24 February, 2026
by Mohammed Bello Doka
Oh, the irony drips thicker than blood from a battered nose! While former Kaduna Governor Nasir El-Rufai endures the indignities of detention—suffering an overnight nosebleed in EFCC custody, his wife humiliatingly barred from delivering his meal directly, forced to hand it over like some lowly errand to anti-graft goons—National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu struts around with his pristine image cracking like a cheap facade. Transferred stealthily to ICPC on February 18 without a whisper of notice, El-Rufai's legal team scrambles for judicial mercy amid "violations of his constitutional rights," while Atiku Abubakar thunders warnings that the Tinubu regime will be held accountable if anything sinister befalls him. Meanwhile, Reno Omokri sneers from the sidelines, dismissing the nosebleed as no big deal and accusing hypocrisy— but isn't it convenient how the mighty fall when their truths start stinging too close to home? As El-Rufai bleeds behind bars over a ₦432 billion looting probe, Ribadu's once-sterling reputation gushes red in the glaring spotlight of scandal, exposed by AFP's bombshell on his secret ransom romps with Boko Haram. How poetic: one man's physical torment mirrors another's moral mutilation!
Remember September 2025? El-Rufai didn't just whisper warnings—he blasted them on Channels TV's "Politics Today," accusing Ribadu's ONSA of playing sugar daddy to bandits and terrorists. Billions in naira funneled as ransoms, food handouts, and incentives to pacify criminals; parading abductees "rescued" by force when it was really families or shadowy deals footing the bill; coordinating these "non-kinetic" bribes that only embolden the beasts preying on Nigeria's north. Ribadu? He scoffed, labeling it all "baseless, unfair, and deeply insulting," vowing no federal dime touched terrorist hands. Fast-forward to February 23, 2026, and AFP's intelligence-fueled exposé shreds that denial to ribbons: Ribadu's fingerprints all over a multimillion-dollar ransom—up to $7 million, helicoptered to Boko Haram's Gwoza lair for commander Ali Ngulde, who popped into Cameroon to confirm the cash drop amid dodgy signals. Oh, and the cherry? Releasing two Boko Haram commanders, including ties to Sadiku's faction behind the 2022 Abuja-Kaduna train bombing that left blood and chaos on the tracks. All to free 230 Papiri schoolkids abducted November 21, 2025—nearly 315 snatched from St. Mary's, 50 escaping early, the rest "rescued" in stages by late December. Ribadu's "diplomacy"? More like direct violation of the 2022 Terrorism Act's 15-year slam for ransom facilitators. DSS chants "no ransoms," but the leaks scream otherwise!
If El-Rufai nailed this ransom racket spot-on, what else did his prophetic gaze pierce? Was he right about the government "sponsoring" insecurity through these payoffs, turning bandits into bloated beneficiaries while northern schools shutter and families flee? What about his jabs at Ribadu ordering his abduction or phone-tapping—mere paranoia, or prelude to this detention drama? And those whispers of ONSA misrepresenting paid releases as military triumphs—echoed in the Kuriga 2024 abduction of 287 kids, freed after 17 days amid N1 billion demands and official shrugs; or Birnin Yauri's 25 schoolgirls in November 2025, whisked away and "returned" suspiciously swift; or Sokoto's Gidan Bakuso raid, 15 children gone and back with zero transparency. El-Rufai's crystal ball saw a kidnapping epidemic—over 4,777 snatched in Tinubu's first year per SBM Intelligence, N2.2 trillion in ransoms bled from a nation already hemorrhaging economically. Late 2025 horrors: Kwara churchgoers demanding $68,000 each; Borno women and infants ransomed; over 500 abductions in a week prompting Tinubu's feeble "emergency" with 20,000 recruits. Early 2026: Edo bridesmaids vanished, Kaduna worshippers in droves—yet Ribadu's "strategies" yield only more graves.
Now, poke the gaping wounds in Ribadu's reputation: How does a man who swore off ransoms justify helicopter cash drops to the very terrorists he claims to crush? Is his "zero-tolerance" just hot air, or a smokescreen for state-sponsored terror funding while ministries choke on N10 trillion shortfalls, N58 trillion budgets teeter, and borrowings bury us deeper? Why splash billions on bandits and $7,000 payoffs to media influencers peddling pro-regime propaganda, burying scandals like this while health and education starve? Ribadu's integrity? It's not just bleeding—it's eviscerated, courtesy of AFP leaks and El-Rufai's unheeded cries. If he's so spotless, why the frantic denials amid U.S. drone strikes on Nigerian militants, highlighting our "persecution" woes? And those EFCC probes on folks like suspended Minister Betta Edu—why not turn the lens on Ribadu's ransom rodeo?
Vital questions scream for answers: Who greenlit Ribadu's terrorist tea parties? If El-Rufai's ransom revelations ring true, what horrors lurk in his other accusations of government complicity? Will Tinubu sack his bleeding adviser, or let this scandal fester like an open wound? As El-Rufai nurses his nose in chains, Ribadu's legacy oozes away—Nigeria demands a transfusion of truth before we all bleed out!
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via [email protected]
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Opinion