31 July, 2026
There is a widow in Maiduguri who has not tasted rice in three days. There is a graduate in Enugu with a first-class degree who has been unemployed for five years. There is a mother in Kaduna whose daughter was taken by bandits six months ago. And in the midst of this national agony, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu sits in Aso Rock and says he is in politics not for himself but for Nigeria. Across the country, millions look at their empty plates, their empty futures, and ask: is this man laughing at us? Is this deception? Amnesia? Or has the entire government been infected by Chronic Bwala Syndrome?
In 1996, Tinubu sat for an interview with The News magazine and declared that he does not believe in one Nigeria. He called the 1914 amalgamation a mistake. He argued for a confederal Nigeria. Today, the same Tinubu tells us he bleeds green and white. How can a man who rejected the very idea of Nigeria now claim to be its greatest patriot? That is not evolution. That is a man who says whatever the moment demands, hoping Nigerians are too hungry to fact-check his contradictions.
Now examine his appointments. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Bayo Onanuga. Temitope Ajayi. Femi Gbajabiamila. IGP Olatunji Disu. Adeola Ajayi. Ola Olukoyede. Lateef Fagbemi. Rotimi Oyedepo. CJN Kudirat Kekere-Ekun. Wale Edun. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo. Lt. Gen. Olufemi Oluyede. Thirteen names. Thirteen Yoruba. Every gatekeeper in this administration, from the police to the courts, from the treasury to the army, from the anti-corruption agency to the intelligence service, shares the same ethnic origin. The Yoruba make up roughly twenty percent of Nigeria's population but hold every position that matters. This is not a government. This is an ethnic fortress.
The projects tell the same story. The Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway has received over one trillion naira, yet only the Lagos to Lekki section is being built. The Lagos-Ibadan railway gets billions while the Eastern Corridor crumbles. The Lekki Deep Seaport receives unprecedented federal backing while Bonny and Ibom languish. The Lagos Metro Rail gets three hundred billion naira while Abuja and Kano get nothing. Sixty percent of the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund goes to the South-West. The North-East, facing insurgency and famine, receives a fraction. When a president funnels trillions to his home region while others starve, he is not governing Nigeria. He is building a kingdom in his backyard.
The numbers are devastating. One hundred and four million Nigerians live in poverty. Eighteen million children are out of school. Unemployment is thirty-nine percent, the highest in history. Youth unemployment exceeds fifty percent. The naira is one thousand six hundred and fifty to the dollar. Inflation is thirty-five percent. Under Jonathan, the naira was two hundred to the dollar. Under Buhari, four hundred and sixty. Under Tinubu, one thousand six hundred and fifty. That is not progress. That is criminal negligence.
Security has collapsed. Over two thousand kidnappings in 2025 alone. Mass school abductions have become routine. ISWAP has resurged. Bandits control twenty local government areas. Even Abuja has seen kidnappings rise by four hundred percent. This government has abandoned its people.
Yet the APC speaks as though Nigerians are blind. They say Tinubu is the best president. They say the economy is being fixed. They blame Governors for hunger, Northern elders for banditry, the Sultan for insecurity, Buhari for the economy. But Tinubu is the president. He controls the budget. He controls security. You cannot claim to be the pilot and blame the passengers for the turbulence.
Now we arrive at the diagnosis. Chronic Bwala Syndrome is named after Daniel Bwala, who spent months calling Tinubu unfit, corrupt, and medically questionable, only to become his special adviser after the election. Bwala once said the human brain works twenty-four hours a day until you join the APC, then it stops working. Then he joined the APC and proved his own point. The syndrome is not doublethink or cognitive dissonance. It holds contradictions simultaneously without shame, without rationalization, without apology. The patient says Nigerians are suffering and Tinubu is the best president in the same sentence. The patient says elections should be free and then says Tinubu must return in 2027 whether you like it or not. The patient blames Governors for hunger while controlling the federal budget. The patient blames Northern elders for banditry while controlling the military.
Bwala demonstrated this on Al Jazeera. Confronted with video of himself calling Tinubu a drug baron and unfit to lead, he said "I never said that." When more clips played, he admitted it was "all politics." When the interview became a global embarrassment, he blamed Al Jazeera, the editors, throat surgery, the opposition. He blamed everyone except himself. He did not apologize. He did not express remorse. He simply refused to surrender. This is the terminal stage: lying even when you know everyone knows you are lying. The lie is no longer about convincing anyone. It is about refusing to be defeated.
Now the entire APC government suffers from the same condition. Tinubu says he is for Nigeria, but every appointment reveals a Yoruba fortress. He says he believes in one Nigeria, but the 1996 quote reveals a man who rejected it. He says he is fixing the economy, but the naira is at N1,650, inflation at thirty-five percent, poverty at one hundred and four million. He says security is improving, but bandits control twenty local governments. He says elections should be free, but his supporters say he must return in 2027 whether you like it or not. Every statement is contradicted by reality. Every failure is blamed on someone else. Never does anyone say we are sorry. Never does anyone take responsibility.
This is gaslighting on a national scale. They think we are too hungry to remember. They think we are too poor to read. They think we are too tired to question. They think we will accept their lies because we have no other choice. But we do have a choice. We can remember. We can fact-check. We can refuse to be gaslit. We can look at Aso Rock and see the truth: this is not a president governing a nation. This is a regional warlord who won the national lottery and rewarded his kinsmen with everything that matters. This is a man who rejected Nigeria in 1996 and has spent every day proving he never changed his mind.
When a president claims he is for Nigeria but builds a kingdom for his tribe, what tribe are you? When every critical position is held by one ethnic group, what justice do you expect? When trillions flow to one region while others starve, whose country is this? The answer is no one. You are on your own. You have been abandoned by a government that never intended to serve you.
This is not deception. This is not amnesia. This is Chronic Bwala Syndrome at its terminal stage. The only cure is the truth. The only cure is accountability. The only cure is Nigerians refusing to accept the unacceptable, refusing to believe the unbelievable, refusing to endure the unendurable. The only cure is remembering that we are two hundred million people, and no man, no tribe, no government has the right to treat us like fools.
Is Tinubu in politics for Nigeria? Look at the appointments. Look at the projects. Look at the economy. Look at the security. Look at the man who rejected Nigeria in 1996 and now claims to love it. If you still believe him, you have already been infected. But if you see the truth, if you see the fortress, if you see the lies, then you know the answer. You are Nigerian. This is not your government. This is a kingdom wearing the mask of a nation. It is time to tear the mask off.
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via [email protected]
Abuja Network News
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Opinion