By Haroon Mustapha
For the attention of His Excellency Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
If two-term presidential politics is a game of two halves, then the first term is when a President sets direction, lays foundations, and begins to redirect the country toward a brighter future. The second term is when those gains are consolidated, the larger vision is executed, and a lasting legacy is secured. The ‘BAT’ are positioned to become the halcyon period that repositions Nigeria regionally and internationally: no longer the tired story of a nation defined only by potential, but the 21st-century story of a country that converts potential into tangible national benefit.
That is precisely why Bauchi, like every other state in the federation, must not be allowed to become a paradise for immunity seekers. Past executive failure must not be recycled. Allegations of criminality must not be politically laundered. Questions over allegedly siphoned NNPC funds, allegations of procurement abuse, and claims touching on banditry or terrorism financing must not simply be brushed aside while Bauchi misses a genuine opportunity to reposition itself as a hub for tourism, agricultural investment, and strategic solid-mineral development under your second term.
Few tactics in politics are as cynical as the rush for constitutional immunity. Under Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, governors are protected from civil and criminal proceedings while in office. For some Bauchi politicians, the timing of their ambition raises serious questions. With lingering allegations from their time in the civil service or in federal appointments, the governorship can appear less like a platform for service and more like the ultimate constitutional shield. Reports in the public domain describe individuals investigated or charged by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) or the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) repositioning themselves as leaders seeking the people’s mandate not necessarily to serve, but, critics argue, to evade accountability. Whatever language such actors now deploy, the public record cannot simply be wished away. This playbook risks turning Bauchi into a haven for immunity seekers, weakening public trust, undermining good governance, and damaging the wider reform legacy your administration seeks to build.
The most obvious example is the current governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed. Before his election in 2019, Mohammed, a former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, had faced EFCC scrutiny. The anti-graft agency publicly stated that he “was standing trial for money laundering at the time he won election as governor of Bauchi State. Only the constitutional immunity from prosecution, which his current office attracts, has put that case in abeyance.” EFCC statements issued earlier this year reiterated that position and linked the matter to his prior public roles. More recently, his administration has also come under fresh EFCC scrutiny involving aides charged with money laundering and terrorism financing, with his name reportedly appearing in court filings. Governor Mohammed has dismissed these developments as political persecution. Critics, however, argue that his 2019 governorship bid was timed, at least in part, to take advantage of constitutional immunity. Whether one accepts the EFCC’s account or the governor’s defence of a witch-hunt, the optics remain troubling: public office appears, at minimum, to have functioned as a route away from immediate accountability.
Now a section of Bauchi’s political elite is reportedly positioning Dr Bala Maijama’a Wunti as Governor Mohammed’s preferred successor ahead of the 2027 elections. That prospect raises a profound question: is this confidence, or the entitlement of a political class that believes public memory is short and can be manipulated? In today’s world, alleged misconduct in public office does not remain hidden. It is documented, debated, and permanently available for scrutiny. Public commentary on social media, local reporting, and Wunti’s own political signals increasingly frame him as Mohammed’s preferred successor, with consultations inside APC structures reportedly already under way. Some accounts further suggest a wider political bargain in which Governor Mohammed could defect from the PDP to the APC, secure the APC senatorial ticket for Bauchi South, and see his Commissioner of Finance, Yakubu Adamu, who is currently facing EFCC charges of money laundering and terrorism financing at the Federal High Court, emerge as Wunti’s running mate. If such a transition were realised, it would align Bauchi’s leadership succession with the ruling party, smooth Wunti’s path, and preserve Mohammed’s political relevance.
Dr Wunti is a career public servant who served in the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited. He joined in 1994 and rose through the ranks to hold several senior positions, including Production Programming Officer, Group General Manager of Corporate Planning and Strategy, Managing Director of the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, and, crucially, Group General Manager of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services from 2020 to 2025. In his final stint at NNPC, he served as Chief Health, Safety and Environment Officer before retiring in June 2025. Since then, he has increasingly been mentioned as a leading contender for the governorship of Bauchi State.
However, as in the case of Bala Mohammed in 2019, public records also contain serious allegations relating to Wunti’s period at NAPIMS. In 2022, Sahara Reporters and several whistleblower groups published claims that Wunti allegedly presided over “massive contracts fraud and multi-billion-dollar corruption” in NNPC’s upstream investment operations. The allegations included inflation of Joint Venture Cash Call budgets in alleged collusion with multinational and indigenous oil companies; the award of contracts in alleged violation of procurement rules, with preference reportedly given to favoured companies; the inflation of crude-oil handling charges, including claims that as much as $4 per barrel was added to Joint Venture budgets; and broader allegations of procurement fraud and abuse of office.
Groups such as the Concerned Citizens of Nigeria, the Community Development Committee, and the Citizens Watch Coalition petitioned the EFCC and the National Assembly for investigation, citing what they described as more than 10 incidents of fraud and abuse of office. A 2025 petition to the EFCC reportedly renewed demands for a formal probe. Wunti has not been convicted of any offence, and his defenders have dismissed the allegations as blackmail and baseless claims unsupported by probative evidence. Even so, the accumulation of petitions and media reports has kept the allegations in public view. As he is now discussed as a possible APC governorship candidate in Bauchi, critics see a familiar pattern: a senior federal technocrat under heavy public scrutiny moving toward an office that carries constitutional immunity.
Mr President, you have presented yourself as a bold reformer willing to take difficult decisions that previous administrations avoided. Your economic reforms have marked a clear departure from decades of fiscal complacency. The removal of the fuel subsidy shortly after your inauguration in 2023, though politically risky, ended a long-standing drain on public resources and will remain one of the defining decisions of your presidency. The unification of exchange rates and the floating of the naira signalled a return to market discipline. Non-oil revenue performance, debt-service relief, GDP recovery, and rising external reserves have all been cited as evidence that your administration is pursuing a serious reform agenda. Additional efforts in civil-service reform, institutional restructuring, regional security cooperation, and infrastructure build-out have reinforced the image of a government trying to reset the Nigerian state. That is precisely why the company your administration keeps matters so much.
The people of Bauchi are tired of unrealised potential. They are tired of youth unemployment, weak primary healthcare, underdeveloped tourism assets, and a state economy that has not matched its promise. Bauchi can be a food basket for the North. It can become an engine room for value-added solid-mineral development. It can attract investment in agriculture, logistics, and tourism. These aspirations fit naturally within your stated vision of a stronger, more economically stable Nigeria built on sustainable growth, institutional integrity, and reduced corruption. But they cannot be realised if the state is captured by political actors whose primary instinct is self-preservation rather than public service.
Mr President your brand rests on reformist credibility: ending unsustainable subsidies, blocking fiscal leakages, and projecting administrative seriousness. Embracing figures with unresolved EFCC-level baggage carries obvious reputational risks. Public perception matters. Global perception matters. If Bauchi’s succession narrative hardens around Wunti amid contract-fraud petitions, and if that process is linked to a wider political accommodation involving Governor Mohammed, it will invite the charge that the ruling party is providing political cover to individuals facing grave allegations. In that scenario, isn’t Bauchi being conned once again?
Mr President, your legacy is not to be built on GDP numbers alone. It is also built on the company one keeps and the precedents one sets. Any association with politicians who appear, in the public mind, to treat the governorship as a get-out-of-jail card risks diluting the narrative of national renewal. It would also feed the perception that the APC is becoming a vehicle for elite protection rather than public service. In Bauchi specifically, the elevation of Wunti despite the allegations tied to his NAPIMS years, even if those allegations have not been proven in court, would send a dangerous signal: that political usefulness can override transparency concerns. Nigerians across the country would then be entitled to ask whether this is truly the new Nigeria your administration promises, or merely the old order dressed in reformist language.
Bauchi State’s political elite must decide whether shielding individuals facing serious public allegations serves the people or merely perpetuates a cycle of impunity. The impunity of the entitled. Mr President, you have staked your place in history on economic courage; you now face a parallel test of political consistency. Enduring legacy demands reform without selective blindness to corruption. Allowing Bauchi to become an immunity paradise would not only betray the people of the state; it could also stain the broader reform project your administration has diligently advanced. The 2027 contest will test whether substance prevails over political shelter, or whether the governorship remains a golden ticket for those with unfinished business before anti-corruption agencies. Nigerians deserve better than a state run as a refuge from accountability.
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We remain guided by you, Mr President.
Mustapha, wrote from Bakin Kura Street, Bauchi.
