Ifeanyi Igwebike Mbanefo writes open letter to Senator Jimoh Ibrahim: From ₦100 Million Gift To ₦50 Billion Vengeance
By
Ifeanyi Igwebike Mbanefo
Distinguished Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, we raise our voices first in genuine salute.
Your hand has been open and generous: $1 million and ₦50 million laid at Pastor Enoch Adeboye’s altar, filling pews, restoring chapels, feeding widows. ₦100 million rain on 10,000 Ondo schoolchildren for school uniforms, books and slates — futures lifted from the dust. Okitipupa’s clinics bear your name because you donated generously to healthcare infrastructure. These are no faint gestures of charity. They are thunderclaps of generosity. Genuine acts of charity.
Now behold your other hand—a fist clenched around ₦50 BILLION, swinging toward Punch Newspapers and the nation’s conscience personified — Sonala Olumhense.
₦50 billion. A thousand times the treasure you offered God. Enough to rescue half a million families from starvation — ewedu and gbegiri in their pots, kerosene in their lamps, febrifuge for their children’s burning brows. School fees for five million students. Fifty thousand classrooms in forgotten corners of our country.
Your wounded pride, Senator, now claims precedence over half a million families’ survival.
Sonala Olumhense set pen to truth’s unyielding ink, questioning whether political favor festers within Nigeria’s UN nominations. Section 39 stands sentinel over that question. You answered not with argument, but with a lethal weapon — a SLAPP suit (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) contrived to drown him beneath mountains of paperwork (read legal briefs), bleed him through ceaseless fees, drag him through courtrooms across a decade. And all the while hiding behind rotten SANs in silk dresses. The man who prides himself as one of the most educated Nigerians cannot respond to a simple newspaper essay.
This course is grievous, Senator. The hand that fed thousands at God’s table now seeks to stifle free speech, to starve democracy itself.
Picture Olumhense’s desk today—legal documents piled like a suffocating cairn over his typewriter, everyone wondering will truth bring ruin? The cub reporter in Ilorin reads your suit and buries his exposé on fertilizer theft. The trader in Onitsha chokes back her protest against market rigging. The student in Zaria deletes his manifesto mid-sentence. Your lawsuit strikes not one man alone. It poisons every fountain of candor.
It has happened before. A blameless man was once nailed on the cross. His disciples hid in Jerusalem in a house where they ate last supper with him and he washed their feet. The address was Upper room. The disciples who hid because they feared they would be targeted regained their tongue and boldness at Pentecost. Pentecost comes around every year, just about this time. It came after Amachree’s head was shaven. It came after Abiola was denied. It came after Abacha has raped and ravaged the land. And it will still come again, 50 days after Easter is Pentecost. It is a yearly ritual.
Nigeria’s fourth estate drank deep from bitter wells under Abacha—decrees splintering spines like palm fronds, riflemen stalking newsrooms and taking aim at journalists. Alex Ibru was shot on Falomo bridge, Alfred Rewane in Ikoyi. Nigeria endured. Must they now re-experience beneath democracy’s magnates, veiled behind advocates in silken robes?
Your legacy balances upon this razor’s edge, Senator. The hand that blessed Adeboye’s sanctuary might yet bless Nigeria’s voice—or shatter it. Withdraw this suit. Let your ₦100 million of philanthropy cast ₦50 billion of retribution into shadow. Your people will sing your name more sweetly for clemency than for conquest.
Yet institutions bear duty as well:
Senate President Akpabio: Champion the Uniform Public Expression Protection Act (UPEPA) urgently. It protects public expression and provides immunity from civil liability for a wide range of protected speech, including communications about government proceedings and matters of public concern.
n It offers early dismissal mechanism: Defendants can file a motion to dismiss SLAPP suits at an early stage, arguing that the claim arises from protected activity.
n Burden of Proof: Once a defendant demonstrates that the lawsuit relates to protected activity, the plaintiff must show that their claim has merit.
n Attorney’s Fees: If immunity is granted, the defendant is entitled to recover attorney’s fees and costs.
n Expedited Judicial Review: The Act provides for quick determination of whether a lawsuit meets the criteria for dismissal.
Why it Matters? The UPEPA aims to protect freedom of expression, discourage abusive litigation, minimize costs for defendants, and create consistency in protection of free speech. It is what civilized people everywhere do. 38 states in the United States have UPEPA type laws. Canada, South Africa. Freedom of speech must be protected.
Speaker Abbas: Convene Justice hearings in April—inoculate the Evidence Act against SLAPP by December. President Tinubu: Charge AGF with directive by May— stop prosecuting cases that bother on or restrict public speech. CJN Kekere-Ekun: Issue Practice Direction by July—summary dispatch for procedural abuse.
Your action sears, Senator. Your ₦50 million secured divine favor. Your pride exacts ₦50 billion—a thousandfold disavowal of that altar vow, half a million families’ daily bread, five million students’ portions of chalk. Sonala Olumhense is unbowed. Punch’s presses thunder through the midnight hours, diligently serving Nigeria.
But all Nigeria beholds you. Shall your name resound as Ondo’s benevolent son—or as the senator who prized sentiment above half a million families’ survival? Nigeria awaits your nobler instinct, distinguished senator. Choose the hand that raises, not the fist that fells. Please stand down.
IFEANYI MBANEFO LIVES IN MONTREAL, CANADA.
