Opinion

Farooq Kperogi : Neither Tinubu nor Atiku forged credentials with INEC

Published

2 years ago

October 14, 2023

Atiku Abubakar and Bola Ahmed Tinubu

Farooq Kperogi : Neither Tinubu nor Atiku forged credentials with INEC

The storm over the legitimacy of the credential President Bola Tinubu submitted to INEC has managed to rope in former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who instigated it in the first place. But available facts show that neither of them presented forged documents to INEC.

I go where the facts lead me. That means I could say the opposite of what I said earlier in light of new facts, a reason I advisedly used the expression “the best obtainable version of the truth” in last week’s column. I am not invested in any perspective. Tinubu is an unrelieved catastrophe as a president, but I’ll defend the facts even if they favor him.

Here are 7 facts I’ve found so far after reading and rereading all the facts related to this issue:

1. Tinubu attended and graduated from Chicago State University in 1979, was issued a diploma (or a certificate, to use the expression that’s familiar to Nigerians), which he collected (I erred when I thought the registrar said he didn’t; See number 3). Apparently, he lost the original diploma in 1979 and was issued a “replacement diploma dated 27 June 1979,” according to the BBC.

2. In the 1990s, he applied for and got a replacement diploma from CSU. Ostensibly, because it looks different from his 1979 diploma (since diplomas bear the signatures of the current president and look like the diplomas issued that year), he got a note from the CSU registrar in 1999 affirming that he indeed graduated from the school in 1979.

3. He lost the original copy of the 1990s replacement diploma (but has a photocopy of it) and, in the 2000s, applied for yet another replacement diploma, which the university issued, but which he didn’t collect. I mistook the registrar’s reference to this bit during the deposition as him saying that Tinubu did not collecting his 1979 diploma. My apologies.

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4. In 2022, Tinubu submitted a photocopy of the 1990s replacement diploma, along with the 1999 “To Whom It May Concern” note from the CSU Registrar, to INEC as the academic credential that qualifies him to run for president.

5. Opposition politicians saw it and said it wasn’t similar to diplomas CSU issued in 1979. So, they said it’s fake.

6. BBC’s Disinformation Team fact-checked the claim and found that it’s not fake. It appears fake only because it was reissued in 1998 and the university’s logo at the bottom of the diploma was chopped off during photocopying. The BBC says every other detail in the diploma is similar to the diplomas CSU issued or reissued in 1998.

7. The registrar disavowed the photocopied INEC diploma during deposition because of the absence of the logo of the university at the bottom of the diploma, but even he hinted that it “was possibly ‘cut off’ when it was photocopied.” So, it was actually a conditional disavowal.

The Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) attempted to impeach the credibility of the BBC fact check but failed.

The FIJ said, “Of particular interest was the expression, ‘with honors’, which appeared on the certificate Tinubu submitted to INEC. The presence of ‘with honours’ in Tinubu’s certificate is a tautology because the certificate goes on to read, ‘with all the rights, honours, and privileges partaining therto’.[sic]. None of the 1990s samples provided by CSU showed those words underneath the course of study, and this suggests that Tinubu’s certificate, which was supposedly obtained within the same timeframe, did not emanate from the school.”

That’s a problematic claim. “With all the rights, honors, and privileges pertaining thereto” is a fixed phrase that appears on all diplomas irrespective of their class. The addition of “with honors” isn’t a duplication because graduating with honors is an academic distinction that only a limited pool of students achieve, and some U.S. universities include it in diplomas in addition to the fixed phrase that appears on all diplomas.

In any case, Tinubu’s uncollected 2000s replacement diploma that the registrar showed during the deposition has both the fixed phrase AND “with honors.”

Similarly, the claim that the samples of replacement diplomas issued in the 1990s don’t have “with honors” is a weak argument because CSU only showed uncollected diplomas in its records, not a representative sample of every type and class of diplomas earned or re-issued that year. It could well be that the uncollected diplomas in CSU’s records didn’t achieve the distinction that entitles them to have “with honors” affixed to them.

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Typically, only between 20% and 30% of students graduate with honors in U.S. colleges and universities (except for Ivy League universities that have higher percentages), so it’s not a given that the uncollected diplomas in CSU’s records will be among the 20% to 30%.

FIJ also said, “Two, whoever created the controversial certificate in Tinubu’s possession copied the template of the 2000s without paying attention to timeframe variations. This is clear in one of the signatures on Tinubu’s certificate. The signature on the right is that of Zaldwaynaka “Z, the current President of CSU, who took office in 2018. A president who took office in 2018 could not have signed a certificate supposedly released in the 1990s.”

This claim seems made up because there is no “Zaldwaynaka Z” in the diploma Tinubu submitted to INEC. The photocopied CSU diploma Tinubu submitted to INEC and the samples of CSU diploma replacements from the 1990s are exactly the same except for the missing logo in Tinubu’s copy as a result of photocopying.

The registrar’s disavowal of the diploma doesn’t invalidate its authenticity because he merely said the photocopy that was shown to him didn’t look like diplomas from CSU because of the missing logo. People who have an emotional investment in the idea that Tinubu “forged” a diploma that he validly earned (which is ridiculously excessive legal literalism to begin with) leave out that context and make it seem as if the registrar’s words are an inviolable article of faith and not a conditional, context-dependent response to a specific question about a specific photocopied document that doesn’t reflect all the features of diplomas CSU issued in 1998 BECAUSE of photocopying.

This issue has demonstrated to me in starkly dramatic terms how partisan blinders can distort people’s perception of reality. When people so badly want something to be true, but it turns out to be untrue, they choose to hang on to the most absurd apophenic hallucinations (i.e., seeing predetermined patterns from a chaos of unrelated phenomena) they can invoke to validate their preconceptions. I’ve studied and taught this phenomenon for years but had never seen it manifest on a mass scale like this.

The only new thing that will change the conversation is a foolproof revelation that Tinubu didn’t meet graduation requirements and was issued a fraudulent transcript that said he did—after the fact—by dodgy university officials. That would establish the legal basis for forgery. Given what I am now reading about the school, I won’t be shocked if this happens. So, I think the answer to the puzzle isn’t on the surface; it’s beneath the surface. Only deep investigation can unearth it.

Finally, the CSU registrar never said, “forgery is a Nigerian thing.” Tinubu sent his lawyer to get copies of his academic records from CSU and requested that the school certify the documents before sending them to him.

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Atiku’s lawyer asked if CSU had ever certified documents it sent out, and the registrar said, “No, I believe this was made because it is more of a Nigerian thing.” So, the “Nigerian thing” he referred to was certifying school records for legal purposes, not forgery.

Atiku’s School Certificate
Tinubu’s minions, in their bid to get even with Atiku, dredged up Atiku’s post-secondary school appellative change and are attempting to pass it off as evidence of school certificate forgery against him. But here are the facts.

Atiku was known as Sadiq (or Siddiq—it doesn’t matter in Muslim northern Nigeria because “Sadiq” and “Siddiq” and all other spelling variants are interchangeable) Abubakar. He was named after Abu Bakr, Islam’s first caliph whom the prophet of Islam nicknamed as “al-Siddiq,” which means “the righteous.” So, in Muslim northern Nigeria, every Abubakar (our domestication of Abu Bakr) is a Siddiq and vice versa—just like every Umar is a Farooq and vice versa.

People have asked why Atiku was tautonymous, that is, having the same first and last name— if Siddiq and Abubakar are the same. Well, in the early days of education in Northern Nigeria, people concealed their father’s names in schools to protect them from abuse from classmates. Some used toponyms (i.e., names of places) as their family names (Aminu Kano, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Ahmadu Rabah—before he changed to Bello—are prominent examples).

A few, however, chose the tautonymous route. Among them is former president Muhammadu Buhari. He was named after prolific ninth-century Hadith compiler Muhammad al-Bukhari who was a native of the city of Bukhara in what is now Uzbekistan. Bukhari simply means native of the city of Bukhara. But in northern Nigeria every Buhari is a Muhammad. So, Muhammadu Buhari is effectively a tautonym.

Atiku probably also initially chose the tautonymous route. I don’t know how he came about the name Atiku, but it is the Nigerian domestication of the Arabic name Atiq, which means “ancient.” Some people say it means “freed.” Bangladeshis bear it as Atiqur and Arabs bear it as Atiqullah.

More than anything, though, he swore an affidavit in real time to legalize this change of name. The same can’t be said for Bola Tinubu whom we’ve learned was initially known as Lamidi Amoda Sangodele.

Farooq Kperogi : Neither Tinubu nor Atiku forged credentials with INEC

Farooq Kperogi is a renowned Nigerian newspaper columnist and United States-based Professor of Journalism

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Opinion

Tinubu, el-Rufai and the cobra

Published

23 hours ago

February 20, 2026

Trends Admin

Former Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has accused President Bola Tinubu

Tinubu, el-Rufai and the cobra

Tunde Odesola

(Published in The PUNCH, on Friday, February 20, 2026)

If they were not venomous, snakes would probably garland the necks of the rich and the influential to delineate social class. With a body handwoven by its Creator, the snake is the most awesome creature, epitomising engineering fluidity among wildlife. Its fleeting mobility, intricate symmetry, stretchy sinews, delicate precision and frightening fatality define a brute created without hurry.

If the Creator, in His infinite creativity, had swapped the rabies of the dog for the venom of the snake, the faintest bark would have sent feet fleeing, sticks wielding, and alarum bells ringing. Armed with just rabies as a weapon, the snake would have been handpickable like snails after rainfall; slithering and spitting alone do not deter like venom strike. Meat and skin, snakes are attractive.

If its venom was exchanged for rabies, the snake would probably have been Man’s best friend, barking through a slit mouth and narrow throat, without a noise. Before closing production on the evening of the Sixth Day, God assessed His production line; behold all things were bright and beautiful. So, he rested on the Seventh Day.

But Man and snake are not friends; one strikes the head, the other strikes the heel. This eternal enmity results in deaths within both camps, with the human casualty dripping with grief, while snakedom is griefless – Ọ̀dájú lọmọ ejò.

On the last day of January 2026, fast-rising soprano singer, Ifunanya Nwangene, curled up in bed, enjoying a sleep in her Abuja apartment. Later, a cobra crawled into bed with her. Ifunanya probably felt the snake crawl over her arm, and she tried to move her arm away from the uninvited visitor. When the cobra sensed that the arm, which was inanimate a while ago, was slowly becoming animate, it panicked and lashed out, sinking its fangs into the songbird’s wrist. With that split-second strike, the cobra blew out Ifunanya’s candles.

In minutes, a numbing pain in the wrist woke the songster up. She saw the bite and the swelling. Frantic, she made a call to her father, uncle and friends. This must be a bad dream, Ifunanya thought. Wake up, wake up, girl! But the Nightingale was slipping away. Death has crept in right in the safety of her room.

Following Ifunanya’s death, the BBC, in a February 7, 2026, story headlined “A singer’s tragic death highlights Nigeria’s snakebite problem,” reveals the controversy that trailed Ifunanya’s death. In the report, Ifunanya’s father, Christopher Nwangene, accused the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, Abuja, of unprofessional treatment and lacking antivenom when she was rushed to the hospital. But the hospital refuted the allegations in a clap back, insisting that it had enough antivenom in stock and that Ifunanya received good treatment. The Chief Medical Director of the FMC, Saad Ahmed, explained that Ifunanya arrived over two hours after the snakebite. Ahmed’s allegation, however, beggars belief and raises the question: why would Ifunanya’s uncle and friend separately go in search of antivenoms and, indeed, buy some, if the hospital had the antidote?

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A nationwide backlash left a populace lamenting the preventable loss of a special talent. Christopher said the hospital’s medical staff should not have removed the tourniquet tied to her wrist to limit the venom from spreading to other parts of her body when the hospital did not have enough antivenom. Though the use of a tourniquet is no longer advisable as treatment for snakebite because it can cause tissue damage and increase the risk of amputation, Ifunanya’s father insisted that it was better for her daughter to be amputated than to die.

In its characteristic fire brigade method, the Nigerian Senate, without setting a timeline, called on the Federal Ministry of Health and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control to ensure hospitals across the country were stocked with safe, effective and affordable antivenoms. The Senate’s hollow directive typifies the futility of an imam’s rumbling stomach when presented with a dish of pork.

The lack of direction and commitment in the Senate directive on antivenom explains the lackadaisical legislation the nation gets when issues involve the masses, while diligence and speed attend legislation on issues that directly benefit lawmakers like constituency projects, car purchase and accommodation. The energy and time deployed by the Senate leadership under High Chief Godswill Akpabio to fight the Soyoyo from Kogi State, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, encapsulates the NFA metaphor of my youth. In my secondary school days, unserious students were called NFA, an acronym for No Future Ambition. Can the Nigerian masses attest that their National Assembly yesterday, today or tomorrow truly has people-oriented ambition, except talk loudly, cackle heartily, defect, and look towards the Presidency for patronage?

The venom economy, when measured through anti-venom and venom-derived therapeutics, is a multi-billion-dollar, fast-growing global market with respectable profitability driven by healthcare demand, innovation, and rising global incidence of venomous encounters. Nigeria, with its multitude of youth unemployment should tap into the global-venom market, but its clueless political class will not ensure any life-changing policy to push unemployment back.

When he was Health Minister six years ago, a former Speaker of the Lagos House of Assembly, Dr Olorunnimbe Mamora, described as ‘epidemic proportions’, the 20,000 snakebites recorded annually in Nigeria. That was six years ago. Today, the Toxinological Society of Nigeria says snakebite cases in Nigeria annually have climbed up to 43,000, making the need to produce antivenoms locally a matter of national duty. The Association of Community Pharmacists of Nigeria estimates that the country spends about $12million yearly importing antivenoms. A vial of imported antivenom, according to the BBC,costs between N45,000 and N80,000, necessitating the need for local production, export and job creation. But in Mamora’s alarm lay an underlying potential for the country to partake in the multi-billion-dollar global venom market, which included participants like scorpions, spiders, wasps, ants, etc.

The BBC report states that Nigeria’s snakebite “epidemic proportions” is “compounded by a critical shortage of affordable antivenom, which needs to be stored in fridges – often impossible in areas with unreliable electricity”. However, herbal medicine produced locally by traditional medicine practitioners does not need refrigeration. A 2005 study, “Effect of Annona senegalensis rootbark extracts on (cobra) Naja nigricotlis venom in rats,” published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Ethnopharmacology, showed the relative effectiveness of the rootbark of African custard apple in treating cobra venom.

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While the nation grappled with insecurity, hunger and poverty, there came a rumble from outside Aso Rock. A little mallam, Nasir el-Rufai, sat on a huge pile of peddles, singing a Fulani song, pelting the roof of the Villa with his pebbles. Aso Rock panicked. The embers of a recent coup are still glowing. When a fly perches on the scrotal sack, caution becomes the first commandment.

I daresay the former Kaduna State governor was the most vocal vendor of the Bola Tinubu electoral commodity to the North when members of the Fulani hegemony were afraid to openly side with the presidential candidacy of Tinubu while President Muhammadu Buhari reigned. Short men and daring deeds.

When everyone was afraid of Buhari, El-Rufai showed dogmatic courage and stood by his belief. And Tinubu won. After Tinubu’s victory, el-Rufai danced to Kizz Daniel’s Buga song with Tinubu over dinner. While Tinubu was bugga-ing in owambe fashion, el-Rufai was waltzing to Buga in the Fulani stick-across-the-neck dance style. I watched the dance again today. Laugh catch me. Between Tinubu and el-Rufai, someone was scratching their nose with the head of a cobra.

Before or after the deceitful dance, Tinubu publicly begged el-Rufai to come and work in his administration, and el-Rufai said he would work on a part-time basis because he had some personal issues to attend to. When Tinubu was compiling his list of ministers, el-Rufai also submitted his cv, but his name was shockingly flagged by security agencies.

I do not know what the mallam did to offend Jagaban, but I guess the President is just uncomfortable with the personality of the former governor. He probably sees Nasir as a stormy petrel who would be uncontrollable if allowed into the cabinet. The moral question that bubbles up from the depth of virtueless politics, therefore, is: “Why enlist el-Rufai to fight your battle when you knew you were going to dump him?”

Well, Nigerian politics lacked virtue before, during, and after the days of el-Rufai as Kaduna governor. In the murky waters of politics, fish eats fish, dog eats dog, snake eats snake. Tinubu is eating today; he might be eaten tomorrow.

So, when you see El-Rufai vehemently criticise Tinubu, e get why. No bi because of God. When Tinubu abuses Abubakar Atiku, na cruise. When Peter Obi knack Tinubu apako, na content. If Atiku tear Tinubu, na paddy-paddy matter. Dem all sabi wetin dem dey do. Dem go fight, dem go settle.

Nigerians love sports, especially football. In Brazil, football employs 3.3 million people, generating about $2bn annually. In the 2023/2024 season, the Premier League generated $6.34billion. Nollywood and the Nigerian music world, without government initiative, have grown to international repute, generating millions of dollars.

So, instead of our elected politicians and public officials snaking from one party to another in almajeri fashion, there should be a concerted national effort geared towards providing the dividends of democracy to the masses. Perhaps they have forgotten what the dividends of democracy are, here they are: security, healthcare, education, employment, welfare, infrastructure, etc.

Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com

Facebook: @Tunde Odesola

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Tinubu, el-Rufai and the cobra

Opinion

El Rufai’s Arise News mind game with Ribadu, By Farooq Kperogi

Published

7 days ago

February 14, 2026

Trends Admin

Kperogi is a renowned columnist and United States-based Professor of Journalism

Farooq Kperogi

El Rufai’s Arise News mind game with Ribadu, By Farooq Kperogi

Nasir El-Rufai claimed in his interview with Arise News that someone intercepted and recorded his former friend Nuhu Ribadu’s phone call in which Ribadu allegedly instructed El-Rufai’s arrest.

He acknowledged the illegality of the act but said the government had used similar methods against him.

My strong suspicion is that El-Rufai is merely playing mind games. It is operationally improbable that a serving NSA, with all the personnel and paraphernalia available to him, would issue a sensitive directive of that nature over an unsecure call. I would bet my bottom dollar that the claim is made up.

Still, the allegation serves powerful and artful rhetorical warfare purposes, which El-Rufai appears to have calculatedly designed. If authorities pursue action based on his admission of illegal interception, critics may interpret this as indirect validation of his story, thereby injuring Ribadu’s professional competence and judgment.

In other words, arresting El-Rufai for admitting that he illegally obtained help to intercept and listen in on the NSA’s call could authenticate his claim, which I strongly suspect is manufactured for psychological warfare, and portray the NSA as vindictive and unprofessional for supposedly relaying sensitive information through insecure means.

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By admitting to the illegality of the interception, he is begging to be apprehended to give an indirect stamp of legitimacy to what I suspect is an intentionally strategic fib.

But if authorities ignore the claim, some observers may assume it is true. Silence in this context could be construed as consent.

At the same time, if the NSA’s office issues a public denial, El-Rufai could plausibly commission AI tools to generate a voice call mimicking the NSA’s voice. Convincing AI-generated voice simulations are no longer difficult to produce, and people’s gullibility seems to be at an all-time high.

Finally, El-Rufai’s remarks may also be designed to induce paranoia within Ribadu’s inner circles. Suggesting that someone taped the NSA implies that either close associates of his or elements within the SSS are monitoring him on behalf of adversaries. That kind of insinuation can foster a crippling persecution complex.

Of course, if Ribadu issued no such order, or communicated only through secure channels, he would simply laugh off El-Rufai’s claim as a wily but unsuccessful mind game from a former friend who’s still hurting from his unexpected exclusion from the orbit of power.

El-Rufai’s ultimate objective, however, appears to be to cultivate public sympathy ahead of his scheduled appearance at the EFCC on Monday while simultaneously attempting to psychologically unsettle his adversaries. Interesting times!

El Rufai’s Arise News mind game with Ribadu, By Farooq Kperogi

Farooq Kperogi is a renowned Nigerian columnist and United States-based Professor of Journalism.

Opinion

Oshiomhole: Behold the 13th disciple of Christ

Published

1 week ago

February 13, 2026

Trends Admin

Oshiomhole: Behold the 13th disciple of Christ

Tunde Odesola

(Published in The PUNCH, on Friday, February 13, 2026)

Friday, February, 13, 1976: A libidinous soldier, Lieutenant-Colonel Buka Suka Dimka, waited in ambush for a black Mercedes-Benz, counting down to the zero hour, caressing his gun, ready for the whistle from death. Dimka was not alone. He was in company with fellow coupists and treasonable felons.

Today, Friday, February 13, 2026, marks exactly 50 years since assassin bullets pierced the unarmoured body of the black Benz to pierce the body of the Nigerian Head of State, General Murtala Ramat Muhammed, seated at the back of his official car, snaking its way through Lagos traffic. That was a period when Nigerian Heads of State commuted in just one official car; no convoy, no siren, no madness.

It was a death most gruesome for the 37-year-old General, bubbling with life by 8a.m, stone-dead by nine. His aide-de-camp, Lieutenant Akintunde Akinsehinwa, and driver, Sergeant Adamu Michika, were killed in the Dimka-led ambush on George Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, en route to their Dodan Barracks place of work.

The gunshots pumped into Murtala were still echoing when the coup bit the dust. His body had not gone cold when federal forces rose to quench the coup. Dimka’s comrades-in-harms, Minister of Defence, Major-General I.D. Bisalla; the first military Governor of defunct Benue-Plateau State, police commissioner Joseph Gomwalk; Major Ibrahim Rabo, Captain M. Parvwang, Lieutenant William Seri, and 32 others were rounded up, tried, tied to the stakes and shot. An eye for an eye. A bullet for a bullet.

But Dimka fled Lagos, the scene of his crime, and headed to the East, his newfound refuge, to live in subterfuge. To book hotel accommodation, Dimka shed his lieutenant-colonel khaki and wore the garb of a faceless Mr C Godwin. If Dimka could kill Murtala on the eve of Valentine’s Day, only God knows what he did on Lovers’ Day, as he was caught on May 5, 1976, with a prostitute in Afikpo at a police checkpoint when fleeing to Cameroon.

Before escaping through the toilet window when he suspected police presence, Dimka holed up at Friendship Hotel, smoking, drinking and cooling his hot blood off in the bosom and thighs of luscious daughters of Eve. Cold blood needs warm blood.

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What kind of man would kill on the eve of Valentine’s Day and cuddle Eves on Valentine’s Day? Ha! Dimka got balls. Some men do. What must have been going through Dimka’s mind, watching and listening to reports of his coup and his manhunt, while he sipped beer and kissed and caressed? Daylight coldbloodedness.

On February 3, 2026, as the alleged dalliance of the representative of Edo-North senatorial district in the National Assembly, Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, shook the internet, I hissed at the ignorance of Nigerians who rose in anger, calling for his head.

I hissed because a lot of those stomping on social media streets against Osho Baba are hypocrites ready to trade places with the husband of Lara Fuentes, the Cape Verdean model he married in 2015 after the death of his beautiful wife, Clara, who led him to Christ, and purportedly adopted a Christian name, Eric, upon conversion. Sadly, Clara lost a battle with breast cancer in 2010, aged 54.

Oshiomhole is a man of moral rhymes. From Clara in 2010 to Lara in 2015, there was a period of five long years. So, the born-again Eric waited five long years before looking another woman in the eye. That was honour. That was respect. That was fidelity. How many Nigerian men can wait that long? How many Nigerian septuagenarians are as hot as the ex-defender of the masses? How many possess his handsome looks? How many possess his fit and proper body? When you see Oshiomhole in the gym, you will know he is on a mission.

Dimka dimmed the light of Nigeria’s governance in 1976, throwing the nation into darkness. Despite all of the manhunt and national uproar against his action, however, he remained ensconced in carnal cares, nourishing his whims and the stiffness of his phallus. Some other leaders wouldn’t make it out of Lagos, let alone go as far as Afikpo. But Dimka did with aplomb. That was the hallmark of grit and greatness, something missing in today’s Nigerian leadership.

Although Osho Baba has come out to rebut the viral video displaying his image massaging the foot of a South African goddess, ‘adult content creator’ and ‘professional sugar baby’, Lashaan Dagama, I would have advised against such a move because I know some nosy Nigerians would run veracity checks on the controversial 30-second video.

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Here’s the finding of an online newspaper, The Whistler, which deployed multiple deepfake detection tools to determine the authenticity of the love-in-the-air video shot aboard a luxury aircraft thousands of feet above a grounded country, whose citizens grope in darkness on empty stomachs amid worsening insecurity. The tools deployed by The Whistler included Deepware Scanner, Zhuque AI Detection Assistant, AU Video Detector, Sight Engine, and Hive AI Deepfake Detection.

The Whistler did a story on its multiple checks. Please, read: “These tools analysed for visual artefacts (such as hand/finger inconsistencies, lip-sync mismatch, unnatural facial blending, or lighting errors), audio patterns, metadata inconsistencies, and provenance signals.

“The scans showed no detectable hallmarks of generative AI manipulation, with high confidence scores indicating the video is authentic footage rather than synthetically created or significantly altered by current AI video generation methods.”

The report returned with a verdict which dismissed Oshiomhole’s AI claim as false, stressing that “the claim that the video is AI-generated lacks supporting evidence and is contradicted by the woman’s public response implying the event occurred, the absence of detectable AI artefacts in the clip, and results from deepfake detection tools confirmed no signs of AI generation or manipulation.”

Do not compare Dimka with Oshiomhole, please; one is a soldier, the other is a democrat. One is a killer, the other is a caresser. One gripped the trigger; the other groped a foot. One exfoliated life; the other moisturised it. Please, do not compare apples with oranges.

But the coping mechanism and survival strategy of Dimka is a lesson in military adaptability, just as Oshiomhole’s transfiguration should be a topic of interest to students of Nigerian politics. Adams transmutation from a poor background in Iyamho, near Auchi, working as a textile hand, joining textile politics before emerging as the President, Nigeria Labour Congress, demanded great coping capacity, courage and consistency.

In February 1999, Oshiomhole rose to labour peak at the dawn of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic, leading the NLC to national greatness and acceptability, organising government-shaking rallies to protest lack of electricity, fuel price hike, rising food costs, and harsh economic policies – all on behalf of an applauding masses. By the time he completed two terms in 2007, Oshiomhole had done more than enough to engrave himself in the hearts of Nigerians who spread palm fronds on the ground for the donkey-riding Messiah on his way to the Edo State Government House.

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Even while he was Governor of Osun State between 1999 and 2003, the Baba Isale of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Bisi Akande, had called Oshiomhole names when labour idealism looked politics in the eye. Since crossing over to politics, however, Oshiomhole seems to have acquired 3D glasses which beautify ugly spectacles. He now dines at the same table with Akande, on whose face sits a plastered smile.

If I were in the inner caucus of Osho Baba, I would have told him to damn the naysayers and encouraged him to strut on the runway, exhibiting his 73-year-old masculinity, locking his hands up in a flex, like Mr Universe. I would have sincerely told him that the lovey-dovey Dagama video was a big opportunity to set Nigerian eyes ogling and tongues wagging, distracting the masses from the existential issues of poverty, insecurity, electricity, homelessness, waterlessness, healthlessness and schoollessness. I would have urged the Comrade to treat the foot massage issue like Sage Bola Tinubu described power, saying, “Osho Baba, a model as beautiful as Lashaan Dagama is not served a la carte, you should own her, fight for her, grab her, snatch her and run with her.”

Lady Dagama lives her life on online street. She knows the potential damage her silence on Oshiomhole’s disclaimer could do to her brand, hence her annoyance over the rebuttal was understandable. For an adult content creation business driven by flesh and personage, Osho Baba was a large fish caught by Dagama’s hook, so the attempt to wriggle off the hook made her burst out in frustration, “Your senator is the problem; go, be mad at him, not me.” She went a mile further to proclaim her truth, saying, “The video wasn’t AI, but okay, believe your senator,” when the former APC national chairman maintained the video was AI-generated.

For the multitude ignorantly calling for the head of Oshiomhole because he dedicated precious time and energy to Dagama’s beautiful foot, here are the Yoruba and the Jewish worldviews on foot. In their wisdom, the Yoruba say the head and the feet are interconnected. They affirm the interconnectivity in this proverb, “Ori wo ibo rere gbe mi ya, ese wo ibi rere gbe re.” Thus, it is the belief of the Yoruba that the head and the legs are capable of taking an individual to a fortunate or unfortunate place.

The Yoruba, they are never done; they also say, “Adiye kii ti ibi ese ku,” meaning: the chicken never dies from an injury to its feet.” This is why you never see a chicken walking on a prosthesis. No matter the severity of its leg injury, you will see the chicken hobbling on, at least, one foot, but certainly not with crutches. Oshiomhole understands Yoruba. He knows the curative powers of long, sexy legs. He knows. He knows. He knows.

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The spartan-looking comrade emerged general secretary of the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria in 1982, a time when over 450,000 textile workers ran the 180 mills across the country. Today, the mills have thinned down to about 20. I’m sure Oshiomhole cannot be happy with this shameful decline because he was at the helm of labour affairs when Nigeria was good, and he is at the corridor of power now that Nigeria is bad.

For a born-again Christian about to climb the 74th year on life’s almanac, Osho Baba reads his Bible diligently, fully aware this world is not his home, he’s just a pilgrim. Despite eyeing heaven, Oshiomhole is also as wise as the serpent and as gentle as a dove – two biblical injunctions necessary to dominate and conquer the earth. Oshiomhole is the serpent; he is also the dove. But he is only following biblical commandments.

Osho Baba worships God in deed and in truth. He believes in Jesus Christ as his personal lord and Saviour. The way he placed Dagama’s foot gently on his lap and anointed it with alabaster oil shows that he has read and missed nothing in the story of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples.

In ancient Jewish tradition, foot washing symbolises respect, honour, hospitality, service, purification and humiliation. Servants or juniors are expected to wash the feet of their masters or superiors. But Jesus changed the social order when he, the Master, washed the feet of his disciples, including the treacherous Judas Iscariot, to teach unconditional love. So, the former labour lion is punctual in church. He knows the feet-washing story, and he wants to go to heaven. So, what is wrong with him washing the feet of Dagama to fulfil all righteousness and earn a place in paradise?

Still talking Jewish tradition. A woman described as a sinner washed the feet of Jesus during a banquet. Some Bible scholars have come to identify her as Mary Magdalene, while some call her Mary of Bethany. The act is recorded in the Books of Luke 7:36-50 and John 12: 1-8. Here is St John’s version: “Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive oil; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.” Mary washed Jesus’ feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, kissed them, and anointed them with alabaster oil. Now, Nigerians who want to see Oshiomhole in paradise must tell him to produce the full, unedited, un-AI-ed version of his encounter with Dagama. They must ask if he washed, shed tears, kissed and anointed Dagama’s foot. Oshiomhole is bald; otherwise, I would have urged his teeming supporters to ask if he wiped Dagama’s foot with his hair.

And I did not see Dagama’s shoes on the floor. I wonder where she flung them. I had thought ‘bata’ was a Yoruba word for shoes. This was until I discovered that a Czechoslovakian footwear company, Bata Shoe Company, set foot in Nigeria in 1932. So, I looked up the history of Bata in the Czech Republic. Google dumped pages of history on my lap. It says, “In the Czech Republic, Bata is a renowned, historic brand of shoes and apparel founded in Zlín in 1894 by siblings Tomas, Antonín, and Anna Bata. Bata is considered a household name in the Czech Republic, synonymous with shoes.”

With its factory in Ojota, Lagos, Bata Shoe Factory was to later open retail outlets across the country. Where are Dagama’s shoes, Senator Oshiomhole? As you ponder providing an answer to this question, Your Excellency, permit me I ask another: as Chairman, Senate Committee on Interior, and a former general secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, why is it difficult to establish a shoe-manufacturing company in the country?

I love you, Comrade-Senator. I love you with the love of God. I know you know the love of God is also called agape love. Being from humble beginnings like our Lord Jesus Christ, however, I wish to sing you a song by ghetto boy, Daddy Showkey. I’m sure you will remember the song, and you will love it.

“If you see Adamso, Hosanna

Tell am say o, Hosanna

I dey Igbajo, Hosanna

I no get problem, Hosanna

E get one women, Hosanna

Her name na Lashaan, Hosanna

Oh, Lashaan baby, Hosanna

Lashaan fine well, well, Hosanna

I say she fine well, well, Hosanna

Oh Lashaan baby, Hosanna

Adamso carry Lashaan, Hosanna

E put am for jet, Hosanna