by Mohammed Bello Doka
Did power expose or corrupt Bayo Onanuga?
This is the question that haunts the spectacle of a man who once stood before military dictators with ink-stained fingers and an unbowed head, now standing in the corridors of power, denying the hunger of 140 million Nigerians while wearing a national honour on his chest. The Greek philosopher Socrates warned that “the unexamined life is not worth living.” But perhaps more pertinent is the warning of the Roman historian Tacitus: “The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws.” What then shall we say of a man whose laws of principle have multiplied in inverse proportion to his integrity?
Bayo Onanuga was once a name that inspired hope. In December 1992, as editor of African Concord, he authored the explosive cover story “Has IBB Given Up?”—a direct frontal attack on General Ibrahim Babangida’s careless comments on the economy. When his publisher, MKO Abiola, demanded an apology to the military dictator, Onanuga refused. His response was recorded for history: “When my boss said I should apologise, I said no, there’s no point in apologising. I’ll rather just go”. He resigned in April 1992, and the Concord Group was shut down by the junta. This was a man who would rather lose his job than lose his soul.
He co-founded The News magazine in February 1993, a publication that became a “thorn in the flesh of Nigeria’s military regimes”. In August 1996, he was arrested alongside Babafemi Ojudu for an article titled “The Man Abacha,” which criticised then-oil minister Dan Etete. Amnesty International declared him a “prisoner of conscience”. He was detained without charge, held by the State Security Service, and may have been ill-treated in custody. On June 19, 1996, he and four colleagues were arrested for an article investigating the murder of Kudirat Abiola. Abacha, a man who could order deaths by merely placing a phone call, wanted Onanuga arrested by all means. Yet Onanuga did not break. He did not bend. He did not apologise.
Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that “he who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster.” And Baltasar Gracián, the Spanish philosopher, observed that “the courtier lives by the smile of the prince and dies by his frown.” The Bayo Onanuga of 2026 is no longer the journalist who fought monsters. He has become the courtier who serves them. He has exchanged the sword of truth for the velvet glove of propaganda.
Consider his denial of hunger. On June 23, 2026, speaking on Arise Television, Onanuga declared that he does “not see the level of hunger Nigerians are complaining about”. He insisted that his “personal observations and interactions do not reflect the scale of hardship”. He cited a newly constructed concrete road around Ijebu-Ode and the coastal highway that shortened his travel time from two hours to one hour and seven minutes. “I’m a Nigerian,” he said. “I have people working for me privately. I don’t see the level of hunger people are talking about because I see them, and I keep asking them questions”. This is the man who once risked his life to expose military tyranny. Now he dismisses the documented suffering of 140 million Nigerians as a figment of opposition imagination. As one critic observed, his words represent “an act of official falsification and a deliberate erasure of documented, measurable, catastrophic mass suffering”.
The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote that “man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” Onanuga has forged his own chains—and now insists that others do not feel the weight of theirs.
Consider his attack on The Guardian newspaper. In October 2024, when The Guardian published an article exploring how economic hardship was driving some citizens to “extreme choices, including calling for military intervention,” Onanuga twisted its logic. He accused the newspaper of “openly inciting unrest against President Bola Tinubu’s administration and advocating regime change under the guise of journalism”. He declared that the publication had “persistently propagated inflammatory and negative narratives, stepping dangerously close to undermining the very fabric of responsible journalism”. This from a man whose entire career was built on publishing inflammatory narratives against military dictators—narratives that got him arrested, detained, and labelled a prisoner of conscience. The hypocrisy is so profound that it demands its own philosophical inquiry. As George Orwell wrote, “The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their reality.” Onanuga is now in the business of destroying the reality of others.
Consider his ethnic slur against Igbos. In March 2023, as spokesperson for the Tinubu campaign council, Onanuga warned Igbo residents of Lagos against “interfering” in the state’s politics. “Let 2023 be the last time of Igbo interference in Lagos politics,” he tweeted. “Let there be no repeat in 2027. Lagos is like Anambra, Imo, any Nigerian state. It is not No Man’s Land, not Federal Capital Territory. It is Yoruba land. Mind your business”. The human rights group HURIWA later branded him a “tribal bigot” whose utterances threatened Nigeria’s fragile unity. This is the same man who once stood with NADECO, fighting for a united, democratic Nigeria against military dictators who exploited ethnic divisions. Now he stokes those very divisions from the comfort of presidential protection. Plato warned that “the measure of a man is what he does with power.” By that measure, Onanuga has failed spectacularly.
Consider his “shoot at sight” order. In February 2026, reacting to a video of vandals damaging a federal road project, Onanuga wrote on X: “Just shoot these unconscionable vandals/thieves at sight. They are worst species of citizenships”. Activist Aisha Yesufu responded with devastating precision: “For him to talk about shoot on sight… you would have been shot”. She was right. The Onanuga who once faced detention without trial, who was arrested for publishing criticisms of the government, is now calling for extrajudicial executions. The journalist who once demanded due process now dispenses with it entirely. As the Roman philosopher Seneca observed, “He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.” Onanuga does not merely encourage extrajudicial violence—he demands it.
Consider his false accusation of VeryDarkMan. In May 2026, when an AI-generated audio of President Tinubu began circulating, Onanuga immediately blamed social media influencer Martins Vincent Otse, known as VeryDarkMan. He wrote: “This VDM needs to face the weight of the law for being the conveyor and disseminator of a fake audio of President Tinubu”. A simple verification would have shown that VDM neither produced nor shared the audio. Onanuga never retracted, never apologised, never corrected the record. This is the man who once risked everything to publish the truth. Now he cannot be bothered to verify the simplest fact before calling for prosecution. Friedrich Nietzsche also wrote that “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.” Onanuga has made it impossible for any discerning Nigerian to believe a word he says.
Consider his false accusations against Peter Obi. On multiple occasions, Onanuga has claimed that Peter Obi and his supporters were behind the #EndBadGovernance protests. He wrote: “The malcontents planning to stage nationwide protests are supporters of Peter Obi, the failed presidential candidate of the Labour Party”. He provided no evidence. When Obi’s lawyers demanded N5 billion in damages, Onanuga remained silent. The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote that “all truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident.” Onanuga has skipped the first two stages and gone straight to manufacturing his own reality.
Consider his celebration of a national honour. On June 12, 2025, President Tinubu conferred on Onanuga the national honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON). Onanuga thanked the President for honouring those who “braved the odds and the guns” to enthrone democracy. But Phrank Shaibu, aide to former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, responded with searing clarity: “You should wear a badge of betrayal, not a national honour”. Shaibu accused Tinubu of “desecrating the memory of Kudirat Abiola, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua and Alfred Rewane” by honouring Onanuga. The question is devastating: what does it profit a man to gain a national honour and lose his own soul?
The contrast could not be starker. The Onanuga of the 1990s was a prisoner of conscience who refused to apologise to military dictators. The Onanuga of 2026 is a courtier who denies the hunger of millions, attacks the free press, stokes ethnic hatred, calls for extrajudicial killings, spreads falsehoods, and celebrates honours from a government whose policies have deepened poverty and enabled tyranny.
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus wrote that “character is destiny.” If that is true, then Onanuga’s destiny is a tragedy of his own making. He has gone from NADECO hero to propaganda machine, from prisoner of conscience to prisoner of power, from journalist to courtier. The death of the journalist was not sudden—it was a slow, deliberate, and utterly avoidable suicide. And the birth of the courtier was not an accident—it was a choice. Every denial of hunger was a choice. Every attack on the press was a choice. Every ethnic slur was a choice. Every call for extrajudicial execution was a choice. Every false accusation was a choice.
Socrates also said that “the secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” Onanuga has built nothing new. He has simply become the old—the very tyranny he once fought against. He has become the censor, the propagandist, the apologist for power. He has become the man who would have arrested the younger version of himself.
And so we return to the question: Did power expose or corrupt Bayo Onanuga? The answer is both. Power exposed what was always there—a man who loved the fight more than the cause, who mistook proximity to power for principle, who confused the roar of the crowd with the voice of conscience. And power corrupted what remained—the integrity, the courage, the unwillingness to bend. Power did not change Onanuga. It revealed him. And what it revealed is a man who would sacrifice everything he once believed in for the privilege of standing beside those who once would have thrown him in prison.
The journalist is dead. Long live the courtier. But history will remember the journalist. And history will not be kind to the courtier.
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via bellodoka82@gmail.com
