{
  "id": 9786958,
  "title": "Paul Nwabuikwu: Okonjo-Iweala’s Henchman, Revolution, Marijuana and Other Stories",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/25/paul-nwabuikwu-okonjo-iwealas-henchman-revolution-marijuana-and-other",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-25T15:26:59.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "This Day",
    "slug": "this-day",
    "url": "https://www.thisdaylive.com/2026/09/25/paul-nwabuikwu-okonjo-iwealas-henchman-revolution-marijuana-and-other-stories/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Paul C Nwabuikwu, a former communications aide to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has penned an article on thisdaylive.com attempting to explain why Nigerians fail to take my presidential bid seriously. However, it is important to establish Nwabuikwu's background before addressing his arguments. He served twice as Special Adviser to Nigeria's Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who harbors a deep-seated animosity towards me. In fact, she penned a book and fabricated lies about me after challenging her during her tenure as a dollar-receiving Finance Minister under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration.\n\nNwabuikwu portrays himself as an impartial observer of who possesses substance and who lacks it. While he is entitled to his opinions, Nigerians are equally entitled to scrutinize the political and economic establishment that birthed those viewpoints, and question whether they are driven by genuine analysis or personal animosity.\n\nNwabuikwu describes me as an \"eternal student activist,\" a \"perennial presidential candidate,\" and a practitioner of \"SUG theatrics.\" These insults, while entertaining, are not arguments. I am indeed a proud student activist who confronted Nigeria's military dictatorship during a time when many members of the current establishment were accommodating it. I was jailed, expelled from universities, beaten, and even killed while fighting for the freedoms that Nigerians now enjoy without hesitation. Wearing the label of a \"student activist\" as an insult would be a badge of honor for me.\n\nNwabuikwu uses my 14,608 votes in the 2023 presidential election as evidence that Nigerians do not consider me a serious candidate. While he is free to interpret the election result as he pleases, votes gathered within Nigeria's deeply unequal political system do not constitute an intellectual assessment of a candidate's ideas. In fact, Paul had previously argued vociferously that the 2023 elections were not credible. It is only the 14,000 votes I received that he considers credible, despite his own previous stance.\n\nNwabuikwu fails to engage seriously with the proposals presented by my campaign, such as a living wage of at least ₦500,000 for Nigerian workers, mass public housing, free and qualitative education, fundamental police reform, an end to casualization, a drastically expanded electricity system, modern mass transportation by rail, road, and water, agricultural value chains, industrialization, and a frontal attack on corruption, waste, and monopoly. These ideas can and should be debated, criticized, and challenged. However, dismissing them due to a more entertaining headline, such as \"marijuana,\" is intellectually unproductive.\n\nThe argument for legalizing and regulating cannabis is not that Nigeria should abandon other sectors, such as oil, agriculture, manufacturing, technology, and more, to become a cannabis farm. Instead, the proposal suggests that Nigeria can derive economic value from cannabis through regulation and legitimate industrial, pharmaceutical, and commercial applications, rather than continuing with a prohibition-based approach. Nwabuikwu may disagree with this position, but disagreement with a policy is not the same as demonstrating that the policy lacks substance.\n\nLastly, Nwabuikwu claims that my Defense Minister would be a \"drone.\" While the statement was made as a catchy slogan, it carries a serious proposition about the technological transformation of Nigeria's security architecture. Embracing unmanned aerial systems, surveillance, intelligence gathering, domestic defense technology, and precision capabilities could make Nigeria's security forces more effective against increasingly sophisticated armed groups. Calling the idea \"shocking\" does not refute it.",
  "summary": "By Omoyele Sowore Paul C Nwabuikwu, a longtime communications lieutenant of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has written a lengthy piece in thisdaylive.com attempting to explain why Nigerians supposedly do not take my",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}