They can arrest a governor, a senator, a former official or even a sarcastic author. They cannot arrest the market woman in Kaduna who remembers when her children could go to school without fear. They cannot arrest the farmer in Zaria who knows what it means to have a leader who built roads and hospitals instead of buying properties in Dubai. They cannot arrest the youth in Kafanchan who has seen what governance looks like when it is driven by ideas rather than looting. And that is why the people must resist. Resist the intimidation. Resist the threats. Resist the temptation of rice and noodles and bread, though if hunger is the weapon being used against you, take the food they offer and use the energy to sweep them out. There is no shame in eating the rice of the oppressor if the same hand that stole from you then feeds you crumbs is the hand you will vote out. Collect the rice. Collect the noodles. Collect the bread. You will need the energy on election day. But do not indulge in violence. Do not let them bait you into chaos, because chaos is their plan. The APC will do anything to postpone the election, to create a state of emergency, to find an excuse to remain in power without facing the voters. Violence is the excuse they are praying for. Do not give it to them. Stay peaceful. Stay focused. Stay organized. Mobilize your neighbours. Educate your community on how to vote and how to protect the vote. On the final day, come out in numbers so large that no rigging machine can swallow them. Send them packing with your ballot, not your fist. Look around you and ask what this government has actually delivered. A former senator turned blogger whose only achievement is sharing transistor radios on camera. Ministers whose only visible success is accumulating properties abroad while their people wallow in poverty under the shackles of bandits and terrorists. Appointees who have turned public funds into private estates while the roads in their own constituencies remain death traps. These are the people who want to keep El-Rufai in a cage. These are the paper tigers. They have no record to run on, so they are running on fear. They are afraid of a man who refused to be subdued. A man who refused to be silenced by betrayals and backstabbing. A man who, even from behind bars, commands more loyalty and respect than they will ever earn in a lifetime of sycophancy. The lion is caged, but the lion is not dead. The people are not dead. The votes are not dead. The anger is not dead. On election day, let the cage be opened by the ballot. Let the roar be heard in every polling unit. Avenge the treatment of El-Rufai with your votes. Refuse to be intimidated. Refuse to be bought. Refuse to be divided. The paper tigers are terrified because they know that when the people speak, the cage becomes irrelevant. The lion walks free. And the paper burns. Go out and do it for MALLAM NASIR EL-RUFAI. Bissalam Mohammed Bello Doka  can be reached via [email protected]

A Caged Lion is Still a Lion: Avenge El-Rufai’s Treatment With Your Votes — Refuse to Be Intimidated Today marks two hundred and forty-six days since Mallam Nasir El-Rufai voluntarily surrendered himself to an investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and subsequently the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, on February 18, 2026, a detention that has now stretched through nearly eight months of a man who committed no crime other than refusing to kneel. A lot of people, supporters and even enemies alike, have registered their frustration at a spectacle that has long ceased to resemble justice and has become something closer to a political hostage situation. The campaign is about to start, and the paper tigers know it, which is precisely why the cage has not been opened. They thought the cage would silence him. They thought the chains would make the people forget. They were wrong. A caged lion is still a lion but more dangerous. The roar does not die because the mouth is behind bars. It echoes louder. It travels farther. It wakes up those who were sleeping. And in Kaduna, across the North, and through every corner of this country where people still believe that leadership is about service and not about swallowing the commonwealth, the people are waking up. They are watching. They are remembering. And they are angry. Let us be clear. The detention of Nasir El-Rufai is no longer a legal matter. It has become a political circus, and the clowns are not even pretending anymore. A former senator allegedly stood in Zaria and begged the governor to keep El-Rufai locked up until after the 2027 election, until the governor receives his crown, and only then should the lion be released. Read that again. A public figure, in broad daylight, at a political gathering, openly linking the continued detention of a former governor to the electoral ambitions of the incumbent. This is not justice. This is not the rule of law. This is fear wearing the mask of legality. And the mask is slipping. Who are these people demanding that El-Rufai remain caged? Their records speak louder than any label. They are the ones who have never won anything on their own. They are the political tourists who attach themselves to whoever holds the microphone and the purse then betray them and find another host to leech again. They could not win a ward councillorship without standing on another man’s structure. They have no history of political triumph in and of themselves. And now, terrified that the lion might walk out of the cage and remind the people of what real leadership looks like, they are begging for the detention to continue. Paper tigers. That is what they are. Paper tigers roaring at a lion behind bars because they know that if the bars were removed, they would scatter like leaves in a storm. Their fear is understandable. El-Rufai’s greatest strength was never in the Government House. It was never in the ministerial chambers. It was never in the boardroom of the APC or the corridors of power. His greatest strength is the people. Not just in Kaduna, though Kaduna knows him best. Across Nigeria, there are people who remember a man who spoke truth to power when it was dangerous. Who stood against the naira redesign policy not because it hurt his party’s chances, but because he saw ordinary Nigerians suffering at the ATM queues, unable to buy food, unable to transport themselves to work. He said it plainly, without fear of the cabal in Aso Rock: the president made a mistake. How many of those now calling him a criminal had the courage to say that? Not one. They were too busy calculating how to position themselves for the next round of appointments.