O pinion about the first two years of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) is mixed. Many observers described the first half as positive. And true, there are many pointers to justify the positivity. Foreign policy can be seen as a major area of success bearing in mind that PBAT’s shuttle diplomacy earned Nigeria a commitment of $50bn worth of foreign direct investments. Observers who see foreign policy as a failure do consider that Nigeria’s international image is not good with the non-appointment of diplomatic plenipotentiaries to head Nigeria’s embassies abroad. No one is wrong. It is the point of emphasis that is different. 

However, if one considers the fact that Nigeria’s foreign policy is being given a new attitudinal foundation to guide Nigeria’s international behaviour, that is the introduction of the diplomacy of the 4-Ds (Democracy, Development, Demography, and Diaspora) as an instrument to achieve strategic autonomy, there can be no disputing the fact that PBAT’s Foreign Minister, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, is a competent diplomatic pilot. Non-appointment of ambassadors can be due to many factors above his powers. Lack of funding can be a reason. 

The need to wait until 2027 election time can be another reason. In this regard, PBAT may want to reserve some diplomatic postings for some political supporters, especially those who have the great potential to influence his electoral victory. PBAT may also want to first of all stabilise the domestic base for his ruling political party, the All Progressives Congress, before appointing ambassadors-designate. Whatever is the case, it is precisely the goodness in the first two years that also point to the bleakness in Nigeria’s future. The enemies within are not only quite stronger than the enemies without, but continue to wax stronger. The enemies are killing Nigeria softly every day with policies of remissness and braggadocio.

The first enemy of the people of Nigeria is the Government of Nigeria either at the federal or state level and we have drawn attention to this observation several times in this column. For the umpteenth time, I have said that the Federal Government of Nigeria is very fraudulent by collecting deposits from the public for houses that would not be built. Explained differently, Government placed an advert asking Nigerians who were interested in buying low, medium, high-level semi-detached and detached bungalows in various parts of the country to apply. The location of the housing project for Lagos State was in FESTAC Village. I was an applicant for a medium-detached bungalow in FESTAC. I paid the required amount of deposit. 

The originator of the project, Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, then Federal Minister of Works and Housing, wanted to build very affordable units of houses across Nigeria but he was replaced by Major-General Abdulkareem Adisa who complicated the matter. The required initial deposit was N40,000 under Alhaji Jakande but was increased to N200,000 under General Adisa. The total cost of purchase of my own detached-bungalow was initially N200,000. It was increased to N800,000 and the new deposit required was N200,000, that is, 20% of the total selling price, hence my initial deposit of N40,000 was increased to N160,000. My wife took salary advance from the then Universal Trust Bank to pay the deposit. Up till this time of writing, no news about the project. No housing project in the FESTAC village. No allocation of any house. No refund. 

In my eyes, the worst pen-robber not to say armed robber, the worst enemy of Nigeria is the Federal Government. The houses were meant to be built between April 1994 and December 1994. Allocation of the houses was scheduled to be made in December 1994. Today is June 8, 2025, that is, more than THIRTY-ONE YEARS since payment of deposit in February 1994, no house has been built. All successive governments have not been bothered about the plight of depositors. In fact. Major-General Adisa empanelled a committee to investigate Alhaji Jakande to inquire whether he engaged in financial malpractices regarding the housing projects. He was found very upright. No one believed that he could build any house with only N200,000.  But what happened to the deposits and the housing scheme in Lagos, FESTAC? Only God can tell. Yet, the Federal Government is purporting to be solving housing problems, allocating houses to footballers for winning cups but refusing to talk about houses for which it contractually collected deposits, and still have the effrontery of coming into the open to preach the sermon of financial holiness, integrity, and patriotism. 

Without whiff of doubt, if the Federal Government is openly robbing the people of their hard-earned and legitimate money, and the same Government is accusing some people of theft, of money laundering or threatening tenants of revocation of Certificates of Occupancy (C of O), how do we describe the criminality of the Federal Government? The Government of Nigeria signed the 2003 international convention against corruption. Is taking money from the people for housing schemes without allocation of such houses not an act of corruption? Is it not more fraudulent than the acts of the armed robbers and kidnappers? 

The disregard for public complaints is unpatriotic. It is killing Nigeria softly and Nigeria’s future can never be bright if patriotism is consciously being killed. Perhaps one should ask if there is any essence in talking about the Renewed Hope Housing and Urban Development Agenda when the Government is oppressing some Nigerians for being honest and is trying to please some others, basically the anti-Nigeria elements.

One Yoruba saying or question is that if you are not certain about yesterday, what about today? This brings us to the case of government Ministers, especially the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike. Like the Foreign Minister and the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, I am not left in any jot of doubt that Nyesom Wike is an objectivist and also a hard worker. However, he has a knack for terrorising people with threats of revocation of C of O. He often gives two weeks ultimatum for payment of ground rent. Whereas, for houses that were purchased from the Federal Government as far back as 2004 and fully paid for in 2004, the C of O are yet to be issued or signed for delivery as of today. I paid my ground rent up till December 31, 2024.  But because of N8,874= being payment for the year 2025, my name is listed as one of the ‘ground rent defaulters.’

This is most damaging to my person. I am not a defaulter even if the Minister is claiming that payments are to be made in advance in January for the current year. I am openly asking the Minister to explain why he has not been able to sign my C of O for which I fully paid in 2004. What is responsible for the non-issuance of my own C of O? Admittedly, he was not there in 2004, but he has been Minister for two years. And commendably enough, what had not been done by his predecessors since 2004, Minister Wike did that on 14 May, 2024 with his advertised Letter of Demand for Ground rent. This was the first letter I ever received for payment for the purchase of property from the Government. It served as legal evidence of ownership. 

I made payment for the previous 19 years in May 2004 but active Minister Wike has not been able to issue my C of O. Reportedly, he has not signed it. Why should it take more than one year to sign a C of O? Some friends told me that I am only wasting my time for waiting for Government to do the right thing. They believe Government will not write to inform me about the matter. They want me to go there and ‘settle’ the Nigerian way which I find difficult to do. I have never done it and I will not do it. Government cannot steal my money and I will still go back to give bribe to have my right. My responsibility is to make noise about it even if no one is listening to it, and to compel Government to address its remissness, ineffectiveness, and inefficiency in political governance. I will not be part of any process that promotes corruption and political chicanery in whatever form.

This reminds me of my election by consensus as Coordinator for the Lagos State Chapter of the NAVC (National Anti-Corruption Volunteer Corps) during the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari. The NAVC was under the ICPC (Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission). I accepted my election and inauguration by the ICPC with joy but in the wrong belief that Government was serious about fighting corruption. The NAVC Lagos State Chapter, under my leadership, acquired an office and began public enlightenment programmes aimed at fighting corruption from the grassroots.  Government was fighting corruption from the top selectively. At the time many men and women of good will offered to assist the NAVC, the ICPC came up with untenable excuses to stop the activities of the NAVC nationwide. All efforts and investments put in place amounted to nought. I withdrew from any fight against corruption since Government itself is a problem unto itself and that probably ended the existence of the NAVC since then. 

Can Nigeria have any bright future with the current style of political governance that promotes dishonesty of purpose? What type of future can any good stratum of society have when the system is that of lobbying for your right with money? What future has a country that cannot keep its record right? I was first given a plot number 2953 for which I was to make payment in May 2024. In June 2025, the plot number has been changed to 1570 and without prior notification for my records purposes. My flat and house have not changed. Why should  honesty of purpose become behaviourally an offence and dint of patriotism is hated by the Government in Nigeria?

Who is an enemy? Is he or she real, imaginary or imagined? It is often argued that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. In this regard, there can be three types of enemies based on reality, shared interest, and logic. Let us name the enemies as ‘A,’ ‘B’, and ‘C.’ If ‘A’ is the enemy of ‘B’ (reality) and ‘B’ is also the enemy of ‘C’ (shared interest), then ‘A,’ mathematically speaking, should be the enemy of ‘C’ (logic). In the context of Social Sciences, we do not talk about enmity. If ‘A’ is considered the friend of ‘C’ based on logic and shared enmity or political interests, then B is a common enemy to ‘A’ and ‘C.’ Consequently, it is logically argued that if there is a common enemy, why not team up and make friend with the common enemy in order to acquire greater strength in fighting the direct enemy? This is the rationale for looking at it from the perspective of friendship.

Further still, if we consider the dynamics of what makes ‘A’ an enemy of ‘B’, are the dynamics of the enmity between ‘A’ and ‘B’ the same as what informs the friendship or enmity between ‘B’ and ‘C’? This analogy is raised here because Nigeria’s ‘enemies without’ are necessarily an extension of the ‘enemies within.’ We observe here that the Government of Nigeria is a priori an arch enemy unto itself in two different but complementary ways. 

There have been many pointers to the fact that Government does not have the political will to deal with the sponsors of Boko Haramism even if their particulars have been made clearly known. 

Foreign Governments are on record to have provided a list of Nigerians sponsoring terrorism in Nigeria, but the Government of President Muhammadu Buhari, in particular, bothered much less about it. If the Government is not much interested in neutralising the terrorists, what then is the essence of political governance? What is the place of security? Why should ordinary citizens seek to be holier than the Pope? Why should anyone be more concerned than PMB about armed banditry and reckless killings of our fellow compatriots in the Northwest and in the Northeast? Killing Nigerian soldiers cannot but be most painful.

Besides, when cases of feud between herdsmen and farmers are brought to the attention of policemen in Nigeria, the complaints are reportedly treated with kid gloves. There is currently a controversial video according to which Government has not actually instructed the military to neutralise the terrorists. This controversial video is at variance with the many public statements by PMB according to which the military should engage in a kind of special hot pursuit of the terrorists. True, PMB frequently asked the military to neutralise the terrorists. However it was always after attacks by the hoodlums that such instructions to neutralise were often given. However, all the instructions have been to no avail. PMB has pardoned many Boko Haram people on the alleged reasons of de-radicalisation. Rather than accept de-radicalisation as a justification, the general public expected that appropriate sanctions should have been taken against the so-called repentant terrorists many of whom has escaped or are within Nigeria serving as informants for the Boko Haram.

Perhaps most disturbingly is the question of terrorism funding. It is, at best, controversial in the sense that everyone purports not to know the source of funding of the Boko Haram. Many notable and well-placed members of government have argued the case of international conspiracy in the funding of the Boko Haram. Another school of thought agreed that there might be international conspiratorial funding, but still posits that there is no concrete evidence to lend credence to the conspiracy. 

Nigeria’s current Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Gwabin Musa, OFR, who is the most senior commissioned officer in the Nigerian Armed Forces, is one of the proponents of the international conspiratorial theory. Former Federal Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation from 2015 through 2023, Abubakar Malami, once told Nigerians publicly that he had a list of Nigerians sponsoring boko haramism. The same Chief of Defence Staff also reportedly gave the narratives of movement of suspicious vehicles transporting weapons to the Boko Haram. Yet, some people still do not believe but argued that no name of any sponsor has actually been revealed, consequently the issue of foreign funding should not be taken as credible.

If truth be told, the problem here is that there are Boko Haram protectors in the Government. It was President Goodluck Jonathan that first told Nigerians about the presence of Boko Haram members in his own government. That was in 2013-2014. Are Boko Haram people not still in government as of today? Who has forgotten the fact that the UAE Federal Court of Appeals in Abu Dhabi not only convicted six Nigerians (Abdurrahman Ado Musa, Salihu Yusuf Adamu, Bashir Ali Yusuf, Muhammed Ibrahim Isa, Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, and Surajo Abubakar Muhamma) reportedly for transferring $782,000 from Dubai to Boko Haram in Nigeria, but also sentenced to life imprisonment Salihu Yusuf Adamu and Surajo Abubakar Muhammad for violating UAE anti-terrorism laws? UAE reportedly forwarded the names of sponsors of terror in Nigeria to the Abuja authorities. Was there any action taken on the list? If yes, who has been arrested for trial in court?

Who has forgotten that the Boko Haram was designated a Foreign Terrorist Organisation on 14 November, 2013 by the US Government with the ultimate objective of blocking the assets of Boko Haram and nipping in the bud its fundraising efforts. To what extent has the US blockage stopped the fund-raising activities for Boko Haram? When the enemies are ‘within’ and ‘without,’ why should anyone expect any end to terrorism? This is one major reason for the bleak future of Nigeria. There are sponsors of boko haramism in the government of Nigeria.

Additionally, who has also forgotten the 2024 revelation by one military officer to the Channels Television that the Nigerian military was aiding and abetting boko haramism and that all the security agencies cannot sincerely come out to the public to deny not knowing who the sponsors of terrorism are in Nigeria? More interestingly, Honourable Scott Perry of the United States Congress has informed that American tax payers’ money might have been diverted to fund terrorists, including the Boko Haram. Honourable Perry said about $397 million might have been given to the Boko Haram. This amount, which runs into trillions of naira, appears to have prompted the National Assembly to decide to investigate the allegations of Scott Perry in spite of the fact that the US Ambassador to Nigeria, Richard Mills, who gave assurances that there was no evidence that the USAID was funding the Boko Haram. 

And true enough again, what happens to Boko Haramists that reportedly surrendered and were forgiven and given re-orientation? What has the Government done to those that are forgiven but still went back into boko haramism to serve as informants to the Boko Haram? Can this development be considered as a manifestation of seriousness of purpose on the part of government to truly contain the use of terror? What is most disturbing is the often reported tales of terrorists having more firing power than the Nigerian military. 

With this kind of development, the future of a united and vibrant Nigeria cannot but be very bleak. International conspiratorial funding of the Boko Haram, whether it has evidential credentials or not, remains a truism. There is no disputing the fact that Boko Haram has remained strong for more than a decade, meaning that it has the means of self-sustenance. Keeping quiet over the Boko Haram in government, it is self-suicidal. The Fulanisation and Islamisation of Nigeria agenda is a pointer to self-destruction. It appears the agenda has been thrown into the dustbin of history but the manifestations of the agenda are yet to give any relief to the people. The conduct and management of national affairs give the impression that there is normalcy and there is nothing like struggle for separation. True enough, there are struggles for self-determination. The expulsion of Franco-American military bases in some Francophone West African countries has pushed the jihadists to seek refuge in the coastal states, and particularly in Nigeria. In fact, relationship between France and Francophone West Africa is increasingly becoming more difficult, implying that Nigeria’s role in the ECOWAS requires a re-strategy. And perhaps most disturbingly, Nigeria’s future can never be bright if Government is remiss, ineffective, inefficient, and cares less about public complaints. All these kill Nigeria softly and do not make the future of Nigeria bright.