Four staunch critics of the President Muhammdu Buhari-led government have died within an eight months period in 2021.
Top on the list was Junaid Mohammed who died on February 18, 2021 in Kano where he was being treated for an undisclosed ailment.
He may be from the north, but Mohammed was one of the president’s fiercest critics — although he earlier supported his government.
For many of his colleagues, navigating the murky waters of Nigerian politics is a path they would rather avoid at any cost, considering the attendant risks. But for Mohammed, it was a fight to the finish, given his quest to champion a better Nigeria.
His reason was not different from the popular view among many Nigerians: the country is not working as it should be and needs to be properly structured for any meaningful development to take place.
He once described Buhari’s administration as a “very dangerous leadership“, citing his inability to finish two pages of a book he recommended to him in 2015. The well-known politician would later label the president’s anti-graft war as “a fraud meant to persecute only those in opposition who stole money”.
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Three months later, Yinka Odumakin followed. The human rights activist and politician died on the 3rd of April at the age of 55.
Until his death, he was the national publicity secretary of Afenifere, a Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group.
Odumakin played a key role in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) that fought the government of Sani Abacha after the annulment of the 1993 Nigerian presidential election. He was among the spokespersons of the Southern and Middle Belt Leader’s Forum (SMBLF).
He was the spokesman of Muhammadu Buhari when he contested the 2011 Nigerian presidential election under the defunct Congress for Progressive Change.
In 2014, during the government of Goodluck Jonathan, Odumakin and his wife were the only married couple among the 492-member 2014 National Conference which was held in Abuja, Nigeria. He was also a known critic of Muhammadu Buhari’s government.
Another fiery critic of President Buhari who died within this period was Barrister Olusegun Bamgbose, Esq, National Coordinator, Concerned Advocates for Good Governance, CAGG, and a chieftain of the New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP.
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Bamgbose died in the wee hours of Friday, September 17, 2021 after a brief illness.
Bamgbose who declared his interests to run in the 2023 presidential election under the umbrella of the NNPP, had on several occasions criticised the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari on several governance issues,
Bamgbose was richly endowed with political sagacity and was consistent in holding governments to account as he lent his voice to the most critical of national and local issues.
On September 19, 2021, it was the turn of former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr. Obadiah Mailafia to kick the bucket.
Mailafia, 64, died on Sunday morning from an undisclosed illness.
Apart from being a former CBN deputy governor, Mr Mailafia was also a popular public commentator who was always willing to share his view on public affairs.
He was quite critical of the President Muhammadu-led administration especially on policy issues and insecurity.
It would be recalled that in 2020, while appearing on a radio programme with Nigeria Info Abuja 95.1FM, he alleged that some pardoned terrorists revealed that a serving northern governor was a Boko Haram leader.
He also alluded to the existence of a certain ‘Jigawa cabal’ that was enriching itself by frustrating the CBN’s effort to sustain the value of the Naira vis a vis the American dollar.