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There are moments in politics when a confession is more revealing than an investigation. A politician, carried away by the confidence that comes with power, may disclose what an entire opposition party has spent years trying to establish. In Nigeria, where political memory is often shorter than a campaign promise, such admissions deserve to be preserved for posterity.
There is a peculiar affliction in Nigerian politics: some politicians cannot distinguish between winning an election and acquiring ownership of the state. To them, victory at the polls is not a temporary mandate to govern the people. It is a licence to command institutions, domesticate independent organisations and demand political obedience from everyone within reach of government.
Remember Enya Egbe? The young medical student who fled his anatomy lab in tears after recognising the cadaver on the table as his friend Divine, bullet holes and all, the one they used to hit the clubs with? That 2017-ish horror story (the original piece landed amid the long shadow of such practices) was never just about one traumatised student or one unlucky night out. It was a mirror held up to a system that treats Nigerian bodies, living or dead, as disposable raw material. Fast-forward to 2026, and the reflection has barely fogged over. The disrespect remains the operating system.
Remember six months ago when the Edo State government decided it was moonlight-and-magic time for law enforcement? With the flourish of a decree and a fanfare that probably woke up the entire length of Akpakpava Road, officials announced that every single business in Benin City must install closed-circuit television (CCTV).
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State was turning 58, and he has a shocking, counter-cultural request for his inner circle: Please, stop spending millions to paste my face on the front page of the newspapers. According to a poignant statement from his Chief Press Secretary, John Mayaki, the Governor was deeply worried about the plight of vulnerable street children. To fix this, he wanted his well-wishers to take the massive budgets usually reserved for full-page birthday spreads and donate them to the WeCare Trust orphanage.
