Today, we had a productive day speaking with Members of Congress, and we thanked Congressman Chris Smith, a wonderful person who cares about life, for calling out the evil of Tinubu's (@officialABAT) government during today's congressional hearing titled “@UN Accountability and Reform: Advancing an America First Foreign Policy.”
But we want to focus squarely on Nigerian President #Tinubu for a moment. President #Tinubu just attacked former Vice President @atiku for hiring us to look out for the interests of all Nigerians in the halls of the White House and Congress. President Tinubu equates briefing the White House and Congress on his alleged links to heroin trafficking from Nigeria to #Chicago with an attack on Nigeria and as an unpatriotic act.
It is unfortunate that a sitting Nigerian President, #Tinubu, equates drug trafficking with Nigeria and with everyday, hardworking Nigerians who have been struggling to feed their families since he became President. The Giant of Africa, Nigeria, and the amazing people of Nigeria are not drug traffickers, and your attempt to link your alleged illegal activities to Nigeria speaks more about you than it does about Nigeria. Calling out drug dealers is not unpatriotic. It is justice.
President Tinubu, you are not on the same level as His Excellency @atiku Abubakar. He is a statesman. We are all sinners in the eyes of God, but only you and your friends have allegedly sold heroin (poison) to Americans. We will never know how many American children have died because of your alleged actions, but we are Americans. Furthermore, we are @Republicans and members of the @GOP, and we love our country. We will not stop until your name is one day added to the list of heads of state indicted by the United States for drug trafficking, alongside Juan Orlando Hernández, Manuel Noriega, and Nicolás Maduro.
@JDVance@SusieWiles47@WhiteHouse@HouseForeignGOP@HouseForeign@SFRCdems@SecRubio@StateDep@AsstSecStateAF@SenateForeign@NGRPresident@HouseNGR@NGRSenate@CNNAfrica@BBCAfrica@Reuters@AFP@ForeignPolicy@inecnigeria@RepBrianMast@SusieWiles@ReutersAfrica@chicagotribune
This week, we were asked by members of Congress to forward all publicly available documents related to the @TheJusticeDept civil forfeiture case involving Nigerian President Bola #Tinubu and allegations that proceeds of heroin trafficking were deposited into bank accounts in Chicago that the government alleged were owned or controlled by Mr. Tinubu.
We are assembling a team dedicated to working with anti-drug organizations and other stakeholders to encourage appropriate local, state, and federal authorities to review the historical record and determine whether additional inquiries are warranted regarding Mr. Tinubu's alleged involvement, if any, and the circumstances under which the funds were allegedly received and used.
The United States has previously investigated, indicted, and prosecuted foreign leaders and senior officials for narcotics-related offenses when supported by sufficient evidence. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is one recent example. If any lawful inquiry uncovers sufficient admissible evidence that President Bola Tinubu knowingly participated in heroin trafficking or related criminal conduct in the United States, we believe he should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
@realDonaldTrump@HouseForeignGOP@HouseForeign@SenateForeign@SFRCdems@SusieWiles47@StateDept@SecRubio@AsstSecStateAF@JudiciaryGOP@HouseJudiciary@SenJudiciaryGOP@NGRPresident@HouseNGR@NGRSenate@CNNAfrica@BBCAfrica@Reuters@Atiku@officialABAT@AFP@ForeignPolicy@inecnigeria@SenTedCruz@RepBrianMast@SusieWiles
H.E. Bola Ahmed Tinubu (@officialABAT), the current President of Nigeria, is a statesman with a long and respected legacy. Nevertheless, his tenure as President is not viewed favorably by a majority of Nigerians. As American registered foreign agents, we have no authority to remove a sitting leader from office; that power rests exclusively with the Nigerian people.
We are briefing key members of President Donald Trump (@realDonaldTrump)’s Administration on the insecurity and ongoing attempts to undermine the integrity of Nigeria’s elections because these concerns are grounded in fact. Former Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar (@atiku) is not your adversary, but a fellow statesman who has directed us to advocate for U.S. engagement aimed at ending the killing of innocent Nigerians and ensuring that the right to free and fair elections is fully respected.
The Nigerian presidency is not your birthright, but a privilege bestowed by the Nigerian people, and if the Nigerian people decide you have to go, then you have to go. We will continue to advocate for appropriate US accountability measures, including consideration of Global Magnitsky sanctions, to freeze assets wherever located, should credible evidence establish that you or members of your government are complicit in the killing of Christians in Northern Nigeria or in efforts to rig the upcoming presidential election
@WhiteHouse@HouseForeignGOP@HouseForeign@SFRCdems@SecRubio@StateDept@AsstSecStateAF@SenateForeign@NGRPresident@HouseNGR@NGRSenate@CNNAfrica@BBCAfrica@Reuters@Atiku@officialABAT@AFP@ForeignPolicy@inecnigeria@SenTedCruz@RepBrianMast
Yesterday, the Fiscal Year 2027 National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act was approved by the House Appropriations Committee by a 35–27 vote. This bill will hold the current Nigerian government, its associates, and other connected bad actors accountable for the murder of Christians in Northern Nigeria.
The bill will also restrict foreign assistance to Nigeria until measurable and sustainable actions are taken to protect innocent Nigerians suffering from religious violence, a requirement the current Nigerian government under H.E. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (@officialABAT) has been accused of being complicit in and has failed to meet.
We thank Riley Moore (@RepRileyMoore) and Republican members of the committee for pushing this through. As President @realDonaldTrump has made very clear, the United States will not stand by and is prepared to act. We are actively engaging the Trump Administration and Congress to ensure that any action is targeted at individuals, their families, and enablers and will not be broad or adversely affect the Nigerian people.
@WhiteHouse@HouseForeignGOP@HouseForeign@SFRCdems@SecRubio@StateDept@AsstSecStateAF@SenateForeign@NGRPresident@HouseNGR@NGRSenate@CNNAfrica@BBCAfrica@Reuters@Atiku@AFP@ForeignPolicy@inecnigeria@SenTedCruz@RepBrianMast
Dear Nigerians,
The ADC held a Presser today. Senator Dino Melaye’s speech deserves an award. Nnenna Ukeje’s powerful speech was direct. She advised Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila, & INEC. Third-Term Agenda came up. I will be posting the videos all day. Retweet Aggressively. ✊
U.S. State Department (@StateDept) reporting, including the 2023 and 2024 Human Rights Reports on #Nigeria, makes clear that while judicial independence exists on paper in Nigeria, it is routinely undermined in practice by corruption and political influence.
Tomorrow, April 22, 2026, Nigeria’s Supreme Court will rule in what is widely viewed as a politically motivated case aimed at dismantling the opposition and destabilizing the African Democratic Congress party (@ADCNig).
There is growing concern that certain Justices may elevate procedural technicalities over the rule of law, effectively aiding President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (@OfficialABAT) in consolidating power and pushing Nigeria toward a one party state.
The U.S. State Department is legally required by Congress to monitor and report on the status of judiciaries and human rights in foreign countries pursuant to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices requirement. As mandated by law, we are actively monitoring this case and briefing the Department of State on our assessment of the validity of the forthcoming ruling. Any ruling influenced by pressure from the current Nigerian government will be evident to all.
@realDonaldTrump@WhiteHouse@HouseForeignGOP@HouseForeign@SFRCdems@SecRubio@StateDept@AsstSecStateAF@SenateForeign@atiku@NGRPresident@HouseNGR@NGRSenate@CNNAfrica@BBCAfrica@Reuters @njcnigeria @AFP@ForeignPolicy@inecnigeria@SupremeCourtNg@fmojustice
Nigeria Says the U.S. Praised Them. It Didn't.
On April 12th, Nigerian government media began circulating a claim: the United States had officially praised Nigeria for convicting 386 terrorism suspects, calling it "an important step toward accountability and justice."
That's not what happened.
What happened is that Massad Boulos posted something on X. Boulos is Trump's Senior Advisor for Africa. He is also CEO of a heavy machinery and construction equipment company in Nigeria whose clients, by his own company's account, include Hitech Construction — the Chagoury Group subsidiary currently building a $13 billion no-bid highway for President Tinubu. He operates under conflict-of-interest rules so loose they don't require Senate confirmation. His financial interests are tangled directly with the government he was praising.
That is not the United States speaking. That is a businessman praising the government he does business with — and Abuja running it through every state media outlet as official American endorsement.
The statement deserves scrutiny on its own terms. Ten judges processed 508 cases in four days — with Attorney General Fagbemi praising them for "sacrificing their Easter holiday" to do it. Among those convicted: men jailed for giving cigarettes to terrorists. Amnesty International called earlier rounds of this same process "sham trials" built on coerced confessions. This was Phase Nine. Meanwhile the nine Fulani commanders who organized last June's Benue massacre — more than 270 Christians dead — are still in preliminary proceedings ten months later. That's not accountability. That's a press release.
That same weekend, the Nigerian Air Force bombed a crowded market on the Borno-Yobe border. More than 100 civilians — shoppers, traders, children — confirmed dead by Amnesty International. The government called them legitimate targets. They were buying grain. Boulos said nothing about Jilli.
Here is what the actual record shows since Trump designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern last October: In March, Boko Haram overran an army base in Ngoshe, killed an estimated 200 people per survivor accounts, beheaded Christians in the streets, burned every church, and abducted more than 300 women and children. These were people who had just returned from twelve years as refugees. On Palm Sunday, gunmen killed more than 40 Christians in Jos. Nigeria's terrorism death toll rose 46 percent in 2025 — the largest increase of any nation on earth. Trump acted. The killing didn't stop. It got worse.
The talking points in Boulos's statement aren't American policy. They're Abuja's script — the same lines repeated verbatim by Nigerian government spokesmen for years, backed by nine million dollars a year in Washington lobbying. Now they have an American official's name on them, and Nigerian state media is calling it US endorsement.
It isn't. The Smith/Moore bill — HR 7457, backed by the chairmen of both the House Foreign Affairs and Appropriations Committees — represents far more legitimate congressional consensus on Nigeria than one conflicted advisor's X post. That bill documents what Boulos's statement obscures: Nigeria accounts for 72 percent of all Christians martyred worldwide. The atrocities haven't slowed. They've accelerated.
Policymakers should know the difference between the United States speaking and one conflicted man posting.
Conflicted messenger. Abuja's script. Not American policy.
#EarthShaker
The reports from the spokesperson of our great party, which exposes the plans of the government and its agents to revoke the licence of Rainbow Event Centre for the singular offence of hosting the African Democratic Congress convention slated for today, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, is a shameful and cowardly abuse of public office.
Let it be said without equivocation: coercing a private business owner to deny a lawfully registered opposition party the use of a venue is not governance. It is not politics. It is the naked conduct of a regime that has lost the argument, lost the people, and now reaches for the boot because it has nothing else left.
The ADC has paid every fee. The ADC has signed every contract. The ADC has broken no law. Our only offence is that we are organising, we are growing, and we are preparing to retire this failed government at the ballot box in 2027.
This is how democracies are strangled, not in a single dramatic blow, but in a thousand petty, vindictive acts against opposition parties, against free assembly, and against the sacred right of citizens to choose their own leaders. To the international community, and every democratic partner of Nigeria: take note of what is being done here tonight, and in whose name.
We will not be intimidated. We will not be silenced. We will not bow to this creeping tyranny, and we will never bow to the petty tyrants behind it.
The convention will hold. The ADC will rise. And Nigeria will rise with it. -AA
@batten_von the whole world knows that the owner of the Sahara Reporter is pained by the success of the opposition as he is one of people that secretly supports the Nigerian government
According to the Nigerian outlet @SaharaReporters, the firm has “only one client” and “zero revenue in 2025.” This assertion comes as a surprise not only to us, but also to the @TheJusticeDept and to our clients.
Here are the facts: Our firm represents foreign governments and international entities, which are monitored under @TheJusticeDept’s FARA. @SaharaReporters cites @OpenSecretsDC as its source for this inaccurate claim. The problem with that is simple: OpenSecrets tracks Senate lobbying disclosures, which are designed for domestic lobbying clients, not foreign principals. Our clients in 2025 are all foreign entities, not local U.S. entities.
So when @SaharaReporters cites
@OpenSecretsDC to support its inaccurate claims, it either reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of U.S. law or a deliberate attempt to mislead the Nigerian public. At best, this is careless reporting. At worst, it is a coordinated narrative designed to distort facts in furtherance of the current #Nigerian government’s political interests. We urge people to read the @SaharaReporters article (link below). It is entertainin and a complete work of fiction.
https://t.co/sTU30BIqyB
@MobilePunch@GuardianNigeria@PremiumTimesng@vanguardngrnews@TheNationNews@atiku@NGRPresident@HouseNGR@NGRSenate@CNNAfrica@BBCAfrica@Reuters@AFP
The Nigerian Independent National Electoral Commission (@inecnigeria) has withdrawn recognition of the leadership of the African Democratic Congress (@ADCNig) and suspended all official engagement with the party pending ongoing litigation. This action has effectively frozen Nigeria's main opposition political party at a critical moment as it prepares to compete in the upcoming Nigerian presidential election, raising serious concerns about the opposition's ability to organize and participate fully in the democratic process.
At a time when Nigerians expect free, fair, and credible elections, any development that disrupts political participation, creates institutional uncertainty, or undermines the perceived independence of electoral bodies must be addressed with urgency and transparency. #Nigeria is not only Africa’s largest democracy, but also a critical strategic partner of the United States in regional security, economic stability, and counterterrorism. The integrity of Nigeria’s electoral process is therefore of direct importance to U.S. interests and global stability.
Accordingly, the firm will be presenting its concerns to members of the United States Congress and the @realDonaldTrump Administration to ensure that the importance of free, fair, and transparent democratic processes in Nigeria remains firmly on the international agenda. We call on H.E. Bola Ahmed Tinubu (@officialABAT) to ensure that the conduct and outcome of the upcoming elections are beyond reproach, free from doubt, and fully reflective of the will of the Nigerian people.
@HouseForeignGOP@HouseForeign@SFRCdems@SecRubio@StateDept@AsstSecStateAF@DeptofWar@HASCRepublicans@HASCDemocrats@atiku@NGRPresident@HouseNGR@NGRSenate@CNNAfrica@BBCAfrica@Reuters@AFP@ForeignPolicy
Hostility Is Not Journalism. Mehdi Hassan Take Note.
There is a clear difference between tough journalism and outright hostility. One serves the public interest. The other serves the ego of the interviewer. Unfortunately, the recent exchange between @mehdirhasan and presidential spokesperson @BwalaDaniel fell squarely into the latter category.
What viewers witnessed was not a serious interview. It was an attempted public ambush.
From the outset, the tone was aggressively confrontational. Questions were framed less as inquiries into governance and more as prosecutorial traps. Responses were repeatedly interrupted before they could develop. Clarifications were brushed aside. The atmosphere was unmistakable: this was not a conversation designed to inform viewers but a spectacle designed to embarrass the guest.
Serious journalism does not operate this way.
The craft of interviewing demands discipline. It requires the ability to ask difficult questions while still allowing the guest to articulate answers. It requires intellectual confidence strong enough to permit disagreement without descending into open hostility. Above all, it requires a commitment to substance over theatrics.
That commitment was glaringly absent.
Nigeria is currently grappling with a range of serious national challenges economic restructuring, security threats, governance reforms, and the complex work of stabilizing a large and dynamic democracy. A responsible interviewer would have used the opportunity to interrogate the administration’s policies on these matters: What strategies are being deployed? What reforms are underway? What outcomes should citizens expect?
Instead, viewers were treated to an exercise in selective outrage and repetitive interruption.
Even more troubling was the insinuation that political realignment is somehow illegitimate. Democratic politics is built on shifting alliances. Individuals and movements evolve. Former opponents become partners when national circumstances demand cooperation. This is neither shocking nor dishonorable; it is one of the defining characteristics of democratic political life.
History provides countless examples. Leaders across the world have entered alliances with former adversaries when the demands of governance required it. To pretend otherwise is either intellectual dishonesty or a deliberate attempt to create sensationalism where none exists.
But the deeper problem in the interview was tone.
A journalist who openly ridicules or repeatedly attempts to humiliate a guest crosses an important professional boundary. The role of the interviewer is to hold power accountable not to behave like a courtroom prosecutor seeking a viral “gotcha” moment. When the pursuit of humiliation replaces the pursuit of insight, journalism loses its credibility.
Audiences deserve better than that.
They deserve interviews that illuminate policy, probe governance, and help citizens understand how leaders intend to confront the pressing challenges of the day. What they do not need is a theatrical performance in which hostility is mistaken for intellectual rigor.
Respectful engagement does not weaken journalism; it strengthens it. Firm questioning does not require contempt. Professionalism does not require aggression.
If global media wishes to retain its claim to moral authority as a watchdog of democracy, it must remember a basic principle: the goal of journalism is to inform the public, not to stage spectacles at the expense of civility and substance.
The interview in question did neither. It was not a demonstration of fearless journalism. It was a demonstration of how easily the craft can slide into something far less admirable when provocation becomes the objective and professionalism is abandoned.
Otunba Segun Showunmi
The Alternative
They Kidnapped a Man for Talking
EXCERPT:>> “Nigerian agents grabbed Mazi Nnamdi Kanu at Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi in June 2021. No extradition treaty. No warrant. No legal process of any kind. Just grabbed him, threw him on a plane, and brought him to Abuja. Interpol says they had nothing to do with it. The UN called it extraordinary rendition. A Kenyan court ruled in 2025 that he was tortured, held without communication, and that the Kenyan government was complicit. Nigeria’s response to all of that? Nothing. They don’t care what you think.
That should bother you. And I don’t mean you, Nigerian. I mean everybody.”
CONTINUE READING>>Link in comments
I have read several lengthy articles written by Daniel Bwala and other APC loyalists after his widely discussed interview with Mehdi Hasan.
To be honest, there was nothing extraordinary about that interview. As a presidential spokesperson, you accepted the invitation knowing fully well that you were representing the president. That role comes with the responsibility of confidently defending the administration and responding to questions about its actions and policies.
There were no trick questions. What was asked were simple, factual observations; the kind of questions ordinary Nigerians have always wanted the opportunity to ask their leaders.
What stood out the most was the attempt to deny statements that came directly from your own mouth: statements you publicly made about Tinubu before you began working for him. How does someone so quickly forget what they said on record? And why are some APC supporters trying to frame those questions as “personal attacks”?
If those past statements were not embarrassing, then there should be no reason to feel uncomfortable when they are brought up. You can never defend corruption backed with data. You made a complete fool of yourself and now you want to shift the blame.
Anyone praising that performance is not celebrating you, they are simply sympathizing with you.
This is true but the most shameful part of it is that the same calamity is attempting to smuggle itself during the next presidential election through massive rigging
The shameless dogs such as @BwalaDaniel and @renoomokri will live to regret their association with this people
The Daniel Bwala interview with Mehdi Hassan on @AlJazeera ‘s Head to Head program was a disaster of gargantuan proportions for Nigeria as a country, for President Tinubu’s administration, and for Bwala himself. Of these three, the last is the least important, because Bwala’s track record speaks for itself.
The interview made a spectacle of Nigeria, not just because of the reach of the program globally, but also the format in which there was a global audience in the room itself. What will EACH of those people think about Nigeria after such a fact-based shredding of the country’s leadership and its performance? It was a sad commentary on Nigeria’s political culture in which there are no beliefs, no policies, no ideology, just crass opportunism and the battle for political power. Turn-coatism is “it”.
Second, the fact that Bwala, given his record, is sent out to speak for the President of Nigeria on the international stage says much about the standards by which government in Nigeria recruits people for specific roles. In that universe “loyalty”, fleeting though it may be, is all that counts. Competence doesn’t. Mediocrity reigns.
Thirdly, why appoint former attack dogs of the political opposition as spokespersons and Ambassadors for the administration simply because they have “defected”? The baggage such individuals carry (especially when they did not espouse principled opposition that may later change, as sometimes happens in politics, but rather used incendiary and personalized attacks on President Tinubu)renders such persons lacking in credibility in representational roles. Bwala was left trying to eat his words with bare-faced lies!
I think there are people who could be far more credible spokesmen and women for Nigeria’s government, even with all its underperformance in governance. At least, the discussion will focus on the actual track record of the government, not on the government spokesman’s prior condemnations of that track record.
It was a sad day for our country. I’ve received several calls from friends from various countries around the world. All were in shock and felt sorry for our country to be put in such a spot. So many people are waiting and hoping for when Nigeria will “wake up” and take its rightful place under the sun. The citizens of Nigeria are brilliant, hardworking and respected all over the world, breaking barriers and achieving feats in various spheres. The government and incompetent governance of Nigeria by its politicians remains a sorry tale.
The Daniel Bwala interview with Mehdi Hassan on @AlJazeera ‘s Head to Head program was a disaster of gargantuan proportions for Nigeria as a country, for President Tinubu’s administration, and for Bwala himself. Of these three, the last is the least important, because Bwala’s track record speaks for itself.
The interview made a spectacle of Nigeria, not just because of the reach of the program globally, but also the format in which there was a global audience in the room itself. What will EACH of those people think about Nigeria after such a fact-based shredding of the country’s leadership and its performance? It was a sad commentary on Nigeria’s political culture in which there are no beliefs, no policies, no ideology, just crass opportunism and the battle for political power. Turn-coatism is “it”.
Second, the fact that Bwala, given his record, is sent out to speak for the President of Nigeria on the international stage says much about the standards by which government in Nigeria recruits people for specific roles. In that universe “loyalty”, fleeting though it may be, is all that counts. Competence doesn’t. Mediocrity reigns.
Thirdly, why appoint former attack dogs of the political opposition as spokespersons and Ambassadors for the administration simply because they have “defected”? The baggage such individuals carry (especially when they did not espouse principled opposition that may later change, as sometimes happens in politics, but rather used incendiary and personalized attacks on President Tinubu)renders such persons lacking in credibility in representational roles. Bwala was left trying to eat his words with bare-faced lies!
I think there are people who could be far more credible spokesmen and women for Nigeria’s government, even with all its underperformance in governance. At least, the discussion will focus on the actual track record of the government, not on the government spokesman’s prior condemnations of that track record.
It was a sad day for our country. I’ve received several calls from friends from various countries around the world. All were in shock and felt sorry for our country to be put in such a spot. So many people are waiting and hoping for when Nigeria will “wake up” and take its rightful place under the sun. The citizens of Nigeria are brilliant, hardworking and respected all over the world, breaking barriers and achieving feats in various spheres. The government and incompetent governance of Nigeria by its politicians remains a sorry tale.
The mass slaughter of Christians in Nigeria has picked up pace. Villages wiped out by adherents of Islam yelling Allahu Akbar.
Their digital spokesmen come here on my feed and, dripping with charm and sanctimony, declare their demonic ideology to be a religion of peace. You must realize this tactic is in the Quran, modeled by Mohammed himself. It's called taqiyya -- lying and acting innocent till they get the upper hand, and kill you.
Strip away the empty religious words, and any civilized country would immediately lock these up for being criminally insane. Because they are.
To anyone who may be lured by their sugary victim-playing, holier-than-thou deception: By their fruits you shall know them.
Their fruits are beheaded believers, burned churches, raped women and children, and millions of innocent displaced.
Wake up.
#EarthShaker