, those who are about to die salute you.” One account of the phrase traces it to Claudius, the fourth Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty, who ruled between AD 41 and AD 54. The account says that Claudius formed the habit of assembling gladiators, who are mostly condemned criminals, armed them with swords and ordered them to fight lions at the pit section of the Roman Amphitheatre.

While Emperor Claudius sits in royal attire, surrounded by his courtiers and other invited guests, the helpless gladiators are led into the pit. And before the lions are released, they raise their swords and in unison, raise their voices, saying: Avē Imperātor, moritūrī tē salūtant. Then the fight for survival against the lions will ensue. The Emperor watches from his throne in delight as those who earlier hailed him die one after the other, devoured by the hungry lions unleashed on them!

READ ALSO: Electoral Bill: The other side of clause 60(3)

Harry J. Leon of the University of Texas, USA, in a 1939 paper titled; “Morituri Te Salutamus” published in the Transactions of the American Philological Association (70: 45–50. Retrieved 2012-10-11), observed that “the salute had become widely represented and embellished in numerous works dealing with Roman antiquities, so that it has become one of the best known and most often cited of Roman customs.”

The Irish playwright and literary critic, George Bernard Shaw (July 26, 1856-November 2, 1950), popularised the ‘salute’ in his 1912 play, titled: “Androcles and the Lion”, where, just before the condemned Christians face the lions, they chorus: “Hail, Caesar! those about to die salute thee”, with the Emperor responding, “Good morrow, friends”.

The debate has been on since then. Many of Tinubu’s fans are out in merriment. Their singsong is: ‘did we not tell you that the President is a master strategist?’ I have heard many of such clichés. Thanks to Ose Abolo, who led me to study that Roman fatalistic phrase, which denotes the acceptance of defeat! Each time anyone gloats about the ‘political sagacity’ demonstrated by Tinubu in signing the Amended Electoral Bill 2026 into law, I recourse to the Latin phrase and its psychological implications.

The reality of the whole scenario is that we are all victims. And if the truth must be said, the greatest victims are those who know the truth but choose to stand with party loyalty at the expense of collective willpower to fight for that which is just and equitable. Those are the real ones who are about to die but will still hail the one sending them to their early graves.

The major argument against the real-time electronic transmission of election results is the idea of non-availability of networks in some rural areas. Another argument against the innovation is the issue of network failure in the urban centres. Nobody in his right senses will declare the two reasons as invalid. That is not even the point that many Nigerians who are in support of real-time electronic transfer of election results are putting forward.

It is very unfortunate that in the year 2026, Nigeria is still debating the issue of electronic transfer of election results. It is sadder to even note that the majority of those who tenaciously oppose the idea are those, who, in the comfort of their bedrooms,  electronically transfer millions of naira from their phones to beneficiaries across the globe! The only time these fellas remember that there could be network failure is when it comes to elections and their results.

I feel personally sad that when Nigerians should be talking about electronic voting, we are still tied down by the debate of availability of a network or network failure. I have been asking what happened to the rural telephony efforts of the various telecommunication outfits in the country. I say this because as far back as 2006, I led a team of Mobile Publicity Unit (MPU) on a Road Telemarketing Campaign (RTC), when the indigenous telecommunications company, Globacom, launched its We Live Where You Live (WLWYL), rural telephony initiative.

The entire country was divided into six. Each MPU covered six states. My team was assigned the South-East. From Igbere to Akwa Etti, from Uturu to Ohafia, we were in the villages selling the Globacom Subscriber Identity Modules, otherwise known as SIM cards. In communities where there was no network, each team wrote a report and the Roll Out Department moved in to either establish a Base Transceiver Station (BTS), or reinforce the closest BTS for optimal network coverage.

It was for this reason that the company deployed mostly 75-metre towers with seven-kilometre radius coverage. The year 2006 is some 20 years ago. Today, the fear of non-availability of networks in rural areas has denied Nigerians the opportunity of having their votes counted, transmitted and guaranteed as true reflection of their choices!

Like many of the would-be ‘beneficiaries’ of the new electoral laws are wont to argue, ‘those who don’t like the new law can go to court’, I think Nigerians and their government need to do more. If indeed, 26 years after the coming of the mobile telecommunications system, there are still some rural areas that are not covered, the regulatory agency, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), must rise up and do the needful. The various operators must be mandated to deploy their facilities in the rural areas. No Nigerian should be allowed to remain in the Stone Age. It is an aberration that communities still exist without a network as canvassed by the wise men and women in the National Assembly!

Beyond monitoring the quality of the network and the consumer-friendliness of their tariffs, telecommunications operators must be made to realise that rural telephony is not a luxury but a basic necessity of life that no Nigerian should be denied. Whatever the efforts telecommunications operators like Globacom might have made 20 years ago should be redoubled. Our politicians should not be allowed to behave like the proverbial dirty woman who finds an alibi in the death of her husband to say that she is so devastated that for three days, she could not have her bath as if it is a regular personal hygiene she engages in (Obun rí ikú oko di òrò mò; ó ní láti ojó tí oko òun ti kú, òun ò bu omi sórí).

Beyond the above, an average Nigerian knew from day one that the Akpabio-led National Assembly would pass the electoral bill. On this page on February, 10, 2026, I wrote, under the title: “The Senate coup against Nigerians”, thus: “If the Electoral Act 2020 (Repeal and R-enactment) Amended Bill 2026 passed by the Godswill Akpabio-led senate is allowed to be the guiding laws and principles for the 2027 general elections, Nigerians can kiss democracy goodbye. With the new bill as passed by the senate, everything called credibility, fairness, decency and morality, is gone and gone forever!”  Nothing has changed; not even the attempt by the Presidency to deodorise the new law as one that will make Nigerians “to see democracy flourish”, notwithstanding.

Every Nigerian is a victim of the new law, irrespective of their political affiliations. Even those sitting on the fence, who have remained largely apolitical, will have their own fair share of the pains. It is not the new law that is faulty. Everything about our electoral system is an aberration. The President appoints the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). That makes the Commission dependent on the appointing authority, which also funds it. A pliable National Assembly led by Akpabio, approves the appointment. We keep moving from one dirt to another. All INEC National Commissioners and Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) are appointed by the same President. These are the men and women who will supervise the elections.

In case of any dispute, the aggrieved parties go to the courts presided over by judges and justices appointed either by the President or the governors. We all know the controversies that had trailed the activities and judicial pronouncements of our judges and justices in the recent past. This is one of the reasons why Nigerians have lost confidence in the entire system. Again, this is the reason why those in power today are quick to ask the rest of us to ‘go to court’. They know that the courts are no longer courts!

The only hope of credibility in our electoral system is real-time electronic transmission of election results. But that, President Tinubu and his cohorts in the National Assembly have thrown over the bar, with the President asking Nigerians to “…question our broadband capability. How technically sound are we today? How technically sound will we be tomorrow in answering the call, whether in real time or not?”

While we will do as the President demanded by asking those concerned to strengthen the nation’s “broadband capability”, we shall also ask Tinubu to attend to other issues, especially insecurity, affecting Nigerians with the same speed and timeliness he attended to the new electoral law. We shall be asking the President to treat other matters with the same alacrity so that those who are about to die under the excruciating pains of the economic failures of his administration will have the strength to salute him. For now, on the new feat of signing Amended Electoral Act 2026 into law, we say:  Ave Tinubu, morituri salutamus te.

The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.

Just In: Tinubu forces IGP Egbetokun to resign, to be replaced by AIG Disu

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, has resigned from office at the request of President Bola Tinubu.

A source in the presidency said Egbetokun was asked to resign at a meeting with the president at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday.

Mr Egbetokun is to be replaced by Tunji Disu, an Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG).

Although the plan has not been officially announced, sources in the presidency and the police headquarters revealed that preparations are underway for a formal handover ceremony from Mr Egbetokun to Mr Disu.

Mr Egbetokun was appointed by President Tinubu as the 22nd IGP on 19 June 2023. His substantive appointment was confirmed by the Nigeria Police Council on 31 October that year.

Appointed as IGP at the age of 58, Mr Egbetokun was due for retirement on 4 September 2024, upon reaching the mandatory age of 60.

However, the National Assembly amended the police law, allowing him to serve his full four-year term as IG unless removed by the president.

He was thus expected to complete his four-year tenure and remain in office until 31 October 2027.

Despite complaints by many Nigerians, the presidency explained that Mr Egbetokun remained in office legally, citing the amended Police Act 2024, which allows an appointed IGP to serve a fixed four-year term regardless of their age or years of service.

His tenure as IGP was marked by several controversies, including human rights abuses.

The presidency has yet to issue a statement confirming Mr Egbetokun’s removal. Calls to presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga and police spokesperson Ben Hundeyin did not go through at the time of this report. However, a source at the presidency said an official announcement would be made later on Tuesday.

More details will be provided in subsequent reports.

Premium Times

Revealed: How Nigeria allegedly paid millions in ransom to Boko Haram for kidnapped schoolchildren

The Nigerian government paid Boko Haram militants a “huge” ransom of millions of dollars to free up to 230 children and staff the jihadists abducted from a Catholic school in November, intelligence sources told AFP.

Two Boko Haram commanders were also freed as part of the deal, which goes against the country’s own law banning payments to kidnappers.

The money was flown on a helicopter to Boko Haram’s Gwoza stronghold in northeastern Borno state on the border with Cameroon and delivered to Ali Ngulde, a militant commander in the area, three sources told AFP.

Due to the lack of communications cover in the remote area, Ngulde had to cross into Cameroon to confirm delivery of the ransom before the first group of 100 children were released.

The decision to pay the jihadists, who sparked worldwide protests after they kidnapped 276 mostly Christian girls in Chibok in 2014, is also likely to irritate the US and President Donald Trump, who has cast himself as a defender of the country’s Christians.

Nigerian government officials deny any ransom was paid to the armed gang that snatched close to 300 schoolchildren and staff from St. Mary’s boarding school in Papiri in central Niger state on November 21.

At least 50 later managed to escape their captors.

Boko Haram has not been previously linked to the kidnapping, but sources told AFP one of its most feared commanders was behind the mass abduction.

The notorious jihadist known as Sadiku is also suspected of leading a spectacular 2022 gun and bomb attack on a train between the capital Abuja and Kaduna, which also netted hefty payments in ransoms for scores of well-off passengers that included bankers and government officials.

The St. Mary’s pupils and staff were freed after two weeks of negotiations led by Nuhu Ribadu, Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA), with the government insisting no ransom was paid.

However, four intelligence sources familiar with the talks told AFP the government paid a “huge” ransom to get the pupils back.

– Govt ‘agents don’t pay ransoms’ –

One source put the total ransom at 40 million naira per head — around $7 million in total.

Another put the figure lower at two billion naira overall.

The NSA did not reply to multiple AFP requests for comment.

Nigeria’s State Security Service flatly denied paying any money, saying: “Government agents don’t pay ransoms.”

But a spokesperson said that if a family wants to free their relatives, no one can stop them paying.

Boko Haram, which has waged a bloody insurgency since 2009, is strongest in northeast Nigeria. But a cell in central Niger state also operates under Sadiku’s leadership.

His gang kept the children in a camp near the town of Borgu, 370 kilometres from the state capital Minna, intelligence sources said.

Vincent Foucher, a specialist on Nigerian conflicts with France’s National Centre for Scientific Research, told AFP that he believes Sadiku was responsible after speaking with a source affiliated with the jihadists as well as a Nigerian government source.

“It makes total sense, given Sadiku’s history,” Foucher said.

– Pressure from Trump –

The attack on St Mary’s came as Nigeria was under diplomatic pressure with Trump alleging “persecution” of Christians in Africa’s most populous nation.

Washington said it killed “multiple” Islamic State militants in a series of strikes in northwest Nigeria on Christmas Day.

But analysts and the authorities reject Trump’s framing of Nigeria’s complex, overlapping security crises, with Muslims accounting for the vast majority of kidnap victims.

The country has long been plagued by mass abductions, with criminals and jihadist groups sometimes working together to extort millions from hostages’ families, and authorities seemingly powerless to stop them.

Laws criminalising payments have not stopped the “kidnapping epidemic”, with 828 abductions in the past year alone — many involving multiple victims — according to the US-based monitor Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED).

That was more than Mexico and Colombia combined. The kidnappings “often involve multiple victims”, said senior ACLED Africa analyst Ladd Serwat. Only neighbouring Cameroon and scam-centre-plagued Myanmar saw more.

The St. Mary’s mass abduction came amid reports that Sadiku’s faction has relocated from its stronghold in Shiroro, and needs funds amid the move, Foucher said.

“Their task has always been to get money” for Boko Haram’s leadership in the northeast, he added.

As a part of the deal for the St. Mary’s children, sources said Boko Haram also demanded that the Nigerian military allow residents of Audu Fari village in the Borgu area to return home after they were driven out by troops.

Audu Fari served as a supply route for Sadiku and his fighters as well as a transit point for their families travelling to his camps from Boko Haram’s northeastern strongholds.

– ‘Kidnap industry’ –

In 2022 Nigeria passed a law criminalising ransom payments, with jail sentences of up to 15 years.

But individual Nigerians continue to pay to free relations while authorities look the other way.

The crisis has “consolidated into a structured, profit-seeking industry” that raised some $1.66 million between July 2024 and June 2025, according to a recent report by SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based consultancy.

Armed groups and criminals have turned to kidnapping as a way to make quick cash in a country where millions live in poverty amid stifling inequality.

In a kidnapping in Kaduna, where scores of Christian worshippers were taken last month, the local governor ruled out paying a ransom. The victims were later freed, but no details of the negotiations were made public.

Authorities have also paid ransoms to rescue other victims of mass abductions and high-profile hostages, security sources said.

In December 2020 authorities in Katsina state paid 30 million naira (the equivalent of $78,000 at the time) for the release of 340 schoolchildren seized from a boarding school in Kankara town.

Bandit chief Awwalun Daudawa, who masterminded the attack, confirmed the payment in a leaked recording of a phone conversation with a go-between.

National Security Advisor Ribadu’s office insisted he has several times secured the release of victims from bandits with no money changing hands.

– Go-betweens –

Another state security spokesperson dismissed as “fake news” the idea that the ransom for the St. Mary’s pupils was dropped by a chopper.

“Let’s be rational about this. This is a fallacy. It’s laughable. It’s almost unimaginable,” they said.

But an analyst in the kidnap-hit northwestern state of Zamfara — who asked not to be named — said “there is no way bandits can keep releasing people they kidnapped to the government without getting payment in return.

“The government is denying what we all know — that it pays ransom when schoolchildren and high-profile victims are involved,” he said.

In some cases, security personnel act as go-betweens in delivering ransoms to kidnappers, families of victims told AFP.

Abubakar Abdulkarim, who lives in Minna, told AFP he sought the help of security personnel to get $4,000 to the bandits who kidnapped his elder brother while he was working on his farm in Kontagora.

Families of victims who do not have the money often resort to crowdfunding.

One recent online appeal displayed the picture of a traditional chief in his regalia from southwestern Nigeria who was kidnapped on New Year’s Eve. It sought donations to raise the $11,400 demanded by his kidnappers.

Vanguard

Nigeria bleeds as villages empty and nine are gunned down—while politicians gear up for 2027

Nigeria’s rural north is unravelling.

Entire communities are fleeing in the dead of night. Gunmen are storming villages and relaxation spots. Families are burying their dead.

And critics say the country’s political class appears more energised about the 2027 elections than the bodies piling up today.

Villages Vanish in Bauchi

In Gwana District, Alkaleri Local Government Area of Bauchi State, homes now stand abandoned after a deadly attack during Ramadan left at least four people dead and dozens abducted.

Residents were gathered to break their fast when gunmen struck.

Photos show desperate families loading mattresses, food supplies and children onto motorcycles, fleeing toward neighbouring states. Farms have been deserted. Livestock left untended.

“We cannot sleep anymore,” one resident said. “There is no protection.”

In a February 23 statement, Amnesty International warned that Nigeria’s deepening insecurity is “getting out of hand,” describing the Bauchi assault as vicious and marked by a “contemptible disregard for human life.”

Women and girls were reportedly among those abducted.

Nine Shot Dead in Plateau

Hours later, violence flared again.

Gunmen stormed a relaxation spot in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State, killing at least nine people around 7:15 p.m.

Witnesses say attackers opened fire without warning.

The massacre came less than 24 hours after a curfew had been imposed in a troubled nearby village where earlier raids left at least 10 residents dead.

For locals, the symbolism was chilling: even places meant for rest are now targets.

Community representatives accused armed herders of orchestrating coordinated attacks and weaponizing claims of cattle poisoning to justify reprisals. The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has previously denied involvement in such violence. Authorities have not formally identified the attackers.

“We have been pushed to the wall,” one spokesman said. “They are killing Nigerians and moving freely.”

Army Repels Ambush—But Fear Persists

In Kebbi State, the Nigerian Army says it foiled a deadly ambush targeting a senior commander’s convoy near Mayama Hill. Five suspected terrorists were killed, and weapons recovered.

The military framed it as a tactical victory.

But for civilians fleeing Bauchi and Plateau, battlefield successes offer little reassurance when attackers continue to strike villages, markets and prayer gatherings.

2027 Over Security?

With insecurity spreading from Bauchi to Plateau and across the North-West, frustration is boiling over.

Critics argue that political elites appear increasingly consumed by coalition-building, party realignments and early manoeuvring for Nigeria’s 2027 general elections—while rural communities empty out and survivors count their dead.

The optics are stark:

  • Ramadan gatherings turn into killing fields.
  • Curfews fail to stop gunmen.
  • Entire districts are deserted overnight.

Across northern Nigeria, one question grows louder:

If leaders are preparing for the next election, who is protecting citizens today?

‘Make Her Pregnant’: Nigerian police officer caught on video harassing British tourists in shocking sexist tirade

A very disturbing video obtained by SaharaReporters has exposed unprofessional conduct by an officer of the Nigeria Police Force, who was seen stopping and interrogating two foreign tourists travelling by car through Nigeria, subjecting them to intrusive questioning, inappropriate comments, and what appeared to be subtle intimidation.

The tourists, a young couple from England on a transcontinental road trip from the United Kingdom to South Africa, were stopped by the police officer who immediately began questioning their documentation and purpose of visit.

In the footage, the officer is heard demanding paperwork relating to the vehicle.

“I said, do you have paper for this ride? Where was the paper? Show me. Who approved this?” the officer asked.

The tourists calmly responded that their documents had been processed and approved at the Nigerian border.

“When did you arrive to this country?” the officer pressed.

“Yesterday,” the tourists replied.

Midnight Raid. No Charges. A Pastor Still Missing: Nigeria’s Rule of Law Faces Global Scrutiny

The prayers had barely ended when the doors burst open.

At about 2 a.m. on February 12, 2025, armed operatives allegedly stormed a modest church in Aba, southeast Nigeria, sending worshippers into panic and hauling away its leader, Esther Egbom.

More than a year later, the pastor of God’s Solution Bible Ministry has not been formally charged in court, her family says. A High Court judge ordered that she be charged or released. Her lawyers say that order has not been obeyed.

Now, what began as a midnight arrest is evolving into a constitutional test case—one that could draw international human rights scrutiny.

The Raid

February 11 had been a routine vigil night. Some congregants stayed to sleep.

Then came the pounding at the door.

Uniformed officers believed to be from Nigeria’s Department of State Services (DSS) allegedly searched the premises and took Egbom and one female member into custody. Eight phones were also reportedly seized.

“They didn’t find anything,” a family member told SaharaReporters. “They just took her.”

What followed was not a court appearance—but silence.

Weeks of Disappearance

For weeks, relatives say they did not know where she was.

“It was in May 2025 that we heard she was in DSS custody in Abuja,” a close family source said.

The family alleges that authorities were searching for a man they claim is linked to the banned Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). When he could not be located, they say, the pastor was detained instead.

The DSS has not publicly confirmed those claims.

If true, legal experts warn, the implications are serious.

Supreme Court: No “Proxy Arrests”

On January 30, 2026, Nigeria’s Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment reinforcing Section 7 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA): no one can be arrested for an offence allegedly committed by another person.

In Smart Onomiruren v. Pastor Samuel Idiokita (SC/CV/747/2024), the apex court ruled that law enforcement agencies cannot detain relatives or associates to compel a suspect’s compliance.

The principle is clear: criminal liability is personal.

Egbom’s lawyers argue that her continued detention, without charge, directly collides with that safeguard.

Court Order—And Alleged Defiance

The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, sitting in Kuje, Abuja, delivered judgment on July 9, 2025.

The order was explicit:

Charge her within 42 hours of receiving the judgment—or release her immediately.

According to her legal team, the ruling was acknowledged by authorities on October 21, 2025. They say the compliance window has long expired.

In November, her lawyers sought a production warrant to compel authorities to bring her before the court.

“The judgment of this court has not been challenged in any manner whatsoever and therefore remains sacrosanct,” they wrote.

As of publication, there has been no official statement confirming compliance.

International Law: Nigeria’s Obligations

Nigeria is a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention under Article 9 and guarantees access to legal counsel and a prompt trial.

Article 9(3) specifically requires that anyone arrested be brought “promptly” before a judge.

Prolonged detention without charge can constitute arbitrary detention under international law.

Global watchdog Amnesty International has repeatedly criticised Nigerian security agencies over extended detentions, secret custody practices, and denial of legal access in national security cases.

While Amnesty has not yet issued a statement specifically on Egbom’s case, rights advocates say it fits a broader pattern previously documented in the country’s counter-insurgency and separatist crackdowns.

Under both Nigerian constitutional law and the ICCPR, access to a lawyer is not optional; it is a fundamental safeguard.

Her family says neither they nor her lawyers have been allowed to see her.

A Family in Limbo

Relatives describe sleepless nights and mounting fear over her physical and psychological condition.

They say they do not know:

  • Her exact place of detention
  • Her health status
  • Whether formal charges exist

Their demands are simple: comply with the court order, grant access, or file charges in open court.

A Test Case for Nigeria

The case now sits at the intersection of national security, constitutional law, and international human rights obligations.

If the court order is ignored, legal analysts warn, it raises a deeper question: What happens when judicial authority collides with security power?

And if Nigeria’s Supreme Court has outlawed proxy arrests, what message does prolonged detention without charge send—both domestically and internationally?

For Esther Egbom, the answer is immediate and personal.

For Nigeria, it may define how far the rule of law truly extends when the doors close at 2 a.m.

FAAN confirms massive fire outbreak at Lagos airport terminal one

The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) has confirmed a fire outbreak at the old terminal of Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMA) in Lagos, a facility currently undergoing a multibillion-naira renovation.

FAAN stated that, though no fatality had been recorded, its team of firefighters was on the ground to contain the fire.

“The Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) wishes to inform the public of a fire outbreak at Terminal 1 of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

“Our firefighting team is currently responding and working to contain the situation. No loss of life has been recorded.

“Further updates will be provided as more information becomes available,” the agency stated.

In an updated post on X, FAAN said the orderly evacuation of passengers and airport personnel was in progress.

“To strengthen response efforts, FAAN has activated mutual aid arrangements and called for reinforcements from the Lagos State Government, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, and other relevant emergency agencies.

“We wish to reassure the public that no loss of life has been recorded at this time, and all necessary measures are being taken to safeguard lives and property,” it added.

Terminal One Remodelling

Last year, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, defended plans by the Federal Government to remodel Terminal One of the airport with ₦712bn, saying it was a quest to meet world-class standards.

Keyamo said the airport terminal, built over four decades ago, had gone rusty.

“The roof of the airport is leaking; the place is decrepit and smelly. You see people selling Indomie and all kinds of kiosks erected there. The ceilings are failing, and the carousels are not working because their parts are not in the market anymore,” the minister said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

The fiscal approval by the Federal Government for the project triggered discontent from various quarters as critics argued that it was a misplacement of priority by the Bola Tinubu administration at a time when millions of Nigerians groan under all-time high inflation, hunger, and skyrocketing living costs.

But Keyamo argued that the airport upgrade would be funded “through the Renewed Hope Infrastructural Funding,” as it was “not a budgetary kind of expenditure”.

He also stated that without the rebuilding of the airport terminal, many foreign airlines would abandon the country’s route.

He said, “As it is today, you cannot land in Lagos (local airport) and try to connect to an international flight, maybe to Ghana.

“Lagos is not a hub, but that was the plan in 1977 when it was designed and in 1979 when it was commissioned. You cannot process one passenger from one terminal to another, so that has stunted the growth of aviation.

“What we are trying to do in Lagos now is to make Lagos a very modern airport and create a proper hub to begin to compete with other hubs in Africa…So, we want to completely pull down Terminal One.

“It is not a refurbishment; we are tearing it down, only the pillars will remain, the carcass, the decking. Everything will go, and they are going to redesign now,” Keyamo added.

1...888990...1,425Page 89 of 1,425

TIPS

Load more