Tinubu’s Jaguda Government (Part 4)

By Adeola Aderounmu (Sweden)

Bola Ahmed Tinubu is holding on to the culture of criminality in Nigerian politics. He came to power in 2023 through elections that are (as usual) questionable. There is at the moment (July 2026) a very well-known scandal that should have led to one or two consequences. If Nigerian politics has any iota of credibility, Bola Ahmed Tinubu should have been eased out of power and democratic procedures would have ensured to find a suitable replacement. Shettima is not a suitable replacement even if he is the vice-president. He cannot deny his involvement in the rise of terrorism in Nigeria.

The other possible consequences would have been the outright sacking of Femi Gbajabiamila who is the chief of staff to Tinubu. To sacrifice Gbajabiamila would have taken a lot of pressure off Bola Ahmed Tinubu and even his worst enemies would see such a decision as a big positive point in the regime.

But as usual, as it is with Nigeria’s useless politics, Tinubu is pretending as if nothing happened that he or the useless APC government cannot contain. This has been the common practice in Nigerian politics and the reason for the first line of this essay; that Tinubu is keeping the culture of making sure that Nigerian politicians remain the criminals that they are and that there is no sign of change in sight.

There are allegations that Femi Gbajabiamila took bribes from at least one person who now heads a government establishment. The person, one Prince Adeyemi alleged that he paid N600 million to Gbajabiamila so he could be appointed into position of head of parastatal. He stated that he made an initial payment of N400 million and will balance Femi Gbajabiamila N200 million.

Mr. Adeyemi is the Director General of Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC). PFIPC is under the Presidential Economic Advisory Council, which means it was established directly under the Tinubu-led presidency. The PFIPC parastatal was allocated N1,6 billion in the Nigerian 2026 budget and president Tinubu signed the budget.

For some reasons, things fell apart between Adeyemi and Gbajabiamila and Adeyemi spilled the beans. Suddenly Tinubu and his niche of crooks declared that Adeyemi is a fraudster who has been parading himself as the DG of PFIPC, and that in principle, the PFIPC does not exist.

I do not want to over flog the issues here and it will not be my role to pre-empt what should actually become a legal tussle.

But how come Tinubu and the Nigerian lawmakers signed N1,6 billion to an agency that does not exist? The agency, PFIPC, has offices in the Federal Secretariat and runs a bank account with the Central Bank of Nigeria. The agency has many employees and they are paid by the Nigerian government. Is the Tinubu government full of criminals everywhere, even to the Central Bank?

Tinubu cannot wash his hands away from this scam or scandal. How many more agencies exist just to steal money? How many more Director Generals paid N600 million to influential people in Tinubu’s government? We know that this has been the procedure in Nigerian politics but this is one of the few moments a payee (in this case Mr. Adeyemi) is stating how much he paid and to whom. He allegedly paid Mr. Gbajabiamila, the chief of staff to Tinubu.

 Let me restate my take on this matter. Femi Gbajabiamila should be sacked or Mr. Tinubu should resign. One of the two would avail much even if Nigeria is not used to such adjustments based on criminal activities in government.  

It does not matter that the 2027 elections are in focus. The elections are useless already anyway and completely unnceccasry. If a president is openly seen to be a criminal or if his chief of staff is openly known to be a criminal, one or both of them must leave the government. This is the meaning of sanity.

What is playing out in Tinubu’s jaguda government, like all the previous governments before him, is unacceptable and heads need to roll.

In all of this, I must not fail to mention that I don’t believe in Nigeria. I cannot hide my joy for Cape Verde at the 2026 World cup. Cape Verde has a population of roughly 500 thousand people and made it to the World Cup, showing great courage, hope and unyielding loyalty to country. Nigeria has over 200 million people who are confused about their identities and the way forward for their lives. Nigeria is a blend of confused nationalities who will never reach their potentials in the dangerous mix concoted by the British gangsters over 100 years ago. This is a narrative I intend to go to the grave with even if Yoruba Country never emerges again in my life time.

Threfore, even if I still write about these ills in Nigeria, like this useless Jaguda government under Tinubu, the focus is not to drag the Yoruba country into such criminalities without consequences as we have seen with Nigerian gangster rulers over the decades.

Unless the countries entrapped in Nigeria are free and allowed to thrive, we will be back with these same narratives 100 years from now. That is the genetics of Nigeria.