By Abidemi Adebamiwa, Editorial Desk
Look around you. Read the newspapers. Check Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, and so on. Nigerian politics pretends not to see what is right in front of everyone.
A politician gets accused of serious wrongdoing. Not gossip. Not social media noise. A real investigation by the EFCC or the ICPC. And what happens? Nothing. Some even move up. They become party leaders, power brokers, or kingmakers. The criminal investigation itself becomes part of their résumé.
In any serious democracy or representative government, once serious allegations come up, you step aside. It is not drama or punishment. It is how systems protect themselves. Civil servants do it. Judges do it. Even private companies do it. Nigerian politicians stay put, issue statements, mobilise supporters, and carry on as if the office belongs to them personally.
We hide behind “innocent until proven guilty,” but only when power is involved. Everyone else is quietly told to step aside while things are sorted out. Somehow, authority rewrites the rules.
And no, nobody is saying an investigation means guilt. Being investigated doesn’t mean you’re guilty. Fine. But people don’t usually smell like smoke if they’ve never been near fire, unless that’s your preferred cologne or perfume. Or, perhaps, it’s just their natural body odour. So, maybe just don’t keep running things while the room is full of questions. Step aside, let the case play out, and come back if you’re cleared.
The real problem is how normal all this has become. Criminal investigations no longer raise eyebrows. They earn applause. Stepping aside has to become normal for accountability to mean anything.
So, to the question raised in the featured image, the answer should be clear to you by now: Yes, they should be suspended.
— Newspot Nigeria Editorials
