We are failing the test of integrity and this Senator Buba situation has exposed exactly how deep the rot runs in Arewa.
The allegations are serious a former Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Security and Intelligence, Senator Shehu Buba, has been facing accusations of supporting banditry since 2024. A viral video purportedly shows "high profile bandit kingpins" at his residence, while another clip allegedly shows cash and motorcycles being moved from his premises to bandits in Zamfara. A group has even called for him to step aside from his legislative duties pending investigation.
Now here's the part that makes me uncomfortable and it's where I have to point fingers at myself too. Because when the news first broke, my first instinct wasn't to ask "what really happened?" or "where's the evidence?" My first instinct was to check the tribe of the accusers and look for reasons to dismiss it.
And I'm not alone in this.
Senator Buba has denied the allegations, petitioned the Inspector General of Police, and four suspects have already been arrested. He claims political opponents are sponsoring a campaign to damage his reputation. His supporters have echoed this, framing it as a targeted political witch hunt.
Maybe he's innocent. Maybe this is all a political smear campaign. But here's the question I keep coming back to:
If someone from the South a Yoruba or Igbo politician was accused of the same thing, would we have extended the same benefit of the doubt? Would our first instinct have been to defend, or to demand answers?
The uncomfortable answer for many of us is no.
We've built a culture where our first loyalty isn't to truth it's to our own. Tribe over evidence. Religion over reason. Region over justice. And we've convinced ourselves that this is just "standing up for our own" while conveniently ignoring that what we're really doing is building a wall around accountability.
The irony is brutal,the very people we defend so passionately are the ones who have been failing us for decades. The same Northern leaders who have held power, mismanaged resources, and left our communities in poverty and insecurity we shield them from scrutiny while demanding transparency from everyone else.
We are not helping our people by protecting them from accountability. We are enabling the cycle that keeps us down.
Nigeria's problem isn't just corruption. It's tribalism dressed as loyalty. It's religion masking as morality. It's regionalism pretending to be justice.
If Arewa truly wants to lead, we must lead with integrity, not with defensiveness. We must demand evidence before we demand innocence. We must hold our own to the same standard we hold others and then, and only then, can we demand the same from the rest of the country.
Because if our first instinct when someone from our tribe is accused is to defend before we investigate, we are not protecting our people. We are protecting the system that is destroying them.
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