By Idowu Ephraim Faleye
When Nigeria Immigration Service recently announced the arrest and seizure of over 6,000 Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, and National Identity Cards from illegal migrants in the border states, many Nigerians dismissed it as just another security lapse in an overstretched system.
But this was no routine border patrol success. It was a glimpse into a silent war — a well-coordinated attempt to once again hijack Nigeria’s democratic soul.
Painfully, this isn’t new. It’s a re-enactment of a script that played out in 2015 — the year a coalition of desperate power brokers colluded to smuggle Sahelian Fulani operatives into Nigeria to subvert the electoral will of Nigerians and install their preferred candidate in order to protect a deeply entrenched hegemony that sees Nigeria, not as a democratic republic, but as an ancestral estate to be controlled.
Let this truth sting — because until it does, we may not fully grasp the seriousness of what is unfolding before our eyes. Buba Galadima, a long-time northern political figure and former Buhari ally, recently dropped a bombshell that many Nigerians glossed over. In a moment of unguarded candour, he said: “General Buhari was recruited into politics to save the Fulani structure from being uprooted.” That wasn’t a gaffe — it was a window into a grand ethnic strategy designed not to serve Nigeria, but to maintain the dominance of a group that sees perpetual rulership as its birthright.
This “structure” didn’t emerge overnight. It is rooted in an ideology passed down from Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto — who, in the 1960s, declared that Nigeria must remain under Fulani leadership because it was “bequeathed to them” by Uthman dan Fodio. He warned that Southerners must never be allowed full control, lest they undermine the interests of the North, and have control over their future. That worldview was not democratic. It was supremacist. And though it has evolved, it never died.
Today, that ideology resurfaces in even more sinister forms. What’s most disheartening is that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu — a man whose rise came through resilience, sacrifice, and uncommon political skill — is now fighting to reset Nigeria on a path of justice and equity. Yet, the very people he’s fighting for are silent, indifferent, or outrightly uncooperative. Many seem oblivious to what their captors are desperate to retain and the devastating cost they’re willing to impose on the rest of the nation to preserve it.
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Let’s examine the facts: over 6,000 foreigners — mostly Fulani from other Africa countries— were caught with PVCs and National Identity Cards. These individuals are not Nigerians. They have no civic ties to our democracy, no ancestral roots in our communities. Yet, they were equipped to participate in our elections. They didn’t obtain these documents by coincidence. They were aided from within by insiders in INEC and the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC, institutions funded by the Nigerian taxpayer. This is not a clerical error. It is treason. Until these saboteurs are identified, prosecuted, and removed from public service, Nigeria will remain shackled.
Let’s not be deceived. This isn’t about border control. This is not an immigration issue. This is a deliberate demographic invasion designed to capture the state through electoral manipulation. When foreigners vote, democracy is dead. Your voice is silenced. Your children’s future is sold to the highest bidder.
President Tinubu — whether you supported his candidacy or not — is being vilified today not because he’s corrupted or incompetent, but because he dares to confront and dismantle the entrenched power structure. He’s fighting to return Nigeria to its rightful owners — Nigerians. Sadly, many of the same people he seeks to liberate are the ones attacking him, misreading his intentions, or sleeping through the danger.
He is challenging the old order — an order that sees power as entitlement, democracy as a smokescreen, and elections as a numbers game rigged through imported voters and falsified data.
This recent arrest of over 6,000 illegal holders of Nigerian identity documents exposes the scale of the conspiracy. How did such a vast number of foreign nationals obtain PVCs and national IDs? Was it random? No. It was systematic. It was planned. It was funded. These migrants didn’t stumble across identity cards at the border. There’s an entire underground machinery responsible, and it’s still very much operational.
What’s worse is the disturbing silence from citizens who should be outraged. The South is quiet. The Middle Belt is whispering. Even the majority Hausa aboriginals, which has suffered most from this expansionist aggression, appears uncertain about where to stand. But silence, in this case, is complicity. Because while Nigerians sleep, the machinery of subjugation works overtime.
Nigerians must come to terms with what President Tinubu is confronting. This is not a routine presidency. It’s not business as usual. He’s not fighting just political opposition; he’s confronting a deeply rooted power cabal that spans across government ministries, security forces, electoral institutions, and even traditional leadership. Dislodging it is like performing surgery on a moving train which is delicate, dangerous, and necessary.
And how have Nigerians responded? They are responding with petty criticisms, distrust, and ethnic baiting. Many who should be his strongest allies are instead echoing recycled grievances. They grumble about economic reforms and hardship without acknowledging that much of that hardship was engineered by the same elite Tinubu is now trying to unseat. Change, real change, comes with discomfort. You cannot dismantle a rot of decades without unsettling the system.
Now is the time to rise above ethnic biases and short-term frustrations. This is a defining national moment. Ask yourself: who benefits from foreign votes? Who profits when outsiders determine electoral outcomes? Who sleeps better when your children’s futures are mortgaged to aliens?
This is not a call for hate. It is a call for truth and action. We must demand accountability from INEC and NIMC. We must call for a national audit of all PVCs and identity documents issued in recent years. Not only must the foreigners be prosecuted, but every Nigerian official who enabled them must face the law. This is the only way to restore credibility and safeguard our democracy.
And yes, we must support President Tinubu in this fight. Because it is a fight. A war — not of bullets, but of narratives, vigilance, and national will. Every citizen must become a soldier of democratic resistance. Scrutinize electoral lists. Guard polling units. Question suspicious demographic spikes in Northern LGAs. Demand answers. Insist on transparency.
This is the moment to reclaim our civic pride. To speak. To organize. To educate. This fight is not Tinubu’s alone. If he fails, we all fail. If he falls, we all fall. He may be the symbol of resistance — but we must be the foot soldiers of freedom.
It’s easy to sit back and criticize. But real patriotism is shown in defence of your nation when it matters most. And this moment matters more than ever. If this new wave of electoral invasion succeeds, Nigeria may not survive another cycle of political capture. To the saboteurs in public office — your days are numbered. This generation will not watch Nigeria auctioned off in silence. To the institutions aiding this treason — your complicity will not go unanswered. And to the silent majority — your silence equals consent.
The Fulani oligarchy knows exactly what is at stake. That’s why they’re fighting hard to hold on. But the rest of Nigeria is still distracted by ethnic squabbles and regional self-interest. We must wake up. We must unite. We must choose country over tribe, and democracy over conquest.
Let us reject this attempted recolonization — not with hate, but with courage and conviction. Let us say boldly: Nigeria is not a Fulani estate. Nigeria is not for sale. Nigeria belongs to all her citizens — equally and justly.
Let us support President Tinubu — not because he is perfect, but because he may be the last line of political resistance standing between Nigeria and another era of ethnic domination. Let us give him the support he needs to uproot the fraud, restructure the system, and return power to the people.
This is no time for apathy. It is a time for national resistance. Let us not betray ourselves with silence. Let us not be co-opted into our own oppression. Let us not be remembered as the generation that stood idle while others decided our fate. This is the battle for the soul of Nigeria. And it is one we must win.
*Faleye writes from Ado-Ekiti.
