For a Nigerian politician, David Umahi isn’t big. He isn’t fat. But he is still an idiot.
Rufai Oseni finally—and decisively—flogged him in public on Arise TV.
It took a journalist with real courage to tell Umahi what many have long known: that he has been full of himself ever since he stumbled into Nigeria’s political scene.
When Umahi was the governor of the backwater state of Ebonyi, he acted like a god demanding worship. He treated journalists covering the statehouse like houseflies at best—and mosquitoes at worst.
His disdain for the media was legendary. As governor, he once banned a Sun newspaper reporter from the Government House for life. His aides went further, warning the reporter that the governor could no longer guarantee his safety in Ebonyi State.
What arrant nonsense.
There were also other reports of Umahi’s government threatening journalists. And like a fly determined to follow the corpse into the grave, Umahi carried that destructive arrogance onto the national stage.
Even though Nigeria’s political class has a long history of intimidating the press, some journalists still remember that when a wild animal runs mad in the bush, the hunter gives it a matching chase.
The question Rufai Oseni asked Umahi was a simple one: How much does the Lagos-Calabar coastal road cost per kilometer?
A straightforward question. Just tell us the average price.
But Umahi couldn’t. Instead, like a typical local champion, he resorted to boasting about his importance and belittling Oseni as a mere journalist.
Poor Umahi. Clearly, his education failed him. None of the distinguished professors at the “Ivory League” institutions he claims to have attended ever told him that a journalist questioning a public official carries the weight of 200 million Nigerians behind that question.
When words failed him, Umahi reached for his last refuge: titles. He declared himself a professor of civil engineering. Now we know what Umahi truly craves—beyond wanting to be president, he thirsts for validation through titles like professor.
African men and their obsession with titles!
You call yourself a professor, yet you cannot answer a simple question:
What is the average cost per kilometer of the Lagos-Calabar coastal road?
Why should that be a state secret? It’s a project funded in the name of Nigerians—money borrowed on our behalf, contracts signed in our name.
How much of it has the government spent? How is that a confrontational question?
To those who think Rufai Oseni was “rude,” here’s the truth: the real problem is that our so-called “big men” have gotten away with impunity for so long that accountability now feels like an insult.
We’ve been so humiliated that many no longer recognize their rights.
These men—Umahi, Tinubu, Soludo, and their ilk—are public servants, not masters. They owe us answers. We have every right to ask how they spend our commonwealth.
They are not doing us a favor by governing. They should get that into their thick heads—for their own good.
Because the generation rising now will not tolerate the nonsense we’ve endured since the 1960s.
If they cannot grow, adapt, or learn humility, they should retire—quickly.
Umahi’s so-called claim to fame is that after graduating from Enugu State University of Science and Technology in 1987 with a degree in Civil Engineering, he founded an engineering firm.
But on January 29, 2021, Peoples Gazette reported that Umahi had transferred more than ₦3.6 billion in public funds to his company, Brass Engineering & Construction Ltd, while serving as deputy governor and governor.
Was anyone surprised? Umahi has never struck anyone as a man who understands the concept of conflict of interest.
His response? Instead of addressing the allegations, his aides harassed Peoples Gazette, the website was blocked, and Umahi sued for ₦2 billion in “defamation.”
Typical.
People like Umahi boast about brilliance, yet they have failed 200 million Nigerians—leaving us without water, electricity, gas, or roads after decades in power.
In truth, Umahi is a pathetic figure. Unlike some of his fellow failures who studied abroad, he did all his schooling in Nigeria—and perhaps that’s why he never learned what “best practices” in public service mean. Deep in his mind still lives the military-style command system of old.
Those who studied and excelled abroad and returned to misrule Nigeria didn’t do so because they were patriotic—they came back because, in any decent society, they wouldn’t survive a year with their arrogance and mediocrity.
They return home because Nigeria is the only place they can thrive by oppressing others—armed with poor character, zero grace, and unearned power.
Umahi’s legacy in Ebonyi? A ₦63 billion airport and a successor named Francis Nwifuru.
After Buhari commissioned Umahi’s airport, it was soon abandoned. At one point, a church used the terminal as a service center.
When Nwifuru took office, he spent another ₦20 billion to reconstruct the runway, which Umahi—the self-proclaimed “professor of civil engineering”—had built with the wrong materials. And when the new runway was completed, the terminal roof began to leak.
Nwifuru, himself a graduate of Building Technology and Wood Work from Ebonyi State University, had to spend ₦2 billion more to fix it.
According to Google, only United Nigeria Airlines flies to Abakaliki from Abuja and Lagos. I tried booking a flight—Lagos to Abakaliki? Not an option. Abuja to Abakaliki? Same story.
Rufai Oseni did Umahi a favor. He flogged him publicly—intellectually and morally. If Umahi has even an ounce of introspection left in him, he should embark on a re-education journey.
Just as Nwifuru earned his master’s in Procurement, Logistics, and Supply Chain Management from Salford University in Manchester while serving as Speaker of the Ebonyi State House of Assembly, Umahi, too, should head to Stanford University for a PhD while serving as Nigeria’s Minister of Works.
Then—maybe—he’ll become a real professor.
Nonsense.
As Nigerian “big men” go, David Umahi isn’t big. He isn’t fat.
He should thank Rufai Oseni for spanking him—and resetting his damaged brain.
Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo teaches Post-Colonial African History, Afrodiasporic Literature, and African Folktales at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He is also the host of Dr. Damages Show. His books include “This American Life Sef” and “Children of a Retired God.” among others. His upcoming book is called “Why I’m Disappointed in Jesus.”