When I was younger, I used to wish away problems, and as I got older, I would wish away problems with the skill of an Irish Wizard.
As an Investment Banker, I would shuffle off letters from Lawyers asking for a meeting or giving a deadline to respond to a query
The problems never go away, but come back with more ferocity, and everyone will be saying – agh, why didn’t you call on time
Now, at my old age, as the problem is coming, I am diving at it headlong – no time to waste
This is why I don’t like problems coming on Fridays, cos Saturday and Sunday will not allow me to fight
Much as the Police and EFCC like throwing problems at people on Fridays for obvious reasons, I like them to come earlier in the week so that I have enough time to wrestle it down
It, however, appears that Tinubu’s problem has come on a Friday, and Tinubu has taken the weekend to wish it away.
As I watch a very beautiful AriseTV correspondent in Washington say that, as at the time she was reporting, there was no real high-level diplomatic engagement between the Nigerian Government and the highest level of the US Government
Even I in Shomolu here feel the same way
Since Trump dropped that devastating tweet, what we have seen are very cosmetic responses
First, one Bwala was reported to have confirmed a meeting between Tinubu and Vance, the US Vice President
That didn’t happen, and then Tinubu was seen calling Trump’s bluff.
An oversubscription of our Eurobond was then celebrated as an antithesis to the Trump threat.
Then, some kidnappers were arrested, three bandits captured, and a motley crew of Alfas seen railing at Trump
In all of these, we have not seen a concise and robust response from our Government, leading Ngozi Okonjo Iweala to shout.
While we twaddle, it’s getting worse as the UK has come out with Travel advice citing about 20 states as no-go areas for their citizens
In all of these, it’s business as usual, top government officials are going around their business as if all is well, others are attending different Owambes, and the President’s son is going around doing what he knows best-mobilising his youths
We are playing the Ostrich game, burying our heads in the sand while allowing her huge, rare bum open for Trump’s target.
Our people have not heard of that thing they call ‘wag the dog’.
It was an American strategy that their presidents used to distract attention from Domestic issues
Clinton was accused of being an expert in wagging tge dog.
He will bomb a distant place to distract people from his penis problems.
The Republicans have lost New York City Mayoral race, protests against the Trump style of Governance are raging, judges are passing judgments pushing back his authoritarian tendencies, he is not doing too well in the Middle East and looking like a bystander in Ukraine, the temptation to wag his tail at Nigeria will be a temptation too difficult to ignore
All these APC apologists who throng my timeline with all sorts of emotional treatises really don’t know what time it is
When Trump talks about his cherished Christians being killed in Nigeria, he is talking to America’s bible belt, the bastion of his power
He doesn’t give a toss if we like to kill all of the Christians in Timbuktu, but if intervening in Nigeria will shore up his support in the bible belt and within his core conservative block, he will danm right move.
I will do the same in his shoes; in fact, by now, I would have moved, especially since, Tinubu with his nervous approach, is giving me a soft target., I will be move.
Nigeria has, in the last twenty years, lost more people than we did when we were officially at war and even more so than some countries officially at war and all we have done till this morning is to go at this issue with kid gloves,politicising it at best
We are wishing away Trump and relying on such stupid arguments as the one canvassed by one Mahmud Jega on the back page of today’s Thisday , where he started listing American tragedies, even up to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, as a reason for Trump to mind his business
I have never seen such rubbish ever written by an accomplished writer as this one, written by Jega.
If this is what Tinubu is relying on as a response to Trump’s threat, then he might wake up one morning, like I did, and find himself in an EFCC cell.
However, he may not have the luxury of ordering Chicken Republic well-fried chicken while I was a guest there.
His fate may be something that history would dimension much later
A word, like they say, is enough for the wise
Come and beat me
Duke of Shomolu
Last modified: November 12, 2025
