REJOINDER TO PRESIDENCY’S ALLEGATION OF OVERTHROW PLOT: NIGERIANS ARE NOT CONSPIRATORS — THEY ARE VICTIMS OF FAILED PROMISES

By Comrade Sanusi A. S. Maikudi

I must confess: I had my best laughter of 2025 when I saw that Basket Mouth Bayo Onanuga is now shedding crocodile tears, claiming that his principal, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is about to be “overthrown.” Coming from a man who spent the last two years gaslighting a suffering nation with loud propaganda and louder insults, the irony is so thick it could choke a tyrant.

But let’s set the record straight.

After two years of aggressive arrogance, punitive policies, and petty politicking, the Tinubu administration now seeks to wear the garb of a victim. But Nigeria knows better. The same man who once styled himself as the architect of democracy now quivers at the sound of democratic mobilization. The same man who built a legacy as an opposition figure now trembles when a credible opposition begins to form.

Let’s be clear: Tinubu fundamentally misunderstood governance. He reduced leadership to a transactional game of patronage, seeing appointments as tools for political consolidation rather than calls to national service. He surrounded himself with cronies, quacks, and loyalists not with merit, not with talent, not with a national spirit. And now that the ship of state is sinking under the weight of that incompetence, he wants to scream sabotage?

Now that the administration he cobbled together with media optics and false promises is collapsing under economic hardship, hunger, division, and policy failure, Bayo cries foul?

Let us ask some painful but necessary questions:

Was it not Tinubu who shamelessly inserted himself into Rivers State politics, using federal might to defend a personal loyalist, Nyesom Wike, and going as far as musing about declaring a State of Emergency—not to protect citizens, but to shield his political ally?

Was it not Bola Ahmed Tinubu who abandoned the foot soldiers and loyal Nigerians who campaigned tirelessly for his election, only to embrace “come-and-chop” politicians like Yakubu Dogara and Daniel Bwala, who fought against his ambition with all their might?

Was it not Dr. Ganduje, the expired APC National Chairman, who dared to write the National Assembly to discipline a Senator for simply speaking on behalf of the people who elected him? Does that sound like a democratic party or a political cult?

Was the APC and the Federal Government unaware that parliamentarians enjoy immunity on the floor of the legislature? Or has the Tinubu administration suddenly lost all regard for the principles of democracy that brought it to power?

Was it not Tinubu and his FGN who have spent every waking moment trying to turn Nigeria into a One-Party State, stifling dissent, harassing critics, co-opting opponents, and undermining the very opposition space he once thrived in?

Was it not this same Tinubu who violated procurement laws in the murky award of the Lagos-Calabar Highway?

Was it not his administration that suspended Senators like Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, Abdul Ningi, and Ali Ndume for doing what a responsible opposition should do expose inconsistencies, challenge injustice, and defend the people’s mandate?

Was it not this same President who threatened the North, claiming they failed him in the 2023 election for not delivering Buhari’s 12 million votes, thereby reducing national unity to electoral arithmetic and revenge politics?

Was it not Onanuga, the new town crier of victimhood, who heaped daily insults on elder statesmen like Obasanjo, Atiku, El-Rufai, Peter Obi, and others simply for exercising their right to speak and assemble?

Was it not Tinubu who looked the other way when corruption reared its head among his loyalists, turning silence and inaction into state policy?

Was it not this same government that ignored federal character in appointments, turning Abuja into an extension of his hometown, while alienating entire regions and deepening ethnic suspicions?

The truth is bitter but inescapable: if President Tinubu is to be overthrown at all, it will not be by conspirators in dark corners but by his own legacy of exclusion, inflation, insensitivity, and incompetence.

Let him not confuse the rage of the people with rebellion. What is happening now is not a coup it is a correction. It is not sedition—it is a civic response. It is not treason—it is seasoned political maturity, determined to rescue a nation from further decline.

And if anyone is to weep, it should be the Nigerian people who were betrayed after Arewa House promises. The same Nigerians who have watched prices skyrocket, businesses collapse, salaries remain stagnant, and governance reduced to a power show of old boys’ reunion.

So no, Mr. Onanuga, this is not an attempt to overthrow your principal. It is an organized effort to democratically replace him. And it will be done not with tanks, but with truth. Not with sabotage, but with strategy. Not with bullets, but with ballots.

Goodbye, one-term president.
And may democracy triumph over delusion.

Sanusi A.S. Maikudi
Network for Justice
Kaduna.