Nigeria

David Umahi: The Murderer who keeps getting away?

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David Umahi: The Murderer who keeps getting away?

By Adeola Aderounmu

2021

Five engineers who were consultants appointed by NELAN Consulting Limited to supervise the African Development Bank (AfDB)-funded Ring Road Project in Ebonyi State, travelled to Abakaliki in 2021 for a meeting convened by the Ebonyi State Government but allegedly disappeared after arriving in the state. David Umahi was the governor of Ebonyi during the time. The 5 engineers disappeared after the meeting and they were never seen again.

The cover up under David Umahi as the governor of Ebonyi State ought to be revisited ASAP. Invariably the cover up would also include the Nigerian Police, the DSS and the Ebonyi State high court.  The former governor and the institutions saddled with the security of the citizens can thus be regarded as perpetrators and accomplices in the disappearance of the 5 noble engineers. No country in the world should survive this kind of atrocity. Never should the citizens allow heinous crimes to be swept under the carpet. Never!

The families of the missing engineers have not been given the answers to the question: where are our breadwinners since 2021? One can presumed that they have been murdered and David Umahi should be held accountable.

We must say the names of the engineers and we must never forget about them:

Engineer Ikechukwu Ejiofor

Engineer Samuel Aneke

Engineer Nelson Onyemeh

Engineer Ernest Edeani

Engineer Stanley Nwazulum

2026

Fast forward to 2026, David Umahi (the alleged murderer of 5 engineers in Abakaliki) is now a Minister for Works under Tinubu’s jaguda government.  A female worker at the Ministry, Mary Habila, ended up dead at Umahi’s residence on June 27 2026 but her death was made public on July 10 2026. David Umahi was at home when the lady named Habila died at his residence.

We should not be arguing about this case so much. What we expect is the immediate sacking of David Umahi and his presentation at a court of law while being remanded in prison.  Mr. Umahi has been talking from both sides of his mouth and we don’t really want to hear more from him. We want to try the Nigerian Police’s investigative ability and the Nigerian court process in this murder charge against David Umahi.

His stories which are all lies kept changing since the murder charge against him became public. He is not to defend himself through press conferences and press statements. Mr. Tinubu, the head of government in Nigeria, should do the needful. Sack David without delay and let the court proceedings begin.

Mind you, I am not unaware of the several criminal cases against Nigerian politicians that have been swept under the carpets over the last 50 to 60 years. I am not unaware of how useless the Nigerian government is. I am not expecting Nigeria to succeed under the present useless unitary system. Yet, a call for justice cannot escape my conscience on any matter at all. The Gbajabiamila criminal case is still fresh and pending. There are also new cases everyday of massive looting and corruption under Tinubu from using the budget to steal and outright negligence of services to citizens. These are familiar situations as far as Nigeria, a damn failed state is concerned.

To say I am unaware of the several misdemeanors under Tinubu, under Babangida, under Obasanjo, under Buhari, under Jonathan, under Yar Adua and the rest of the criminals that have ruled Nigeria, would be a fallacy. Yet, and again, we keep asking for justice. We owe ourselves such duties to humanity and to an expected sanity in public offices.

If David Umahi stays as a Minister, we can assume that Bola Tinubu is supporting the murder of Mary Habila. As far as I am concerned, only the sacking of David Umahi and his days in court can exonerate the Tinubu Jaguda government from the murder of Mary Habila

This matter won’t die. No!

A governor or minister who commits murder (or allegedly does), should never be covered by any form of f****** political immunity. David Umahi should be arrested ASAP. In general, immunity clause for criminals called politicians should be removed. You can’t kill and walk free. You should not loot and walk free. That is plain senselessness, barbaric and uncivilized!

Tinubu’s Jaguda Government (Part 4)

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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.

Why Always Agbado? What About Educational And Infrastructural Empowerment?

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Mrs. Tinubu’s suggestions that she’s empowering citizens to sell agbado, kuli kuli, akara and groundnuts showed complete lack of intelligence. She was also excited to have used funds as high as 2 billion naira to support TB without telling us where the money was taken from. We don’t know who collected the money and how it was spent.

I am shocked at the level of what the people who are hopeful about Nigeria are dealing with.

There are people around the world making decent living through the use/application of technology. Super users and non-Super users alike now provide services and tap loads of resources through Artificial intelligent resources. Some resources are free and limited, yet very useful. Graphics, texts and animations have been taken to a whole new level. Both old and young people make major or passive earnings depending on their coverage, scope or involvement in the use of AI. There are endless possibilities with the use of AI.

The public educational system in Nigeria would be a way to re-empower young people in various ways of life. Today, there is no free education in Nigeria. I don’t have the records but I can make a guess that the level of literacy would have declined. Personally, my heart was broken into pieces when I learnt that the least amount a child can pay for registration in a public school in Nigeria is N70k. There are many things in this failed country called Nigeria that break me daily. I don’t want to recount all of Nigeria’s problems in this essay. It is impossible to list here the problems that I have lifted for more than 25 years.

A sensible person would not mention empowering street hawkers as a measure of renewed hope for election campaigns. You can rather boast of world class supermarkets where shops are rented and goods and services are provided over covered roofs and with constant electricity. Mrs. Tinubu should be boasting about the empowerment that can cover all Nigerians through the availability of constant electricity.

Mrs. Tinubu could have suggested her fight for the education of the young people. She could mention as renewed hope the plans of the government to make public schools functional again. She can tell us of her lobby to ensure that school fees or registration fees are completely removed from basic primary education all over Nigeria.

Before I forget, she is the first lady. She is not saddled with the function of making Nigeria work. So, she could have remained silent. There is a president in Nigeria. There are ministers, there are governors, legislators and so many duplicated offices and positions that do nothing good in Nigeria. They can steal, loot and walk free with crimes and atrocities.

Mrs. Tinubu probably got her inspiration from politicians empowering this constituencies with torchlights, wheelbarrows, tyres, cooking pots and stoves. She can boast of spending 2 billion naira just like that with the same impunity as the regular criminal politicians. She has no sense or fear that investigations could be carried out to ascertain her claims and where the 2 billion came from/went to. She was not more intelligent than how she spoke and her poor reasoning. She represented her family in the most shameful way. She reflected a failed country gathering round useless elections every 4 years rather than gathering round a table to navigate the way forward on how to exit a doldrum. There are no plans yet in 2026 not to hand over Nigeria to terrorists.

In 2027 Nigerians will gather to choose between all the evil forces and political prostitutes who have raped this country as former governors in state houses and former custodians of power in Aso rock. Who will tell them that for as long as the system of government is wrong, the choice of the evil that preside would not matter?

For you cannot continue with something that does not work and expect a positive outcome unless you are totally insane.  As long as Nigeria runs on a unitary system of government, a Mrs. Jonathan would be replaced by a Mrs. Tinubu and a Mr. Buhari would be replaced by a Mr. Tinubu. If you like, bring a Mr. Obi or a Mr. Atiku, you will have my essay as a reference (as it has been since 2011 or 2006) that elections are not the solutions to Nigeria’s problems.

The system must change, and the change must be done at a round table. For example, Abuja politics need to end and the regions must be returned to the economic power they had before the 2 useless coups of 1966. Only a pre-civil war status can offer hope for what is left of Nigeria.

 It would take a few decades to reap the dividends of a change system. For that reason, the useless elites and politicians in Nigeria have resorted to promising quick gains through elections. As a keen observer of Nigerian elections since 1979 (yes 1979) I can tell you for free that the template had never worked. It will never work.

Mrs. Tinubu was appalling. But she reflects a bigger problem that must be fixed, not by another stupid and useless election, but by the resolutions of men and women who can boldly sit around a table and navigate the future for their children, children’s children and the unborn generation.

I write from Sweden.

aderounmu@gmail.com

Tinubu’s Jaguda Government (Part 3)

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By Adeola Aderounmu

I have not been writing regularly for some reasons. One is the fact that my blog which is about 2 decades old contain most of the issues that plague Nigeria. I could also blame the nature of my work and working hard to make ends meet.

Tinubu released some names this week regarding possible ambassadorial posts. One of the criminals on the list is one Omokri who participated in the looting of Nigeria under Jonathan. I consider him a criminal and therefore take almost no interest in what he post or spew. I do come across reactions to his posts so invariably I know a lot about the nonsense he propagate.

My take is still that Nigeria is a business empire more than it is a country. That is why criminals parade themselves as politicians. That is why, like I always state, rather than living in prisons, the politicians are in Aso rock and all over the government houses in Nigeria acting as leaders.

That is why a former criminal under Jonathan’s regime who is a known liar and haters of certain ethnic groups in Nigeria would get a nomination to be an ambassador. The same criminal who boasted that he will never under any circumstances accept a position under Jaguda Tinubu.

It can only take a jaguda government to employ criminals all over the place.

Until my last breathe, I will be for the dissolution of Nigeria and the emancipation of all the powerful nations entrapped within it.

Therefore, though I detest the situation in Nigeria, I should care less of a certain nonentity called Omokri.

My focus is still about the Yoruba country which I would like to see in the fore front of world affairs (even if I have to see that from the grave).

Those hoping that another government other than Tinubu’s jaguda government can fix Nigeria are myopic. I always say, after observing Nigerian politics since 1979, and seeing no changes in all those years, I’d be a fool to believe in a regime change. Nigeria will never work!

It is only the nations entrapped in it that can rebuild and bring their people closer to the meaning of life, allowing them to pursue happiness, peace, love and prosperity with what nature has endowned on them and with the human resources at their disposal.

Do I need to say again that the unitary system of government is the most useless, most senseless and most stupid system of government any country can practise. Until that system is abolished, until Abuja politics is erased and the criminals in the useless senate/house are sent back to the constituencies, we are all just complaining in vain.

We are used to addressing symptoms, and always afraid to kill the disease. Since 1966, that is what “Nigerians” have done. The day we are ready, the demands are clear: take us back to pre-1966 coup or give us our countries: Yoruba Country, The Igbo Country and so on.

Nigerian Embassy In Sweden Should Support Socio-Cultural Groups

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Nigerian Embassy In Sweden Should Support Socio-Cultural Groups

I was left completely disappointed that the Nigerian Embassy in Sweden have now adopted a policy where financial support is not given to the various socio-cultural groups under her watch.

In a more specific case, the Yoruba Union in Uppsala, which I represent as a member, did not get a financial support for the 2025 Yoruba Day. The event held on the 28th of August 2025. The embassy had no form of representation at the event.  

There are obvious reasons for my disappointment. As a writer and a social critic running one of the longest standing individual blogs on planet earth, I cannot let it pass. These are my personal views and they may not represent the views of the Yoruba community.

I must take a short trip back in time in order to come back to this argument.

Between 2010 and 2016 I was the president of the Yoruba Union in Stockholm. Among the best moments of those 6 years were the collaboration that we got from the Nigerian Embassy in Sweden under the leadership of former Ambassador Amobi.

The high points of the collaboration between the Nigerian embassy in Sweden and the Yoruba Union in Stockholm was the 2014 Yoruba Day celebration. It was the same year that the Swedish Museum brought the World Acclaimed Yoruba Art to Sweden and the Yoruba Union in Stockholm was on hand to present the cultural shows for the events.

To my knowledge, the Nigerian Embassy in Sweden through the efforts of Ambassador Amobi always supported all the ethnic nationalities that approach the embassy and his presence or that of a representative was priority number one. I remembered a meeting at his office where he introduced us (former executives of Yoruba Union Stockholm) to the then head of Mission knowing fully well, we need to be in good hands for the future after his tenure.

Personally, I will remember Amb. Amobi as a very professional career diplomat. Before him, I don’t remember any career diplomat in that office and after him, I don’t know what anyone has done to improve on the progress he made in building bridges and creating new relationships for Nigerians in Sweden.

When I went to the Nigerian embassy this summer (2025) without an appointment, I was hoping to be lucky, like it was in the days of Amobi who would assist anyone (even if he found them at the reception) without an appointment. Indeed, I thought I was lucky until the present head of mission walked past me in the reception. His personal assistant met me and gave me a letter that stated that the embassy cannot support the Yoruba Union in Uppsala.

I pointed to him that that was not the practise and he went to check the records. He told me that what I said was correct. He found evidence that the embassy in the past did support socio-cultural groups in Sweden (and probably in the Scandinavian if I can make a guess). With that piece of knowledge given to someone who worked close to the Ambassador, I felt some “victory” in educating him so that he could (if he dares) educate the rest of the staff that supporting socio-cultural groups should be a standard practise and not a policy that can be adopted or not.

I would like to be clear on the purpose of this article.

Ambassadors will come and go. Head of mission will come and go. The embassy must maintain a standard practice. For as long as Nigerian still exists, the embassy ought to support all activities emanating from the various socio-cultural groups still tied to the British-invented Nigeria.

Members of various socio-cultural groups have shown great courage. They give their time, money and energy to ensure that events and activities happen throughout the year. In addition, our families and friends from Sweden and around the world do what they can to support us in these various groups. The embassy cannot be seen as a failure in financial assistance. Even a token avails much. It’s a symbol of good gesture, approval and encouragement.

For the 2025 Yoruba Day in Sweden, I will like to thank the following:

Charles Adagbon, former president of the Nigerian Union in Sweden.

Lara Lekuti-Taiwo

Bamidele Akeredolu of Houston Texas. To my friends

Samuel Ayoola and Femi Ilesanmi.

Frida Säfvestad and Feyisara Aderounmu.

May Olodumare bless all givers. May they prosper beyond their dreams.

May the glory of Yoruba continue to shine around the world.

aderounmu@gmail.com