By Fanimokun Oluwasegun John
David Hundeyin is a name I have come to unconsciously associate with fiction and Illusion. He calls himself an investigative journalist – a term so bastardized in the Nigerian media space to the point that fictional writers stay under the moonlight to manufacture tales, which they later wear the garment of breaking news and push down the willing throat of a hoard of unthinking mob. Watching his latest video appeal to the Ghanaian president simply reinforces my description of him.
David Hundeyin in the past three years has not been content with restricting himself to churning out misinformation, fake news and high fiction only, rather he decided to create an alternate reality that he has become obsessed in. He mastered the art of manufacturing an imaginary scenario, fleshing it up with certain obtuse narratives and repeating it regularly until it becomes believable to those who possess what I call ‘fish brains’, which form the bulk of his fan base.
In 2020, when no one was pursuing him, David Hundeyin turned himself into a refugee, packed his luggage, left Nigeria without any hindrance and started shopping for asylum in North America and some European Countries. He bizzarely accused the then government of President Muhammadu Buhari of hunting him due to his ‘investigative journalism and political activism’. I am sure PMB most likely never heard of anyone named David Hundeyin not to talk of designating him as a target for elimination or persecution. It was all about the Hundeyian fiction.
David the asylum seeker could not convince any western country to grant him asylum because when his request is subjected to the most basic scrutiny, it is easy to find out that nobody in the Nigerian government has any interest in him. As a matter of fact, there were many very vocal and provocative elements doing everything possible to bring down the APC government then, who were walking freely and undisturbed in Nigeria. They had unlimited airtime in crooked media houses across Nigeria to push their false narratives, yet they walked free. What then is special about Mr. Hundeyin?
Meanwhile David Hundeyin in all his asylum shopping trips was using his Nigerian passport and was never for once stopped anywhere by immigration as a person of interest. In the end he decided to make do with Ghana who gave him a refugee status in 2022. Nobody cared where he was even when he became obsessed with destroying the image and reputation of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was then the presidential candidate of the ruling APC.
Hundeyin did everything sinister and provocative to get the attention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu but the City Boy was focused on his campaigns. That must have been very painful to Mr. Hundeyin. Having seen that he is losing the plot, the conartist decided to manufacture another fictional story of a plot by the Nigerian government to bring him back home to prosecute him for ‘leaking’ what he described as Niger invasion plans by President Bola Tinubu.
It is ludicrous for Mr. Hundeyin to think that a normal military signal, which was clearly not top secret or even marked confidential, sent to a military formation to prepare for the enforcement of a no-fly zone earlier imposed by the subregional bloc, ECOWAS, amounted to a directive from the president to for a military invasion of Niger Republic. The funny aspect of Mr. David’s pontification on that video was the casual self-effacing way he stated that “he basically stopped the invasion of Niger Republic by Nigeria”. This is delusion in its grandeur!
Let me bring Mr. David Hundeyin back to reality: firstly, he did not stop any invasion by Nigeria. The no-fly zone over Niger is still in force and being enforced – part of what the signal he leaked set out to achieve. As a matter of fact, in the event that a military action was necessary, that would have been authorised by ECOWAS member States and not Nigeria unilaterally embarking on an invasion quest. Even at that, it won’t be a secret that a mere leaking of a memo by a sociopath with a larger than life notion of his self-importance will stop. US plans to invade Iraq was in the public domain for months, yet it did not stop the invasion.
Secondly, the Nigerian intelligence community including the DIA and the DMI have no need whatsoever to bundle Mr. David Hundeyin back home and certainly cannot even in a drunken state send a military jet to Ghana to ferry the conartist Hundeyin back home to face imaginary charges. DIA and DMI have not sent jets to Finland to bring back Simon Ekpa whose boys are killing soldiers and policemen in the South East, I wonder if it is a cockroach like Hundeyin they will waste aviation fuel to bring back from neighbouring Ghana?
David Hundeyin simply concocted his tale by the moonlight knowing fully well that there were many fascists out there especially among those Prof. Wole Soyinka described as Gbajue, that will lap up every conspiracy theory he manufactures and delivers in his usual hypnotic manner. There was no source anywhere who told him anything and his appeal to President Nana of Ghana as well as the subtle appeal to Western countries is just another tactics he deployed to forcefully wear a garment of a journalist under persecution, who must be protected like a dragon egg.
He even described himself as a diplomatic bargaining chip the Ghanaian government may want to use. I could barely hold my laughter when I listened to that part. If for any reason, the Nigerian government wanted David Hundeyin, they do not need to send a military jet. An extradition request would simply be sent to Ghana and within days Ghanaian authorities will put Mr. David Hundeyin on ABC Transport night bus heading from Accra to Lagos.
From the antics of David Hundeyin, he is simply a conartist who desperately wants to be officially seen as being persecuted by the Nigerian government so as to help him wear the badge of an international refugee. He just needs an action against him by the government just like the way the statue of destruction, Aisha Yesufu has been dancing around treason lately, basically goading the authorities to arrest her. I only hope that their obsession and plea for persecution does not drive them insane.