After my interview on Channels TV, many people focused on the names I mentioned. But for me, the real conversation was never about Buhari or Tinubu. It was about what power does to leaders, and what happens to a country when those around a leader become more interested in controlling access than telling the truth.
Let me put it this way: Sometimes, the most dangerous thing that can happen to a leader is not the opposition but the aimless applause of his supporters.
I knew Muhammadu Buhari before he became President. I also knew Bola Ahmed Tinubu long before he got to Aso Rock.
They were different men then.
They questioned authority. They challenged the establishment. They attracted people with courage and independent minds.
Somewhere along the line, something changed.
But the truth is that, a President doesn’t suddenly wake up disconnected from reality. It happens gradually. One gatekeeper at a time. One filtered briefing at a time. One honest voice pushed aside and one praise singer promoted, that’s how it works.
And before you knew it, the leader is no longer hearing the country. He is hearing only the people around him.
That is how governments lose direction.
It also explains why I have never believed that silence is loyalty.
Buhari himself told me, “Solomon, don’t spare me with your criticism”
And I didn’t.
I challenged him while serving in his government. I challenged him after leaving office. During one of our last meetings, I placed our campaign promises before him and asked a simple question: Which of these have we truly fulfilled?
He had no answer.
That conversation wasn’t about disrespect. It was about responsibility. If those closest to power cannot tell the truth, then who will?
Today, I worry because the signs are becoming too obvious.
Governors are abandoning the mandates given to them by the people, not because of ideology, but because politics has become a game of survival.
Endorsements are replacing performance.
Loyalty is replacing competence.
Fear is replacing conviction.
And gradually, power is shifting from the people to a few individuals.
Democracy rarely dies in one dramatic event.
It dies quietly, when institutions become weaker than personalities, when elections lose credibility, when leaders stop listening, and when those who should speak truth decide that praise is safer.
Nigeria deserves better than that.
Our problem has never been a lack of gifted people or abundant resources.
Our problem is that too many people around power tell leaders what they want to hear instead of what they need to hear.
No nation can move forward that way.
The day we begin to value honest counsel above blind loyalty, competence above patronage, and the Constitution above political convenience, Nigeria will begin to find her way again.
Until then, we will keep changing drivers while the vehicle continues in the same direction. I pray we get it right this time around.
~ Barrister Solomon Dalung~~~
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