By ABANIKANDA OLUMORO (UK)
In the today’s life of Nigeria, what has become the bane of public confidence in rising up to demand and fight for justice is the fear of powers that be or orders from the above. These and others of these are usually synonymous to what was generally described as corruption as it affects “politics, governance, probity, religion and corrupt behaviour in Nigeria”.
Moving forward from that description, which is the major takeaway from an international conference on anti-corruption organised by University of Lagos’ Faculty of Social Sciences in collaboration with Pan-Africana Strategic Group (PANAFSTRAG) and Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), held on Thursday September 18, 2025 in UNILAG, LAGOS, one can conveniently tag the problem of Nigeria or any of the 36 federating units and federal capital territory that form the amalgamated entity to failure and conspiracy of silence on the part of those who know what, why, where, when, who and how (the Five Ws and H) about why the country is drifting further and eagerly down to the pit of disaster.
Because some of the citizens have continued and will continue to insist on what is right, they have been coming up and around sensitizing both the nation and the international community tv on how 2027 of Nigeria’s democratic politics, if well articulated and sincerely managed, has embedded in it the turnaround mechanism that is wired to change things for good. Otherwise, like the academic and civil society speakers at that UNILAG’s conference posited, the nation will pass that general elections moving around the same circle and will still be unable to achieve anything.
Moving forward, the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is currently the political party for the ruling class in the country, should not go into that period of 2027 general elections or 2029 solo (governorship) election in any state particularly Ondo State with backlog of unaddressed corruption allegations hanging against the neck of any politician. Failure to heed this true-but-bitter point of order will not only cost the party its electoral success but also push it into extinction unable to recover.
Ondo State is particularly on mind in this article because it is one of two states that some of us the concerned diasporans are traditionally attached and emotionally committed to, with Ekiti being the other. If we the Nigerians in the Diaspora really mean anything to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as seen in his passionate call for us to return home and join him to build Nigeria, he should as a matter of commitment with all its required urgency look into these issues being raised in this write-up.
This is for him to ensure that his Minister of the Interior, Mr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, much as it is within his right to aspire to elective offices as a citizen, should not be allowed anywhere near contesting for either of the two important political offices he seeks in 2027 (Senate) and 2029 (governorship) let alone the political strategism he is alleged to be using the institutions of state to map currently without answering – in an open investigation by independent people of tested and impeccable character – all the known questions bothering on allegations of corruption and abuse of powers and privileges against him.
Nigerians home and here in the Diaspora, especially we from Ondo/Ekiti axis living abroad, have been inundated with some of these unaddressed allegations from his role as Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) through the Beta Edu saga and now what remains circulating as remours about how comptroller or controller and commandant generals of Nigeria Immigration (NIS), Nigeria Correctional Service (NoS) and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) under the purview of him as Minister of the Interior have been irrelevant in the process for the screening, assessment and recruitment of freshers into the services.
The questions about “Honourable Minister Please Off Your Mic” remain with Bunmi Tunji-Ojo, fondly called BTO, as to why should Honourable Minister of Niger Delta, who had come to expose how some Nigerians in political offices and the National Assembly crippled the NDDC with unholy contracts and undue privileges they enjoyed and the NDDC committee he headed had nothing to say than to shut down the Minister by switching off his microphone.
Although the same minister in Buhari Administration, highly respectable then, has himself become entangled – the way it seems – in the captivating “demons of power corridor” (to borrow from the words of Dr. Reuben Abati) now as senate president under the Tinubu’s Federal Government, why he was asked to “off” his microphone at that time should make aspiration for higher political offices impossible right for BTO to enjoy untill the undoubtful answer is duly provided to those questions, through public investigative process.
Again, much as it is nauseating how some prolific writers among columnists and journalists in the Nigerian media as well as some civil society organisations (known or unknown) have written and issues press releases to shield BTO from being investigated on allegations against him in the Beta Edu saga implicating him for awarding contract to himself in matter of humanitarian funds, Bunmi Tunji-Ojo should be made to forget his ambition of becoming Ondo North senatorial candidate in 2027 talk less that he will be going further from that to becoming the APC governorship candidate in 2029. All the political influences that determine who emerge as candidates (and this is also shameful as emergence of candidates should be through open-ended free, fair and credible primary election) should beware of antics of this Tinubu’s minister mingles his way through them to emerge.
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He can seek such opportunity to contest only when he submits himself to transparent investigation answering questions on why his company he formerly owned – but now his wife is part of – should accept money running into hundreds of million naira in contract from the same government he serves. This done, leaving out all the media noise blocking his investigation and even some calling for arrest of anyone so alleging.
He should also answer to why Nigerians would only be seen to apply to be recruited into Immigration, Prisons Service and Civil Defence but running into over one year, nothing is heard, yet rumour keeps flying around that the minister is the one handling recruitments, promotions and even postings in these services with their heads now having their hearts and livers tied to the political whims and caprices of the politician.
Let it be clear: this article is not an outright conviction of Mr. Tunji-Ojo. Rather, it is a serious demand — that until he submits himself to transparent, credible investigation and clears his name, he should have no place in the race for Senate or governorship in Ondo State come 2027 and 2029, respectively.
If the APC fails to enforce this standard of integrity, the consequences will be grave, unpredictable, and damaging — not only for the party but for Nigeria’s fragile democracy.
