By Joy Odor Reportcircle News
A resurfaced video clip from four years ago has ignited a fresh political and security storm, prompting Nigeria’s leading civil rights group, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) to accuse shadowy political interests of weaponizing misinformation against the Minister of State for Defence, Dr Bello Mohammed Matawalle.
In a sharply worded statement issued Monday, HURIWA described the renewed online attacks on Matawalle as a coordinated campaign of cyberbullying, digital harassment and political smear, warning that the episode reflects a deeper and more dangerous trend the politicization of national security for partisan gain.
At the centre of the controversy is a video recorded in 2021, when Matawalle was Governor of Zamfara State, now being recirculated across social media platforms.
HURIWA said the clip has been deliberately stripped of its historical and policy context to falsely portray the minister as sympathetic to terrorist groups.
According to the association, the video reflected a conflict de-escalation strategy adopted at the time, aimed at protecting civilians trapped between armed groups and unregulated vigilante reprisals.
Repackaging such discussions years later as evidence of criminal sympathy, HURIWA argued, is not only dishonest but calculated to inflame public sentiment.
“This is not accountability,” the group said in effect. “It is narrative engineering.”
HURIWA took aim at what it called the intellectual flattening of complex security debates, stressing that dialogue, intelligence-led engagement and understanding the drivers of violence are globally recognised tools of modern counterinsurgency not endorsements of crime.
Equating policy conversations with criminal complicity, the group warned, is morally reckless and undermines serious discourse on how fragile societies manage internal conflicts.
Beyond the content of the attacks, HURIWA said the timing is telling.
The online offensive against Matawalle gathered momentum shortly after the resignation of the former Minister of Defence on health grounds and the subsequent appointment of General Christopher Musa as Defence Minister.
According to the rights group, the coincidence is too neat to ignore.
At a moment of transition within Nigeria’s defence architecture, HURIWA suggested, reviving old narratives appears designed to sow discord, weaken public confidence and distract from institutional continuity under the Tinubu administration.
HURIWA argued that the attacks bear the fingerprints of political vendetta, particularly from actors unsettled by Matawalle’s relevance within the ruling coalition, his loyalty to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his continued influence in Zamfara State politics.
With future electoral calculations already in motion, the association said Matawalle has become a strategic target for rivals seeking to diminish his standing and, by extension, fracture the President’s political base.
Since assuming office as Minister of State for Defence, HURIWA noted, Matawalle has operated within established military and intelligence frameworks, contributing to collective security decisions rather than pursuing personal agendas.
Reducing Nigeria’s complex security challenges to the actions of one individual, the group warned, ignores the institutional nature of defence operations and the shared responsibilities of multiple agencies.
The rights organisation went further, framing the campaign against Matawalle as part of a broader anti-Tinubu strategy.
Unable to confront the President directly, HURIWA said, his adversaries have shifted to targeting loyal allies as proxies.
Matawalle, described as one of Tinubu’s most steadfast political foot soldiers, fits that profile, making him a convenient pressure point in a wider political contest.
HURIWA warned that the normalisation of misinformation, character assassination and evidence-free calls for resignation poses a serious threat to democratic discourse and national cohesion.
It urged Nigerians to draw a clear line between legitimate scrutiny and orchestrated disinformation campaigns designed to destabilise governance through emotional manipulation.
The association dismissed calls for Matawalle’s resignation as baseless, arguing that an objective review of his political service and loyalty to the current administration warrants recognition rather than vilification.
In a striking counterpoint, HURIWA said that those genuinely committed to good governance should be advocating not for his removal, but for greater responsibility.
“Rather than demanding that Dr Matawalle be sacked,” the group stated, “those who care about stability should be urging President Tinubu to elevate him to a senior ministerial position.”
HURIWA concluded with a cautionary note to both security agencies and the public: do not allow online noise to derail constitutional duties.
It called on social media users to exercise restraint and responsibility, warning that weaponizing misinformation against public officials ultimately undermines the very national security critics claim to defend.
In Nigeria’s volatile security environment, the group said, truth is not optional and politics must not be allowed to masquerade as patriotism.
