As Nigeria hosts the 2025 African Week—a forum promoting reparations, repatriation, and regional unity—a fresh controversy is brewing over what critics see as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s contradictory approach to intellectual engagement.
While the president has repeatedly called on Nigerian intellectuals to offer solutions to the country’s growing crises, he is now facing backlash for allegedly targeting those who have done just that.
Speaking at the opening of African Week in Abuja, Professor Theophilus Ndubuaku, Secretary-General of the Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions (ASURI), did not hold back.
“The president urged intellectuals to bring ideas, saying that if Nigeria fails, we all fail. But those who formed a think tank to do exactly that are now being dragged to court for allegedly running a ‘shadow government,’” Ndubuaku told journalists.
What began as a platform to address Africa’s long-standing struggles for justice and reparations quickly shifted into a sharp critique of what Ndubuaku called political hypocrisy.
While President Tinubu has in recent months publicly appealed to academics, technocrats, and civil society to contribute to national recovery, Ndubuaku said those who responded by forming a “shadow cabinet” to monitor governance and offer policy advice are now facing court summonses and arrest threats.
“These people didn’t plot a coup—they used their minds,” he said. “And now, instead of being appreciated, they are being criminalized.”
Observers warn that this sends a dangerous message to the academic and policy community: engage at your own risk.
Ndubuaku, a lead organizer of African Week 2025, also stressed that Africa’s call for reparations cannot move forward without credible and courageous leadership at home.
He noted that while the United Nations and some European countries have acknowledged the atrocities of slavery and colonization, African leaders—including those in Nigeria—have failed to institutionalize demands for compensation, despite past efforts like MKO Abiola’s $77 trillion reparations campaign.
“Artifacts are being returned, yes. But what about the people and systems that were destroyed?” he asked. “We must go beyond repatriation and demand true reparation.”
He also raised concerns about Nigeria’s growing foreign debt, calling it a new form of economic enslavement.
“Our grandchildren will repay loans that should never have been taken,” he said. “The same leaders ignoring reparations are burying us in debt.”
Ndubuaku praised former President Olusegun Obasanjo for leveraging Nigeria’s historical injustices to negotiate debt relief, contrasting that with the inaction of today’s leadership.
He also called on the Nigerian press to fulfill its duty of accountability.
“You can’t ask for solutions and then jail the people who give them. The media must hold the president accountable.”
Reparation, repatriation, and justice for the transatlantic slave trade, he said, remain urgent and deeply relevant.
“Nigeria is home to one in every four Black people on Earth. We must act like the true powerhouse of the Black race,” Ndubuaku said.
He reflected on the legacy of the slave trade, which began in the 15th century and left the continent devastated.
“Millions were taken, cultures shattered, and artifacts looted. We are still living with the consequences—underdevelopment, inequality, and weak institutions.”
Ndubuaku recalled MKO Abiola’s collaboration with Nigerian scholars in calculating Africa’s economic loss from slavery and colonization—then estimated at $77 trillion, now worth far more.
He acknowledged some recent progress, like the Netherlands’ return of 119 stolen artifacts earlier this year, but said such gestures fall short.
“Symbolic actions are not enough. We need meaningful compensation for what was lost—human and material.”
He lamented that momentum has stalled nearly 25 years after Abiola’s campaign.
“There’s been recognition from the UN and EU, but no real movement toward reparations. That must change.”
ASURI, alongside civil society groups, is leading this year’s African Week as a renewed call for action.
Ndubuaku invoked Obasanjo’s success with debt relief as evidence that history can be a tool for justice—if leaders are bold enough.
“Instead, today we are piling up debt, trading one form of slavery for another. This time, the chains are financial.”
He urged the media and citizens alike to demand economic justice and resist efforts to silence critical voices.
“The prosecution of these thinkers is unconstitutional and politically motivated. The government is shutting down the very dialogue it claims to welcome.”
He concluded with a clear call to action:
“We must protect intellectual freedom and ensure that those working for national development are not treated like enemies of the state.”