Tantita is not the Enemy: Exposing the Ethnic Vicious Lies, Greed-Driven Agendas, Treacherous Plot to Destroy a Nation’s Shield and Wicked Manipulations Threatening National Interest in the Crosshairs of Envy

By Comr. Preye V. Tambou, National President, Society for the Welfare of Unemployed Youths of Nigeria (SWUYN)

Tantita Security Services Limited (TSSL) is a legally registered private company in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is not a militant front. It is not a community union. Tantita is a full-fledged, structured business entity and like every corporate body recognised under Nigerian law, Tantita is constitutionally and commercially entitled to bid for, secure, and execute contracts anywhere within the Nigerian federation, including Delta State, the South-South region, and any other part of the country. In fact, its capacity and relevance can also command international patronage based on merit, performance, and trust, not on the basis of ethnicity.

Those dragging Tantita and its leadership, particularly Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) and High Chief Kestin Pondi into tribal and ethnic controversies are either uninformed or deliberately mischievous. What we are witnessing is not activism but envy, not a demand for justice but a dangerous cocktail of personal greed and ethnic politics. It is disgraceful and unpatriotic to attempt to discredit a company delivering results simply because the promoters are not from your ethnic group.

The recent campaigns of calumny against Tantita and its leadership especially High Chief Government Ekpemupolo (Tompolo) and High Chief Kestin Pondi is reek of envy, satanic jealousy, tribal resentment, and self-serving ambition. While hiding under false narratives of equity and indigene rights, these attacks are nothing more than disguised attempts to pull down those who are doing what others failed to do for decades.

Tantita was not handed its responsibilities on sentiment. The company earned its place through proven capacity in maritime surveillance, oil and gas asset protection, and operational intelligence, fields where many others have failed for decades. Today, Nigeria records a significant reduction in oil theft, pipeline vandalism, and illegal bunkering activities, thanks to Tantita’s groundbreaking work. This success does not belong to one tribe; it is a national gain.

Tantita is not an ethnic outfit; it is a Nigerian business entity employing people across ethnic lines, impacting lives, protecting national resources, and boosting government revenues. It is an insult to the principles of free enterprise and national unity to call for the cancellation of a Federal contract awarded to a performing Nigerian company just to please ethnic egoists. We must ask ourselves: Are we ready to destroy performance and progress on the altar of primitive ethnic rivalry?

You individuals and groups of ethnic egoists, Nigeria is not a tribal market, instead it is a sovereign nation built on meritocracy, enterprise, and equal opportunity. If you believe you have the capacity to do better than Tantita, then incorporate your company, build capacity, apply for contracts, and deliver results. What we cannot allow is the politics of bitterness to sabotage national interest.

Tantita must be defended not just because it is succeeding, but because it is a symbol of what is possible when private citizens rise to solve national problems. No one ethnic group owns the right to security contracts and no ethnic sentiment should be allowed to sabotage private business initiatives that are contributing meaningfully to Nigeria’s development.

Straight up: before Tantita, many individuals and companies from these same ethnic groups; Urhobo, Itsekiri, and even mischievous Ijaw fellows agitating have held similar surveillance contracts, including under the current administration. Most of them are still holding big and loud contracts beyond what Tantita holds but nobody hears of them, not because they are not doing the job, but because they lack legacy, impact, genousity, and inclusive vision. Many of them micromanage the benefits of such contracts for themselves, a few relatives, and tight inner circles. Tantita, on the other hand, has opened its arms wide, creating opportunity, employment, and access that cuts across ethnic lines. Its approach is not one of hoarding, but of genuine humanity, generosity, and transformative outreach. That is what truly irks the jealous, and that is exactly why Tantita must be defended.

On a broader level, this entire issue reflects something even deeper: the cultural and moral crisis among the political, religious and business elite, especially those from the very ethnicities crying foul today. Since the birth of democracy, the creation of Delta State, and even under the present APC-led government, the Urhobo and Itsekiri ethnic groups have enjoyed disproportionate access to governance, appointments, elected offices, and high-value contracts, yet the people have little to show for it.

Why? Because a “pull-down mindset” persists. Too many of those elevated to wealth and power through public platforms, elections, and insider access have failed to lift others. They are still in power but don’t have any workings. Instead of raising protégés and building pipelines for young people to thrive, they gatekeep. Some of them are richer than Tompolo, Kestin, Tonlagha, yet no new millionaires and entrepreneurs can trace their success to them. This is a scarcity mentality dressed in agbada and political entitlement.

This crisis is not one to be dumped at the Governor’s doorstep. He governs a multi-ethnic State with complex expectations. The real work must be done by all of us, especially our business moguls, elected officials, religious leaders, and contractors who have been empowered repeatedly but have refused to empower others.

Therefore, let this not be a witch-hunt. Let it be a wake-up call. Let this be the beginning of a radical cultural shift, a challenge to our elite sons and daughters to rise above narrow ambition and embrace the nobler task of lifting their people and communities with them.

Tantita is not the enemy. Greed, silence, and selfishness are.

Now, on the recent editorial by “Keeping Them Honest” is anything but honest. It reads not like an appeal for transparency and justice, but like a choreographed smear campaign engineered by bitter rivals and ethnic opportunists who feel threatened by the success, structure, and transformative model of Tantita Security Services Limited.

The real problem here is not about human rights, transparency, and democratic oversight but about envy, exclusion from illegitimate access, and the desperation of a few heartless and greedy individuals who cannot stomach the fact that one organisation is delivering results with a broader, more inclusive spirit than they ever did when they had similar opportunities.

This is not just a reckless hit job on Tompolo; it is an attempt to dismantle a working system that is protecting Nigeria’s lifeblood, its oil infrastructure at a time when sabotage, theft, and underdevelopment in the Niger Delta remain critical national threats. Tantita is not perfect, but it is effective. The only thing these detractors hate more than Tompolo’s history is Tantita’s performance.

Let no one be deceived. The so-called “protests,” “petitions,” and “community outcries” being amplified are not organic. They are stage-managed by those who once fed fat on chaos and now want back in through propaganda and ethnic incitement. They want to provoke the Tinubu administration into disrupting a working security model, not because it is flawed, but because it is not under their personal and ethnic control.

It is no secret that similar contracts have existed before, doled out to individuals and groups from different ethnic backgrounds and even their ethnic groups yet none of those sparked this level of coordinated media attack. Why? Because they were tightly controlled by a few, benefiting only inner circles, while Tantita has been visibly open, employing thousands across ethnic lines, reducing oil theft, and setting a standard that exposes the greed and failure of those now throwing stones.

What we are witnessing is not accountability journalism and sincere agitations; it is dangerous misinformation aimed at inciting ethnic strife, undermining national security, and deceiving President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR into dismantling a winning team. We call on Mr. President to be extremely cautious of these deceitful elements, wicked miscreants and political merchants who build nothing, protect nothing, and offer nothing but division, blackmail, and sabotage.

Nigeria needs more institutions like Tantita, not fewer. If anything, its model should be studied, reviewed for improvement, and scaled not vilified. There is room for constructive criticism, but not for vendetta disguised as concern.

Mr. President, do not allow wolves in the clothing of watchdogs to manipulate your administration into reversing a working system simply because it was not birthed by their clan and in their pocket. The nation, posterity and history will remember who stood on the side of progress, and who folded to propaganda.

Let us protect performance. Let us defend results. Let us reward companies that build capacity beyond tribe and above all, let us demand from every privileged leader, not just contracts and positions, but impact.

Let us build Nigeria, not break it because of envy.