Sainna Buba’s silence on abducted schoolchildren contrasts with his eagerness to threaten voters
Sainna Buba, Borno State’s Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, has spent the past week saying nothing about the scores of schoolchildren Boko Haram has held captive for more than 100 days. He has, however, found his voice on a different subject: what happens to Borno residents who don’t vote for the All Progressives Congress.
Speaking at a campaign event organized by the Tinubu City Boy Movement — a group backing President Bola Tinubu’s anticipated 2027 re-election bid — Buba told the crowd: “Whoever shows us a finger, we are ready to cut off his fingers.” He continued, “We are now playing politics. Whoever shows us a finger, we will show him a finger… whoever dares to show us a finger again, we will break his finger.” He went further, framing government benefits as a reward for loyalty rather than a right of citizenship: “Those who follow us will enjoy the honey; if you refuse, then you will be flogged.”
Amnesty International Nigeria has called the remarks “reckless and irresponsible” and demanded an investigation, noting plainly that “election is not war” and that voters who back opposition parties are not enemies of the state. Neither Buba nor the Borno State Government had issued a clarification at time of writing. Buba later claimed the remarks weren’t directed at opposition parties specifically — an explanation that sits awkwardly next to the words themselves.
The threat is not an isolated incident. Days earlier, Danjuma Shekwolo, Chairman of the Kuje Area Council in the Federal Capital Territory, told residents to vote APC in 2027 or leave the area. Commentators, including lawyer and rights advocate Chidi Odinkalu, have pointed to a pattern spanning three geopolitical zones: threats of violence or banishment against voters, met so far with no visible response from the police or state security services — the same agencies known to move quickly against ordinary citizens for far less.
The contrast that critics are drawing is a simple one. Buba occupies a state cabinet seat in Borno — the epicenter of an insurgency that has held children hostage for over three months without a public word of concern from him. On that, silence. On the question of who gets flogged for withholding a vote, he had plenty to say.
