Bayo Onanuga’s latest State House press release is not a defence of democracy, accountability, or the rule of law. It is a political pamphlet dressed up as governance communication, heavy on insults, light on facts, and fatally contradicted by Nigeria’s lived realities and verifiable records. Point by point, his claims collapse under scrutiny.
1. The Opening Insult: When Abuse Replaces Argument
Onanuga begins not with facts, but with character assassination—“so-called opposition,” “amusing lots,” “failed aspirants,” “dying party.” This is not accidental; it is strategic. Abuse is deployed to avoid engagement with substance.
This tactic is a classic ad hominem fallacy: attack the messenger so you don’t have to answer the message. But ridicule does not refute evidence, and insults do not erase data. When a government spokesman starts with mockery, it usually signals the absence of a serious defence.
2. The Straw Man on Multi-Party Democracy
Onanuga claims the opposition is crying wolf over defections to APC and responds by citing freedom of association under the Constitution.
This is a deliberate misrepresentation of the argument.
No one disputes the right to defect. The real issue—conveniently avoided—is whether:
- defections are coerced through selective prosecution,
- investigations suddenly intensify for opposition figures, and
- pressure eases once they cross over to the ruling party.
By reframing a structural democratic concern as a personal freedom issue, Onanuga erects a straw man, knocks it down, and declares victory. The real question remains unanswered.
3. Whataboutism Disguised as History
He asks: “When politicians moved to PDP between 2000 and 2015, was democracy imperilled?”
This is whataboutism, not reasoning.
Past abuses do not legitimise present ones. If PDP dominance was wrong, repeating it under APC does not make it right. Democracy is not defended by recycling its past failures. This argument concedes nothing except moral exhaustion.
4. EFCC Independence: Claimed With One Hand, Undermined With the Other
Onanuga says:
“The Presidency does not speak for the EFCC.”
Then proceeds to:
- defend EFCC actions,
- explain EFCC motives,
- rebuke EFCC critics,
- frame EFCC investigations as proof of Tinubu’s success.
This is an internal contradiction.
If EFCC is independent, it does not need presidential spokesmen to fight its political battles. Acting as EFCC’s defence counsel while insisting on non-interference exposes the fiction of distance.
5. Presumption of Guilt While Preaching Rule of Law
Onanuga claims:
“Those who have cases to answer should be bold enough to defend themselves.”
Yet in the same release, he alleges:
- international money laundering,
- jailed accomplices abroad,
- “chickens coming home to roost.”
No names. No court judgments. No evidence.
This is trial by insinuation—convicting political opponents rhetorically while pretending to respect judicial process. You cannot preach presumption of innocence while publicly implying guilt. That contradiction destroys any claim to moral authority.
6. Selective Prosecution: The Facts Onanuga Avoids
Onanuga insists “no one is above the law.” The record tells a different story.
Betta Edu
Suspended amid serious financial allegations.
No public EFCC arrest. No prosecution. No court process.
Sadiya Umar-Farouq
Presided over multi-billion-naira humanitarian programmes with unresolved audit questions.
No public prosecution. No judicial resolution.
Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo
Publicly admitted on national television that a company linked to him was involved in the Betta Edu scandal, explaining that his wife handled operations at the time.
Again: no prosecution.
Suspension without prosecution is not accountability. Silence after admission is not justice.
Contrast this with:
- opposition figures arrested, detained, paraded, and tried in the media before courts ever rule.
This is not equality before the law. It is selective enforcement, and Nigerians can see it.
7. Okowa and the Question Onanuga Refuses to Answer
Onanuga did not mention Ifeanyi Okowa. I am raising Okowa deliberately because his case goes to the heart of the claim that “no one is above the law.”
Okowa was publicly accused by the EFCC of alleged embezzlement running into over ₦1 trillion, including allegations tied to excess crude derivation funds during his tenure as governor. These were not rumours whispered on social media; they were officially acknowledged investigations.
Then came a political turning point: Okowa joined the APC.
What followed was not judicial closure, not a transparent prosecution, not a public exoneration—but silence. The once-loud allegations faded from the headlines. The promised day in court did not materialise. Nigerians were left with unanswered questions.
This is the problem Onanuga refuses to confront. Justice must not depend on where a politician sits. When allegations of this magnitude appear to lose urgency the moment party colours change, the issue is no longer individual guilt or innocence—it is credibility of the system itself.
If Okowa is innocent, the courts should say so. If he is guilty, the courts should decide. What undermines public trust is not due process, but the perception that political alignment determines prosecutorial appetite.
8. FATF Delisting: Credit Claimed, Context Erased
Onanuga presents Nigeria’s removal from the FATF grey list as proof of Tinubu-era success.
This is exaggeration bordering on misrepresentation.
The reforms that led to delisting:
- Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022
- Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022
- Strengthening of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit
were conceived, passed, and implemented before May 29, 2023, largely under Abubakar Malami as Attorney-General.
FATF itself credited multi-year, multi-agency compliance, not any sudden post-2023 political crusade. Appropriating inherited reforms while attacking those who midwifed them is political dishonesty.
9. “Progress” Without People: The Data Onanuga Ignored
Onanuga boasts of APC success while ignoring every human-centred metric.
Poverty
- Poverty rate rose from 40–46% (2022–early 2023) to 54–60% (2024–2025).
- Number of poor Nigerians increased from about 90–100 million to approximately 130–139 million.
- 30–40 million Nigerians were pushed into poverty.
Sources: World Bank; National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Multidimensional Poverty
- 133 million Nigerians (63%) were multidimensionally poor in 2022.
- Still above 60% in 2024–2025, with population growth worsening absolute deprivation.
Sources: NBS Multidimensional Poverty Index; World Bank.
Security – Killings
- Pre-May 2023 annual average: 2,500–3,000 deaths.
- 6,549 people killed between May 2024 and mid-2025.
- 570 killed in April 2025 alone.
Sources: Nigeria Security Tracker (Council on Foreign Relations); National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
Kidnappings
- Pre-2023: 1,000–1,500 cases per year.
- 3,804 persons kidnapped between May 2024 and mid-2025.
- 3,012 kidnappings recorded in just 15 months (Jan 2024–Apr 2025).
Sources: NHRC; Nigeria Security Tracker.
Education
- Adult illiteracy rose from about 38% (2022–2023) to 40–41% (2024–2025), increasing illiterate adults from roughly 60–63 million to 68–70 million.
- Out-of-school children increased from 18.3 million to around 20 million, adding 1.7 million more excluded children.
Sources: UNESCO Institute for Statistics; UNICEF; NBS.
Inflation
- Inflation peaked at 34.19% in June 2024.
- Eased to around 16% in 2025, but at permanently higher price levels.
Source: NBS.
Progress that exists only in elite talking points, not in citizens’ lives, is not progress. It is narrative management.
10. The Real Failure of Onanuga’s Attempt
This press release fails because it relies on:
- insults instead of evidence,
- whataboutism instead of answers,
- contradictions instead of clarity,
- selective facts instead of full context.
Worst of all, it underestimates Nigerians’ intelligence.
People can distinguish between suspension and prosecution, between compliance checklists and lived reality, between rule of law and rule by convenience.
Conclusion
Onanuga set out to defend the EFCC and the Tinubu administration. Instead, he exposed the central weakness of their narrative: selective justice wrapped in loud rhetoric.
You cannot claim “no one is above the law” while some are merely suspended, others explain themselves on television, and allegations worth over a trillion naira dissolve into silence after political realignment.
You cannot claim progress while poverty deepens, insecurity spreads, education deteriorates, and institutions are weaponised by perception if not by decree.
This is why the rebuttal stands—and why Onanuga’s attempt, once again, fails.