I tell you folks, sometimes I look at the news cycle and I just want to go back to bed. I want to pull the covers over my head and pretend that the human race isn’t a total loss. But then I have a job to do. I have to look at the mess. And today, the mess is dominating the headlines from West Africa. We are talking about the **Nigeria security crisis**. While the location changes—D.C., London, Paris—the sheer audacity of **political tone-deafness** remains a global constant.

Here is the setup for this PR nightmare. You have Nigeria dealing with escalating **mass killings** and violence. It represents a severe breakdown in safety that makes regular people afraid to step outside their front doors. Families are scared. The whole place is on edge. So, who is the guy paid to ensure **government accountability** and public safety? That would be the junior defense minister, **Bello Matawalle**. His title literally has the word "defense" in it. You would think he would be in a war room, looking at maps, yelling at generals, trying to stop the bleeding.

But you would be wrong. Because politicians don’t think like us. Instead of focusing on the violence, Mr. Matawalle decided February 2026 was the prime time to throw the biggest party of the year. He didn’t just marry off one kid. He married off ten of them. Five sons. Five daughters. All at once. It wasn't an afternoon at the courthouse, folks. It was an opulent, six-day **Bello Matawalle wedding** extravaganza in the capital city of Abuja.

Think about that for a second. Six days. While parts of the country are literally on fire, the guy in charge of putting out the fire is hosting a week-long festival of wealth. It is gross. It is the kind of thing that makes you realize these people live on a different planet than the rest of us. One of the guys with a microphone at the party—a compere—even hopped on Instagram to brag about it, claiming it was a "First of its kind" and calling on Guinness World Records to check it out.

Yeah, check it out. Maybe there is a world record for "Most Tone-Deaf Event in History" or "Biggest Slap in the Face to Taxpayers." They are begging for a record book entry while their own people are begging for safety against the **banditry in Nigeria**.

This is what drives me crazy about politics. It doesn't matter if you are on the Left or the Right. Once these people get a taste of power, they lose their minds. In a normal world, a public servant would be ashamed to show off this kind of money while the country suffers. But shame is a thing of the past. The optics are terrible. Everyone knows it. Even the news headlines say the optics are terrible. But the minister slept on silk sheets while regular folks slept with one eye open.

This is the story of humanity. The rich guys throw parties on the upper deck of the Titanic while the people in steerage are drowning in ice water. It happened in Rome. It happened in France. Now it is happening in Abuja. The defense minister defends nothing but his right to party. It makes you sick, doesn't it? It should. Because while they are cutting the cake, real people are dealing with real tragedies.

### References & Fact-Check * **Original Event Reporting**: For full coverage on the guest list and the timing of the event, see *The Guardian's* report: [‘The optics are terrible’: wedding guest list in spotlight as violence grips swathes of Nigeria](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/24/the-optics-are-terrible-wedding-guest-list-in-spotlight-as-violence-grips-swathes-of-nigeria). * **Key Figures**: The event concerns Bello Matawalle, the Nigerian Minister of State for Defence. * **Context**: The wedding took place in February 2026 amidst reports of heightened insecurity and violence across Nigeria.