Mahdi Shehu on Alleged 1995 U.S.-Backed Plot Against Abacha Mahdi Shehu’s account of the 1995 Durbar Hotel bombing speaks to foreign interference, regime change politics, and the hidden hands that have shaped Nigeria’s political history. According to Shehu, a U.S. Embassy political officer approached him in Kaduna, offered him money, and asked him to drop a parcel at the Durbar Hotel as part of what he described as a campaign against the Abacha government. Shehu says he refused, only for the hotel to be bombed shortly after, with journalist Bagauda Kaltho later linked to the incident. This story forces a larger question: how many times has Nigeria’s instability been engineered, sponsored, or encouraged by foreign powers, only to be later presented to us as our own failure? This is why Africans must pay closer attention to the history we are told, the history that is hidden, and the people who benefit from our chaos.
