A defamatory campaign is being waged against Senator Shehu Buba Umar of Bauchi South, sponsored by detractors who feel threatened by his growing popularity and his brand of people-centered representation.
In its April 20, 2026 editorial, Sahara Reporters, an online platform with a history of controversial publications, ran claims designed to incriminate him and assassinate his character. This is not journalism; it is a calculated attempt to smear his reputation for selfish political motives.
Even more disturbing is the deliberate attempt to exhume an unsubstantiated narrative, one that even its original purveyors had since abandoned, and repurpose it as a scapegoat in this renewed attack.
The goal is transparent: to halt his rising popularity and pull him down before 2027. It is a classical diversionary strategy, deployed to misrepresent legitimate concerns about governance and to distract from the senator’s outshining personal leadership qualities that his constituents now openly celebrate.
To his political adversaries, the achievements of Senator Buba pose an existential threat. If allowed to continue, his performance will slam an iron door on their decades-long politics of deceit and dictatorship. His transparency is unmasking their true colours, the colours of men who play Judas to their own people while posturing as defenders of the public.
The pattern is clear: the closer he gets to consolidating his goodwill, the more vicious and desperate the vendetta becomes. Libelous and slanderous accusations are now the weapons of choice, all in a futile attempt to circumvent his successes. The recent missive by Sahara Reporters, based on my findings, was weaponised by a circle of mercenaries, not just one man, but a network of political jobbers united by envy and entitlement.
At the centre of this ring is a well-known ethno-centrist bigot and cheap political mercenary from Azare, one Musa Azare, a former local government caretaker chairman who has built a career on bile. He refuses to see anything good in Bauchi South politicians, even though most of his benefactors have come from the very zone he now holds a serious grudge against.
Azare’s record speaks for itself. He has, time and again, bitten the fingers that fed him from the administration of former Governor Isa Yuguda, through successive governments, down to the present administration of Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed. Governor Bala appointed him into different capacities in good faith, but due to abysmal performance and serial disloyalty, he was finally fired. That dismissal appears to be the root of his endless bitterness.
But he is not alone. He is merely the loudest mouthpiece in a wider circle of mercenaries. This circle includes failed aspirants who lost primaries to Senator Buba and have not recovered from the rejection by delegates. It includes contractors who lost access to inflated deals because the senator insisted on due process in constituency projects. It includes media hirelings who trade their bylines for envelopes, and faceless online blogs that publish first and verify never. Together, they form a syndicate whose only ideology is “pull him down.”
Their strategy is threefold. First, resurrect dead allegations and dress them as fresh revelations. Second, launder those allegations through willing platforms like Sahara Reporters to gain a veneer of credibility. Third, amplify the falsehoods across WhatsApp groups and Facebook pages using paid influencers, hoping that repetition will replace truth. This is not opposition. This is character assassination as a political industry.
Yet the facts on the ground contradict their fictions. In less than two years in the Senate, Buba has facilitated over 30 solar-powered boreholes across Bauchi South, rehabilitated over 12 primary health care centres, and sponsored the training of about 2,000 youths in ICT, tailoring, and agro-processing. His motion on the rehabilitation of the Bauchi-Gombe federal highway is before the Senate Committee on Works. He has moved more constituency interventions in 24 months than some of his critics did in 8 years. That record is what terrifies them.
The senator’s “offence” is that he refuses to play the old game. He does not share public funds at private meetings. He does not run the office as a family estate. He accounts to constituents, not to godfathers. For the mercenaries, that is an unforgivable sin because it exposes their own hollow legacy.
Let it be stated clearly: no amount of sponsored editorials will erase the boreholes, demolish the classrooms provided by the senator in Bauchi, Toro, Alkaleri, Kirfi, Dass, Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro local governments. No circle of mercenaries, however vicious, can veto the will of a people who have decided to reward performance. Bauchi South has moved past the politics of blackmail. The people now weigh leaders on the scale of service, not propaganda.
Senator Buba will not be distracted. He remains focused on his mandate: laws, oversight, and representation. He will not join issues with merchants of calumny whose only CV is “attack dog for hire.” As the Hausa proverb says, “Kare ya yi kuka, rakumi na tafiya” (the dog may bark, but the camel keeps moving).
To Sahara Reporters and its sponsors, a word of caution: defamation has consequences. The senator’s legal team is reviewing the April 20 publication for necessary action. Democracy thrives on criticism, but not on fabricated malice. There is a line between journalism and mercenary writing. That line was crossed.
In the end, this coordinated character assassination will fail. You cannot bury a man whose people have decided to raise him. You cannot stop a tide with a basket. The more they fight him, the more Bauchi South and of course all citizens of Bauchi State rally around him, because the people now know the difference between leaders who serve and mercenaries who sell.
Senator Buba is not trapped. He is tested. And by every measure, he is passing. Campaigns of calumny will not distract him from effecting lawmaking and patriotic representation of his people, nor will it scuttle his governorship bid. The people of Bauchi State are politically wise and will make wise decision.
