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2026 took off to a dramatic start. ‘Strongman’ Nicolas Maduro’s rule as President of Venezuela ended abruptly on January 3. He was captured alongside his wife, Cilia Flores in Caracas, the nation’s capital by US special forces. By sunrise that fateful Saturday, Maduro was gone. He was transported, blindfolded, to New York to face criminal charge for ‘narco terrorism’ and other charges. He is currently incarcerated at the heavily fortified Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, bringing to a shameful end to his 12- year authoritarian rule in Latin America. His downfall is also a relief to millions of Venezuelans. His former vice president Delcy Rodriguez has since taken over as acting President. In their place, US President, Donald Trump, said Washington would remain in charge of Venezuela, for as long as he wanted, maybe for years. Venezuela is a sovereign country of nearly 30 million people and home of the world’s largest oil reserves.
But, Trump doesn’t care. “Only time will tell when it comes to how long the US aims to control Venezuela”, Trump told The New York Time in a detailed interview covering a wide-range of issues, including Nigeria. Emboldened by his successful capture of Maduro, Trump believes every other country is equally vulnerable. This is a clear warning for countries where democracy is under threat by dictators, who have cornered their nations’ wealth for themselves, their families and cronies, leaving the people in poverty. Disturbingly, Trump also says he doesn’t feel constrained by any international laws, norms, checks or balance.
Asked if there were any limits on his ability to use American might anywhere in the world, he said: “Yeah, there’s [just] one thing: my own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me”. Recall the US military strikes against islamic militants in Northwest Nigeria on Christmas Day. Trump is not overruling another military strikes if violence continues against Christians (and Muslims) in Nigeria, according to The News York Times. With Venezuela down, Trump has also renewed his threats against Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Iran, and Greenland, a vast autonomous Arctic region currently ruled by Denmark.
On Greenland, which is on his foreign policy wishlist, he said, “I won’t be happy with anything short of ownership of Greenland”. This is the most blunt acknowledgment yet of Trump’s worldview. Should other rogue nations be afraid of Trump’s threat? Certainly, yes! The intervention in Venezuela marks the culmination of months of US military build-up in the Caribbeans. Experts in International relations have described Trump’s warmongering posture as a watershed moment for US foreign policy in the western hemisphere. According to Washington insiders, Nigeria is closely being watched by Trump, not only about the killings in the country, but US is said to be keenly monitoring the electoral process leading to next year’s crucial elections.
Anyone who lived through the America’s invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003 under Saddam Hussein, by George W. Bush, will know that the language of Trump is familiar: Leaders of other countries should sit up. There could be a knife at their back, even from their trusted aides. As the Financial Times(FT) of London wrote last week, the full implications of Maduro’s forceful removal, Venezuelan democracy, regional power politics and global energy markets – will play out in the coming weeks and months.
Already, oil prices, the lifeblood of Nigerian economy, are falling. Tinubu’s is rattled even in his frequent, wasteful foreign trips. The 2026 budget is threatened. It’s one of the things Trump wanted to achieve, his interest in running Venezuela by dictating policy of what remains of the Maduro regime, at least during the transition period. Like many dictators of democracy in Africa and elsewhere around the world, Maduro’s rise and fall, tells a classic, timely story about the transient nature of power. Until his ouster, Maduro, 63, had long moved at his own pace, driven by unteachable spirit, indifferent to deadlines imposed by adversaries and the suffering of his people. Even his own bodyguards who betrayed him when it mattered most, told tons of stories of how they, and their own family members suffered, while Maduro, his family and cronies, fed fat on the wealth of the country. Also, remember that Maduro’s rise was slow but surely. Perhaps he started well, brimming with good ideas, but drifted almost immediately. His rise began in youth politics and shaped by the mentorship of the country’s most powerful figure, Hugo Chavez. Maduro’s fall, too unfolded over years.
As President, Maduro presided over more than a decade of policies that sent Venezuela’s economy into free fall and ultimately, drove the migration of millions from the country. It often begins with negligence and lack of empathy for the people. Isn’t that similar to what is happening in Nigeria today? It also happened with some other African leaders who started well, promised the ‘moon’ to their people, but delivered ‘cheese’, no impact on the lives of the citizens. As Venezuelan journalist Boris Munoz who interviewed Maduro when he was a lawmaker reported of him, “there were many moments when he could have stepped aside or corrected course, but he didn’t do that. He just kept going”.
Like Noriega, the Panamanian dictator who was apprehended by US forces exactly on January 3, 1990, and imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institute, Miami, Florida, same fate awaits Maduro. Noriega died in a hospital in Panama City in 2017 after being extradited to back to his home country to stand trial for crimes committed there. Maduro is unlikely to come back to Venezuela alive, not under Trump’s watch.
Check out some African leaders who began their political careers either as prominent democracy activists or union leaders, later became Presidents of their country, and subsequently, ran aground in the office as authoritarian rulers. Among them include: Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. Nkrumah later became a despot. He banned all opposition parties, declared himself ‘President for Life’, and used imprisonment without trial of political opponents. Comrade Robert Mugabe(Zimbabwe) ruled from 1987-2017). He died in a foreign hospital. Paul Biya of Cameroon, 93, has been in power for 42 years(and counting), Ahmed Traore(Guinea), Kenneth Kaunda(Zambia), Yoweri Musevani(Uganda), and Francisco Macias Nguema, of Equatorial Guinea, who is widely remembered as one of the most brutal dictators in African history. Nigeria is slowly, but dangerously treading same familiar, ignoble path under the All Progressives Congress (APC). It has started with: “On your mandate, we shall stand”. That’s how dictators emerge. The National Anthem has been replaced by a sycophantic praise of an individual at official public functions. That’s no longer democracy. That’s how one-party state begins to take a foothold. What happened to Maduro of Venezuela is just the beginning. No lessons learned, nothing forgotten about the ephemeral nature of power. The ringing warning is that power is transient, and its holders must ultimately yield to the passage of time.
The advice often unheeded is that authority is a privilege to be used wisely for public good, not a permanent possession. The impermanence nature of power also teaches humility and focusing on lasting impact over personal gain. For leaders like loquacious Nyesome Wike, who lacks this self-awareness, they need reminding that history shows that power shifts, illustrating that how power is wielded – with integrity and service – defines one’s legacy more than its duration. Therefore, leaders are advised to be stewards, not owners of their country and its wealth. They should bear in mind that their impact remains long after they are gone.
I know this will make little sense to APC leaders strutting the political space as if they are the sun around which other planets must revolve. This is where Nigeria connects to Venezuela under the ousted Nicolas Maduro. Opposition parties are gradually being destroyed, as the APC scrambles to control every state, with one aim: to ensure that Tinubu is re-elected in a landslide in 2027. Maduro did exactly the same thing, causing many opposition candidates to flee the country. Some were forced into hiding. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, under Maduro’s rule, about 7.9 million people fled the country, seeking safety and the means to feed their families.
Many Venezuelans had to cross deadly rainforest passage of the Darian Gap linking Colombia and Panama on their way to the United States. Similar scenario is happening in Nigeria, causing the US to tighten its immigration policy and raising visa application to all-time high of $15,000. It’s because, as a friend of mine who relocated to the US in 2024 told me last week, “what are you still doing in Nigeria”?. The country is in a big mess”. Millions of Nigerians are disillusioned, confronted with challenges of immediate sort while a tiny few are living in obscene luxury. Something will surely give if the current years of locusts in Nigeria remain the same.
