By Sahabi Malami Uzairu
It is becoming evidently clear that my two articles: Open Letters to His Excellency, President Bola Ahmad Tinubu (I and II), have indeed hit the Chairman of the Senate Committee on National Security and Intelligence, Senator Shehu Umar Buba (APC, Bauchi South), in the solar plexus – bearing in mind in mind the mindless rampage of arresting young Nigerians who criticized him over some of the salient issues I brought to the public domain.
Fresh evidence – through video and audio footage – has revealed how Senator Buba is using his influence to fund and provide material support to the marauding bandits, all in the name of facilitating a peace pact with some of their notorious leaders, such as Bello Turji.
After my last article, a 7-minute video emerged from Senator Buba’s residence, where hundreds of motorbikes, popularly called Boko Haram (usually used by bandits and Boko Haram terrorists because of their resilience), a large cache of cash, many international passports, and a large number of bandits were seen in the Bauchi senator’s residence.
The most surprising of all was the presence of a wanted terror commander, Bashari Maniya, in Senator Buba’s residence. One doesn’t need clairvoyance to know what the large cache of cash and motorcycles was meant for. Bashari Maniya is one of the terror kingpins declared wanted by the Defence Headquarters. What is he doing in Senator Buba’s residence? The answer is not far-fetched.
It was on record that the Bauchi State Government had written a petition to the Department of State Services (DSS), accusing the senator of sponsoring bandits to Makkah for pilgrimage. Two of the bandits were intercepted at the Bauchi State Hajj Camp following active intelligence by the DSS. The secret service also interrogated the Bauchi Senator. The presence of dozens of bandits in Senator Buba’s residence alongside a large number of international passports is this not a vindication that he is in bed with the murderous gang? And he is only serving as their representative inside Nigeria’s security and intelligence circle?
If not, why is Senator Buba harbouring those bandits –including the notorious Bashari Maniya – declared wanted by the security forces after masterminding the massacre of hundreds of hapless citizens? Mr President, unless Senator Buba is above the law, or he is working with bandits with your express permission, why is he not arrested, interrogated and removed as chair of national security and intelligence in the Nigerian Senate?
Mr President, silence is never golden when the lives of innocent citizens who trooped out to elect you, and you swore with the Holy Qur’an to protect their lives and property, are concerned.
It may interest Mr President to know that in the first half of 2025, at the same time Senator Buba started his rendezvous with Bello Turji, the fatalities from banditry have more than doubled, according to data released by a Nigerian government’s human rights agency.
A report by Reuters said more people were killed by bandits in Nigeria in the first half of this year than in all of 2024, according to figures released on July 8, 2025, by Nigeria’s human rights agency.
According to the figures, at least 2,266 people were killed in the first half of 2025, compared to 1,083 in the first half of 2024 and 2,194 for the full year last year.
The situation has worsened lately, with 606 people killed in June 2025 alone, the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Tony Ojukwu, has said during a presentation in Abuja.
“These were not mere figures on a report; they were fathers, mothers, children, and breadwinners; families torn apart, livelihoods destroyed, and futures extinguished in moments of senseless brutality,” Mr Ojukwu said.
The report also noted a trend of attacks against law enforcement and local security forces, with more than 17 soldiers killed in Kaduna and Niger States and over 40 members of the Civilian Joint Task Force killed in the northwestern Zamfara state.
One wonders how the families of these victims of mindless massacres would take Senator Buba or his supporters serious. How would they feel watching the killers of their loved ones and bread winners dining and wining with the same the same people who have sworn to protect them?
Mr President, it is clear that Senator Buba’s peace deal with murderous bandits — that include the reported sponsoring them to Hajj, providing them with hundreds of motorcycles and lodging them in his residence — is a clear sabotage against you. Northerners affected by banditry would never forgive you for sacrificing them on the altar of politics and dancing naked on the mass graves of their loved ones innocently murdered by Bello Turji and his devilish and blood-thirsty gangs.
Mr President, it is clear that Senator Buba’s peace deal is facing backlash from all quarters — threatening his political jugular. It is wise not to go down with him because, unlike you, he has nothing to lose. He has seen the clear handwriting on the world. The same people he is arresting and detaining are now bolder and more courageous. They are now defying his threats of arrest by calling him out — telling him without any semblance of fear that his time as their representative is off.
Sir, it is wise not to sacrifice an entire region that stood out for you when other regions rejected and castigated you because of one senator and his few handlers.
Finally, I would like to reiterate Mr President that a wolf remains a wolf despite changing its skin. Empowering Mr Buba is empowering your political enemies ahead of 2027. It would be recalled that in 2023 Mr Buba did not work for President Tinubu, and everyone knows. That is what would happen again in 2027. He would work for his benefactor — Atiku Abubakar — who’s still holding the lawmaker’s unalloyed loyalty due to ethnic considerations. Mr President, it is high time you stop “yanka wa kare ciyawa.”
Mr Uzairu writes from Sokoto State
