Opinion
Knockout: Did El-Rufai’s Revenge Destroy Ribadu – or Was the French Dagger Just the Alibi?
By Mohammed Bello Doka
Somewhere in a detention cell, Nasir El-Rufai must be smiling because the man who put him there—the once all-powerful National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu—has just been dumped, neutered, and reduced to an international errand boy. It is the sweetest revenge, served slowly and silently, by the very system Ribadu helped to build.
Robert Greene, in The 48 Laws of Power, warned that “the danger is long, the blow is sudden.” In Ribadu’s case, the blow came from a man he once called a friend, and it landed with the precision of a master strategist.
The story of El-Rufai and Ribadu is not merely a political feud; it is a Shakespearean tragedy of ambition, betrayal, and the brutal arithmetic of power in Nigeria. The two men were once bosom friends, climbing the greasy pole together, sharing confidences and strategies. But power, as Lord Acton famously observed, corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. When Ribadu began to harbour ambitions for the 2031 presidency, he reportedly saw El-Rufai as a threat to be eliminated. He not only abandoned the man who stood by him but, according to the former governor, set out to destroy him using the entire machinery of the state.
El-Rufai has repeatedly accused Ribadu of directing security operatives to arrest political opponents without proper investigation, interfering in judicial processes, and weaponising the Department of State Services (DSS), the Police, and the EFCC to “tame” him. In a devastating interview on Arise Television in February 2026, he declared that he was “ashamed” of their past friendship, leveling a public indictment that echoed far beyond the television screen.
The most dangerous accusation came when El-Rufai, in a now-infamous interview on Arise Television’s Prime Time programme, claimed that “someone wiretapped” Ribadu’s phone, allowing him to listen to a conversation in which the NSA purportedly gave the order for his arrest. For a man charged with the nation’s most sensitive security apparatus to be caught in such a compromising position was not only unprofessional; it was catastrophic. The state responded with force. The Department of State Services (DSS) filed criminal charges against El-Rufai, accusing him of unlawfully intercepting the NSA’s phone communications. But the damage was done. The perception of a compromised NSA, one who cannot even secure his own communications, stuck like a poisonous dart.
Yet El-Rufai did not stop there. In a letter dated January 30, 2026, he formally wrote to Ribadu demanding an explanation for why the Office of the NSA (ONSA) allegedly imported approximately 10 kilograms of thallium sulphate—an odourless, colourless, and extremely hazardous toxic chemical—from a supplier in Poland. Ribadu, in an attempt to deflect the blow, referred the allegation to the DSS for investigation and challenged El-Rufai to submit evidence. But the accusation of importing “dangerous toxic chemicals” into the country is not the kind of stain that easily washes off. The very suggestion that the NSA has access to such substances has irrevocably tarnished his reputation.
The charade reached its most absurd and tragic moment on March 29, 2026. Ribadu, who had allegedly orchestrated El-Rufai’s persecution, attended the funeral prayer of El-Rufai’s mother, Hajiya Umma El-Rufai, at the National Mosque in Abuja. Thousands of mourners, including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other top government officials, watched as the nation’s security chief, dripping with crocodile tears, paid tribute to a woman he claimed to have fond memories of. For the shrewd observer, it was not a moment of peace; it was the chilling silence before the storm. As Niccolò Machiavelli wrote, “Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions.” Ribadu may have seen this as reconciliation; El-Rufai likely saw it as a confirmation of his enemy’s hubris.
By the time the French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) published its explosive report on February 23, 2026, claiming that Ribadu orchestrated a multimillion-dollar helicopter ransom payment to Boko Haram, the NSA’s reputation was already in ruins. The so-called “French Dagger” was not the killing blow; it was merely the alibi, the final piece of paper that gave Tinubu the excuse he needed to act. The newly created position of the Special Adviser on Homeland Security, awarded to a Yoruba kinsman of the President, was the executioner’s blade. It stripped Ribadu of his domestic security portfolio, leaving him with only the hollow title of NSA and the demeaning task of handling international liaison. As Baltasar Gracián wrote in The Art of Worldly Wisdom, “Never depend on the arms of others.” Ribadu had no political base, no governors, no party. He was a man of power only because Tinubu lent it to him, and when the wind changed, the power was taken back.
Ribadu, who was once the most powerful Northerner in the Villa, has been reduced to the same ghostly status as Vice President Kashim Shettima—visible in photographs but absent in influence. The man who used the security apparatus to fight his northern rivals has now been fought by the very same machine. El-Rufai sits in a detention cell, not because of Ribadu’s power, but because he dared to speak the truth. And yet, in a bitter twist of irony, Ribadu is the one who has been politically executed. The man who tried to destroy his friend has been destroyed by the very system he helped entrench. As Napoleon Bonaparte once noted, “He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat.” Ribadu feared El-Rufais ambition and tried to crush it, but in doing so, he exposed his own fatal weakness. The wiretap, the poison gas, the ransom payments—whether true or false, these allegations have defined his legacy.
The new Homeland Security Adviser, Retired Major General Famadewa, now controls internal security coordination, intelligence fusion on domestic threats, and hostage negotiation protocols. Ribadu has been handed the impossible task of defending his legacy from a position of complete irrelevance. He will travel, attend meetings, and smile for the cameras. But the real power has departed. The chickens have finally come home to roost.
El-Rufai, for all his troubles, has achieved a monumental feat. He has not only destroyed the reputation of his once-friend but has also forced Tinubu to act, exposing the hollow core of the administration’s much-vaunted security architecture. The French dagger was just the delivery boy. The real knockout punch was thrown by a man who knew Ribadu better than anyone else—and who used that knowledge to bring him down.
Congratulations, Nuhu Ribadu. You are now officially dumped. And in that cell, believe it or not, Nasir El-Rufai is laughing.
As the ancient warrior-philosopher Sun Tzu wrote, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” El-Rufai did not need to fire a single shot. He simply told the truth, and the truth—no matter how inconvenient—had the power to destroy an empire. May this serve as a lesson to those who entrench dictatorships: you will always be its first victim.
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via bellodoka82@gmail.com
By Iorliam Shija
The political dynamics ahead of the 2027 governorship election in Benue State are increasingly revealing the importance of internal cohesion within the various Tiv geopolitical blocs.
The incumbent governor, Rev Fr Dr Hyacinth Iormem Alia, comes from the Jechira bloc. Jechira is a major political bloc comprising two local governments of Vandeikya and Konshisha.
Within Vandeikya, the major components are Kunav, itself divided into Kyan and Tiev. Konshisha, on the other hand, is largely divided into Shangev-Tiev and Gaav. Traditionally, the cohesion of these components has been critical in delivering bloc votes during governorship contests.
However, the current political reality suggests a fragmentation of Jechira’s voting strength. While Governor Alia, from Mbadede Council Ward in Vandeikya of Kyan , seeks re-election on the platform of All Progressives Congress, APC, other prominent sons of the bloc are emerging on different political platforms.
Prof. Terhemba Shija from Mbaduku, Tiev in Vandeikya, is poised to emerge as the governorship candidate of the National Democratic Congress, NDC. In Konshisha, Dr. Mathias Ibyuan from Shangev-Tiev is expected to secure the ticket of the Labour Party, while Rt. Hon. Iorwase Hembe from Gaav is projected to fly the flag of the African Democratic Congress, ADC.
This multiplicity of candidates from the same geopolitical bloc has inevitably weakened Governor Alia’s quest for consolidated Jechira bloc votes. Instead of a united front, the bloc appears headed for political dispersion across party lines.
In contrast, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP appears to have managed the politics of balancing and inclusion more strategically within the Kwande bloc, made up of Kwande and Ushongo local government areas.
Within Kwande, which consists broadly of Ichongo, Turan and Ikyurav-Ya, the PDP allocated the senatorial slot to Hon. Thomas Tyolumun Unongo of Turan . In Ipusu comprising Nanev, Usar, and Shangev-Ya , the party ceded the House of Representatives position to Hon. Moses Mkeenem of Nanev.
To consolidate this balancing arrangement, the PDP gubernatorial ticket went to Chief Mike Kaase Aondoakaa from Ushongo.
The implication is politically significant which is while Jechira enters the contest divided among multiple parties and ambitions, the PDP is attempting to build a coalition anchored on cohesion, inclusiveness and strategic distribution of political opportunities within the Kwande bloc.
As the governorship race intensifies, the battle for bloc votes may ultimately depend not only on popularity, but on how effectively each political camp manages internal unity, elite consensus and regional balancing.
Shija, a former Senior Special Assistant to Gov. Ortom on Archives writes from Abuja
By Celphas Iyorhen
Dear Senator Shehu Sani, you have the audacity to sit behind your keyboard and lecture Nigerians about patriotism when your own hands are stained with the political filth that made this country unlovable in the first place. Your post is the kind of performative nonsense that has earned you relevance you do not deserve.
Let us address your comparison properly.
South Africans love their country because their country loves them back. Nigeria cannot say the same, and the reason Nigeria cannot say the same is not Lord Lugard alone. It is people like you, Senator Shehu Sani, who have spent decades identifying red lines, drawing tribal boundaries, and whipping up religious sentiment while collecting constituency allowances from a government built on the blood of the people you pretend to defend.
South Africa does not have a tribe that wakes up every morning to slaughter farmers, kidnap schoolchildren, and then produce senators who carefully avoid naming them. South Africa does not have a Shehu Sani who speaks in riddles when the killers have faces, names, and ethnic addresses that every Nigerian already knows. South Africa does not have a Sheikh Ahmed Gumi riding into forests to negotiate with armed murderers and returning to tell cameras that the bandits have genuine grievances. South Africa does not have a National Security Adviser like Nuhu Ribadu who calls terrorists brothers and means it without shame. South Africa does not have security chiefs who recommend that killers be forgiven, rehabilitated, empowered, and reintegrated while the graves of their victims are still fresh.
South Africa does not have Islamic preachers placing bounties on the heads of pastors and evangelists for preaching the gospel. Churches are not problems in South Africa. Christian worship does not attract mob violence in South Africa. South Africa does not have a political class that is constitutionally allergic to confronting one religion when it crosses into mass murder.
South Africa has a president. Nigeria has proxies dressed in presidential robes, managed remotely by interests that have never hidden their contempt for Nigerian nationhood.
You say Nigerians curse Lord Lugard. We do not curse Lugard. We curse the arrangement that his amalgamation preserved, an arrangement that placed one group permanently above accountability, permanently first in appointments, permanently excused from the consequences of its own violence. That arrangement is what you, Senator Shehu Sani, have never had the courage to name directly even once in your entire political career.
You call Nigeria a nation born out of wedlock as an insult directed at critics. We accept that description, but we redirect it accurately. Nigeria is a bastard not because its critics said so, but because the people who claim to own it the most have treated it the worst. The Fulani herdsman who drives cattle through crops and shoots the farmer is not a patriot. The senator who refuses to call him a criminal is not a patriot either.
You want Nigerians to love their country the way South Africans love theirs? Then demand accountability the way South Africans demand accountability. Demand that killers be prosecuted regardless of religion or ethnicity. Demand that no group claims divine or historical ownership over a country that belongs to everyone. Demand that bounties on the heads of Christian preachers be treated as terrorism. Demand that Nuhu Ribadu explain in plain language why terrorists are his brothers. Do these things and watch patriotism return.
But you will not do these things, Senator Shehu Sani. You will write another poetic post. You will quote another philosopher. You will draw another red line and then complain that the country is divided.
Nigeria is not unloved because its people are broken. Nigeria is unloved because men like you broke it and then showed up to mourn the wreckage while wearing the tools of destruction around your necks like jewellery.
Go and sit
By Solomon Adebayo
The problem of Nigerians is forgetfulness, where a bad leader is rated higher above another bad leader.
OBJ instituted the culture of impunity and recklessness as well as corruption in governance and history would not be kind to him no matter how twisted the narrative about him is.
As President, OBJ elevated an illiterate thug over an elected governor of a state and turned Anambra state into a jungle.
OBJ gave Chris Uba the federal might to run over an elected governor. Chris Uba moved about in a convoy of military, DSS and armed policemen and most times pushed the convoy of then governor Nigige off the roads.
As Environment Correspondent then, I visited Anambra with the Minister and Ngige took us to village, Ngige then had no Police, DSS escort. As governor, he was using private security men because OBJ withdrew them because of Chris and Andy Uba, his boys.
When Ngige as governor was kidnapped by Chris Uba, FRCN broke the news at 4pm. The news saved Ngige. That singular heroic act by FRCN made our DG, Edie Iroh, the enemy of Aro Rock under OBJ and they never forgave him and eventually removed Eddie Iroh.
On Corruption, OBJ till date could not account for $16 billion he squandered for power supply and today, Nigeria still lives in darkness.
OBJ openly bribed national assembly members with bags of money for his idiotic third term bid while telling lies that he knew nothing about it, but all his ministers were campaigning for him. The then 5th Senate under Ken Nnamani saved Nigeria from his dictatorship and 3rd term bid.
As President, OBJ launched a library fund raising project- something Presidents do after leaving office and harassed government agencies and government contractors to donate billions of naira to his private library.
OBJ left the prison a poor person to be corralled into 1999 presidential contest but left after 8 years a multi billionaire with private university, strings of businesses and state of the art farm.
He must be plucking money from a tree.
OBJ instituted corruption, recklessness and impunity, the likes of Buhari and Tinubu copied. Jonathan though ran a corrupt government was not as reckless as them.
To now start praising OBJ as a model of a good president shows that Nigerians don’t really remember their past and that’s why it has been very difficult for us to move into the future.
OBJ was never a good president. He had all the opportunity and goodwill to change Nigeria but blew it for selfish reasons.
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