By Yusuf, M.A<\/p>\n
Yahaya Bello\u2019s now-deleted letter to the new Chief of Army Staff, Major General W. Shaibu, isn\u2019t just a congratulatory note gone wrong. It is a Freudian confession, a political X-ray of a man who has vacated office but not power.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a former governor who, despite having no shred of constitutional authority left, still wrote to a serving service chief on Kogi State Government letterhead, decorated with the Nigerian coat of arms, and personally signed it in red ink, the bureaucratic color of command. In diplomatic and military correspondence, red ink signifies authority, correction, or reprimand. In other words, Bello\u2019s pen screamed what his heart still believes: \u201cI am still the governor!\u201d<\/p>\n
But what truly gives away the pathology of this letter is its language. Rather than simply congratulating Major General W. Shaibu on his appointment, Bello issued what can only be described as a coded directive. He reminded the General of \u201cthe challenges we faced during my tenure\u201d and then proceeded to express confidence that \u201cmy worthy successor will have you in his corner\u201d, as though the Chief of Army Staff were some loyal subordinate he was handing over to his apprentice.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t stop there. Bello urged the Army Chief to \u201ccollaborate with my worthy successor,\u201d as if the Nigerian Army takes operational instructions from former governors. That\u2019s not statesmanship; that\u2019s delusion dressed in official letterhead.<\/p>\n
Only a sitting governor can communicate officially with a service chief. For a former governor to do so, using state emblems and the coat of arms, is a symbolic impersonation of office, and in legal terms, borders on misrepresentation of authority. But more than a legal violation, it\u2019s a psychological one, the inability to accept that the sun has set on his reign.<\/p>\n
Bello\u2019s letter wasn\u2019t written to congratulate; it was written to command. It wasn\u2019t meant to honor Major General Shaibu; it was meant to remind him who used to give orders. His signature wasn\u2019t just ink on paper, it was the lingering fingerprint of political addiction.<\/p>\n
And what\u2019s worse? His aides, instead of counseling restraint, joined in the applause. His media former aide, Barrister Onogwu Muhammed, a man who should know better, proudly shared the letter on Facebook without realizing that he was publicizing an embarrassment, not an achievement.<\/p>\n
But this is the tragedy of our political culture: advisers have become echo chambers, and sycophancy has replaced sound judgment. The people who should whisper truth into their principal\u2019s ears now compete to massage their egos, even when they\u2019re careening into disgrace.<\/p>\n
Yahaya Bello\u2019s letter has since been deleted, but deletion doesn\u2019t erase folly. It only confirms guilt. The red pen may be gone, the post may be down, but the arrogance it revealed is permanently inked into the record.<\/p>\n
In the end, the episode is not about one man\u2019s mistake, it\u2019s about the dangerous intoxication of power in a political class that doesn\u2019t know when to step down from the stage. Bello\u2019s letter was never a congratulatory message; it was a cry for relevance from a man who can\u2019t accept that the play is over.<\/p>\n
\u25cf This piece was first posted on Adams Yusuf’s Facebook page two days ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Yusuf, M.A Yahaya Bello\u2019s now-deleted letter to the new Chief of Army Staff, Major General W. Shaibu, isn\u2019t just a congratulatory note gone wrong. It is a Freudian confession, a political X-ray of a man who has vacated office but not power. Here\u2019s a former governor who, despite having no shred of constitutional authority […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":95669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5782],"tags":[759,7388,7389],"class_list":["post-95668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-opinion","tag-bello","tag-red-pen","tag-waidi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/95669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}