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Why Our Idea of Empowerment Is Not Working by Segun Showunmi

by Editor
written by Editor

For decades, Nigeria has pursued empowerment as a development strategy. Every year, governments at all levels distribute grants, sewing machines, tricycles, grinding machines, motorcycles, fertilizers and various forms of financial assistance. Yet poverty remains stubbornly high, unemployment remains a challenge, and millions continue to struggle at the margins of economic survival.

The question therefore must be asked: Why is our empowerment model not producing the transformation we seek?

The answer may be uncomfortable. We have largely mistaken empowerment for development.

Too often, our approach to poverty eradication and job creation has been rooted in tokenism rather than transformation. We measure success by the number of items distributed, the number of beneficiaries photographed, or the number of people who receive one-off support. What we rarely measure is how many people have successfully moved from one economic level to the next.

Nations are not built by distribution. Nations are built by ideas, institutions and structures that enable continuous economic advancement.

The akara seller, tailor, welder, carpenter, mechanic and market trader should not be viewed as recipients of government generosity. They should be viewed as participants in a deliberate growth ladder. The objective should not merely be to help them survive today. The objective should be to help them become more productive tomorrow.

A woman frying akara today should be able to become a supplier to schools and offices tomorrow. The supplier of tomorrow should become a food processor next. The processor should become a manufacturer. The manufacturer should become an exporter. The exporter should become an innovator.

That is what development looks like.

The most successful economies in history understood that prosperity is created when millions of people are assisted in moving upward through structured stages of productivity. Growth occurs when economic actors are continuously upgraded, not when they are continuously subsidized.

Unfortunately, much of our empowerment architecture has no scaling mechanism. We hand out resources but provide no pathway for progression. We celebrate beneficiaries but rarely track transformation. We focus on access rather than advancement.

The result is predictable. Every year new beneficiaries emerge to replace old beneficiaries because the system has not fundamentally altered their economic position.

What Nigeria needs is not another empowerment programme. Nigeria needs a national scaling framework.

Such a framework would identify the lowest rung of economic activity and deliberately create pathways upward through training, financing, market access, technology adoption, business formalization and industrial integration. Every intervention should answer one question: How does this move the beneficiary to the next level of productivity?

The true measure of success is not how many people receive assistance. It is how many people no longer need it.

Until we shift from a culture of empowerment to a culture of economic progression, poverty reduction will remain elusive. The future belongs not to programmes that distribute opportunity in small doses, but to systems that systematically scale human potential.

The difference may appear subtle, but it is the difference between managing poverty and creating prosperity.

Otunba Segun Showunmi
The Alternative.

 

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Opinion

Benue @50: A State in Search of Leadership By Yemi Itodo

by Editor
written by Editor

There is an old saying that one does not decorate a leaking roof while the house is on fire. Sadly, that appears to be the picture Benue State presented to the nation as it marked its 50th anniversary with pomp and pageantry, despite the enormous challenges confronting its people.

The event was grand. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was represented by his Chief of Staff, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila. The Ooni of Ife, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, Ojaja II; state governors, ministers, traditional rulers, and other distinguished Nigerians converged on Makurdi to honour the occasion. The speeches were inspiring. The photographs were beautiful. The atmosphere was festive.

But outside the banquet halls and ceremonial grounds lies a different Benue, a state bleeding from insecurity, weighed down by poverty, and desperately searching for purposeful leadership.

Anniversaries are not celebrated merely because a state has existed for fifty years. They are celebrated because there are milestones worth showcasing.

Golden jubilees are opportunities to unveil legacy projects, commission transformative infrastructure, celebrate economic growth, and reassure citizens that the future is brighter than the past.

For many Benue people, that opportunity was missed.

The unavoidable question remains: What exactly did Governor Hyacinth Alia ask the nation to celebrate?

Were visitors invited to commission world-class hospitals? No.

Did they commission industrial clusters capable of creating thousands of jobs? No.

Were they taken to inspect modern agricultural processing facilities that would justify Benue’s acclaimed status as Nigeria’s Food Basket? No.

Did they witness massive road infrastructure connecting rural communities to markets? Again, no.

Instead, visitors were treated to ceremonies while many communities continued to bury their loved ones.

With due respect, it was a cocktail of propaganda and political theatre

Nothing exposes the contradiction more than the state of security.

Benue has become one of Nigeria’s most vulnerable states to recurring attacks by armed groups. Communities have been displaced. Villages have been deserted. Thousands remain in internally displaced persons’ camps. Farmers, the very backbone of Benue’s economy, can hardly cultivate their ancestral lands without fear.

What, then, is the meaning of celebrating the Food Basket of the Nation when farmers can no longer safely access their farms? Is it merely for the fun of celebrating an empty and torn basket?

A hungry farmer cannot celebrate.

A displaced widow cannot celebrate.

An orphan produced by violence cannot celebrate.

Entire communities living under constant fear cannot celebrate.

Development is not measured by press conferences or social media propaganda. It is measured by the quality of life of the ordinary citizen. It is measured by whether children attend school safely, whether hospitals function, whether roads are motorable, and whether investors have confidence in the economy.

By these standards, many citizens believe Benue deserves far better.

Equally troubling is what many perceive as the systematic exclusion of the Idoma people from the mainstream of governance. Across appointments and political patronage, many stakeholders argue that the principle of equity has suffered serious setbacks under the current administration. Whether this perception is entirely accurate or not, it has become too widespread to dismiss lightly.

Unity cannot flourish where significant sections of the population feel neglected.

Leadership must not only be impartial; it must also inspire confidence that every ethnic group has a meaningful place in government.

Beyond governance, the administration has also become associated with seemingly endless political confrontations. Rather than consolidating the coalition that brought him to power, Governor Alia has found himself in prolonged political disagreements with influential figures within his own party, including the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, the Benue APC leadership, and several elected lawmakers.

Political disagreement is normal in any democracy. However, governance suffers when political battles become the defining feature of an administration.

The people did not elect a governor to wage perpetual political wars. They elected a governor to secure communities, grow the economy, create opportunities, and unite the state.

When political battles appear to overshadow governance, the people become the ultimate losers.

Citizens are now more interested in who wins internal power struggles than in whether roads are constructed, schools function, hospitals are equipped, jobs are created, and communities are secured.

Leadership is measured by results, not rhetoric.

So, when fighting and intra-party rivalry become the major achievements of a government, the people end up celebrating who secures which ticket through a rancorous, crisis-ridden selection process rather than celebrating monumental projects befitting a state that is 50 years old.

As a state at fifty, Benue deserves sober reflection on its current condition rather than self-congratulation.

The state’s greatest monument is not the colourful anniversary logo or the impressive list of guests. Its true monument should be peaceful communities, thriving farms, functioning schools, modern hospitals, expanding industries, and citizens who genuinely believe tomorrow will be better than today.

Those are the achievements history remembers.

Ceremonies last for a day. Legacy lasts for generations.

As the applause from the golden jubilee gradually fades, the difficult realities remain. Displaced families are still in camps. Farmers still fear returning to their fields. Unemployment persists. Communities continue to mourn. The ordinary Benue citizen still waits for the dividends of governance.

The true celebration of Benue at fifty will not come through elaborate ceremonies or distinguished guests. It will come when every farmer can cultivate without fear, every child can sleep without the sound of gunfire, every ethnic group feels fairly represented, and government becomes known more for development than for political disputes.

Until then, many will remember Benue at 50 not as a celebration of remarkable progress, but as a lavish birthday party held while the house itself cried out for rescue.

(Itodo is a journalist, public affairs analyst, and communications strategist. He writes on governance, democracy, public policy, and national development.)

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Opinion

Eric Opah: A New Era of Transparency and Development for Abia in 2027

by Editor
written by Editor

By Victor Nwachukwu

Every epoch begets its defining hour. It is that singular moment when a people cease to drift and demand direction, when they declare, in unison, that the time has come to advance progressively beyond rhetoric and the facade of propaganda. For Abia, 2027 is that hour.

At the heart of this unfolding chapter stands a man whose name has become a byword for service, philanthropy, selflessness, and firm conviction that Abia must be redeemed from economic and political stranglehold.

The Man

He is no stranger to the burdens borne by Abia’s sons and daughters. He has equally witnessed the consequences of unpaid pensions, the scourge of unemployment, the indignity of impassable roads, the desolation of health institutions bereft of care, and the quiet despair of graduates without prospects. This understanding was not acquired from podiums, but tempered in the crucible of experience, through years of traversing Abia’s hinterlands, engaging communities, and heeding the narratives that pierce the conscience. Not as a politician in pursuit of votes, but as a son of the soil who refused to avert his gaze from his people’s plight.

His reputation rests not on rhetoric, but on constancy of purpose. While others recede between electoral cycles, he endured, present in the villages, accessible in the remotest quarters, even long before 2027 became a clarion call.

Philanthropic/Humanitarian Footprints

His mission commenced through his renowned Foundation well before 2027 entered public discourse. From his community down to the local government, and indeed across Abia, the testament to his philanthropy is made manifest in healthcare delivery, education, empowerment, and infrastructure.

In healthcare, his Foundation has delivered free medical services through sustained missions, deploying physicians, essential medicines, and diagnostics to underserved communities. During the COVID19 pandemic, it supplied and distributed critical medical provisions to vulnerable households. In 2015, he constructed the Obo-ogu Mbubo Civic Hall at a cost so huge. Within its walls operates a community hospital that has served Mbubo and environs for over six years.
For him, the vitality of the citizenry is the foundation of any enduring prosperity.

In education, he proceeds from an immutable premise, that a state cannot ascend where minds remain unilluminated. Consequently, he has funded scholarships for Mbubo sons and daughters and extended such philanthropic gestures beyond Nsulu to indigent students across Isiala Ngwa. He has sponsored over 20 persons in the Universities from start to finish. Most recently, he transformed the derelict Mbubo Secondary School into a modern smart institution, equipped with solar power and computers, ensuring that learning proceeds unhindered by darkness or obsolescence.

On empowerment and infrastructure, he has extended capital grants and working implements to market women, farmers, and young artisans. His philosophy transcends alms. He invests in capacity, training, and access, believing that dignity may be constructed, not borrowed. Where governance faltered, he graded rural thoroughfares, opened over 30 new rural roads, installed solar powered street lights evident along Ururuka highway in Isialangwa and sank boreholes, not for commendation, but because neglect had become intolerable.

The pattern is unequivocal. Remarkably, he served without the imprimatur of political office, but on personal sweat. It is this antecedent that confers moral authority upon his 2027 mission for Abia.

The Mission: The Redemption of Abia in 2027

His aspiration for 2027 is not the acquisition of power for its own sake. It is a summons to redemption, anchored basically on the restoration of public trust, the judicious stewardship of resources, and the reclamation of Abia’s prodigious potential.

His mission rests on three cardinal pillars: Governance Rooted in Integrity, Economic Reawakening, and Investment in Human Capital. Upon his victory in 2027, he will entrench integrity in governance, eradicate waste, ensure the prompt remuneration of workers and pensioners, and re-establish accountability between government and the governed.

The enhancement of infrastructure, the cultivation of small and medium enterprises, and the creation of an enabling milieu for commerce and industry shall be his watchword, from Aba to Umuahia and every local government area. Aba, the commercial epicenter of the Southeast will then transcend its reputation as a trading emporium and emerge as a manufacturing colossus, better than it is at the moment. Out of experience, this is his forte.

He has also pledged a deliberate and sustained commitment to education, healthcare, and the skills of the youth. Of course, this can be taken to the bank. If he could see many through the university as a private citizen, on his own sweat, imagine the lot he will do with the people’s mandate.

A Call to Unity

His candidacy brooks no equivocation. It proceeds from conviction, tested experience, and firm devotion to Abia’s destiny. He regards the people’s mandate not as an entitlement, and concedes that the triumph of 2027 cannot be secured by one man alone.

Consequently, he extends a humble entreaty to every Abian, the trader and the technocrat, the student and the elder, the artisan and the professional. To the members of his party especially those who ran unsuccessfully at the recent primaries, he makes a special appeal, that transcend divisions, subordinate personal ambitions, urging them to coalesce around his noble mission, convinced that only through unity of purpose shall Abia attain the redemption she so richly deserves.

The Path Forward

No doubt, undertakings of this magnitude invariably elicit both hope and hostility. Yet the man and his mission for Abia in 2027 are not predicated upon slogans. They rather rest upon an observable record of service and an abiding conviction that Abia merits better.

The year, 2027 therefore presents a choice. It is either the perpetuation of the status quo, or a deliberate course correction toward renewal. To those Abians who have observed him, the man has already revealed his character in seasons when no audience was present. Now, he seeks the mandate to extend across the entire state the same diligent service he has rendered in quietude for years.

This man is Chief Eric Opah, the 2027 Gubernatorial Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Abia State, CEO and Founder of Fortune Global Shipping and Logistics Limited, Board Member of the Nigeria, America Chamber of Commerce, Associate Member of the Institute of Directors of Nigeria, President of the Eric Opah Foundation, and The Sun Entrepreneur of the Year, 2025.

Last line:

The mission is clear. The man is well known across Abia, but 2027 holds the ace. It shall determine whether Abia and her people are prepared to assume their rightful place in the politics of Nigeria to enhance her economic and infrastructural fortunes, or remain in the hands of one man who applauds and condemns simultaneously.

Nwachukwu, a public affairs analyst writes from FCT, Abuja

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Opinion

No One Has Authority to Decide Who Gets to Identify as Anything By Farooq Kperogi

by Editor
written by Editor

My intervention on a Trust TV interview in which a retired ABU professor called Alkasum Abba said Shehu Shagari and Muhammadu Buhari were not Fulani, presumably because they did not speak the language and inhabit the cultural universe of the Fulani, provoked an interesting conversation.

Since I study and write about collective identity and am working on a book on the rhetoric of collective identity construction, I want to share further insights on the issue.

First, in identity studies, no one has unilateral authority to decide who can identify as what. Collective identity is the product of a multiplicity of different things, including self-identification, descent, cultural practice, language, external recognition and power.

Applied to the point at issue, the person who speaks Fulfulde and lives in a Fulani community has standing to speak about cultural competence and insider norms, but such a person has no standing to erase the Fulani identity of people whose Fulani descent is known, who self-identify as Fulani and who are recognized by others as Fulani.

There’s an identity scholar by the name of Fredrik Barth who said ethnic groups are not defined simply by a checklist of cultural traits. He said they are defined and sustained by boundaries, especially by what he called “self-ascription and ascription by others.”

In other words, identity is partly what people say they are and partly what relevant others take them to be. In the case of Shagari and Buhari, the relevant others here were their immediate neighbors in Katsina and Sokoto, who ascribed Fulani identities to them.

Joane Nagel also treats ethnicity as perpetually in flux and as shaped both by the agency of people who define themselves and by external political, social and economic actors who define them from outside.

Barth’s and Nagel’s argument is important because it shows that language, dress, occupation, culture and residence can change while the ethnic boundary remains socially meaningful.

Richard Jenkins, another identity scholar, makes the same point but with a sociological twist. He argues that identity emerges through a dialectic between internal identification and external categorization.

But, unlike Barth and Nagel, the decisive issue, he contends, is power. It is not enough for someone to categorize others. The question is whether that person, institution or community has the social and symbolic leverage to make that categorization count. Alkasum Abba, or what he thinks he represents, has no social, symbolic or any kind of authority to decide who can and who can’t be Fulani.

Abba is a Fulfulde-speaking cultural insider. He can make only one legitimate but narrow claim: “Shagari and Buhari are not culturally Fulani in the fullest lived sense.” That is different from saying, “Shagari and Buhari are not Fulani at all.” The first is a defensible cultural judgment. The second is an indefensibly arrogant, even ignorant, overreach.

Roger Blench’s work on Fulani identity in Nigeria notes that only some of the people who call themselves Fulani actually speak Fulfulde. He also describes Fulani communities that have lost Fulfulde, adopted Hausa, Nupe or Yoruba and yet continue to regard themselves as Fulani while also being recognized as such by neighboring peoples.

For example, a 2018 study of Fulani people in Ilorin by Yeseera Omonike Oloso found that 95 percent of respondents identified Yoruba as their first language, but 75 percent still identified as Fulani. The study’s conclusion was that language shift did not automatically produce identity shift.

And that’s consistent with the predominant conclusion in identity scholarship. Linguistic identity and ethnic identity aren’t always coterminous.

So, in scholarly terms, Fulani identity can exist in at least three registers: Fulani by descent, Fulani by cultural-linguistic competence and Fulani by social recognition. Some people will satisfy all three. Others will satisfy only one or two. The mistake is to privilege any form of identity as the only legitimate form of identity.

This does not mean every claim is valid, of course. Descent claims can be fabricated. External labeling can be hostile or mistaken. Phenotypes can be unreliable as evidence, although they can become socially consequential when people use visible features to assign identity.

Kanchan Chandra’s constructivist account helps here. It argues that ethnic identity is usually constrained by descent-based attributes, but that the identity that is “activated” is the one a person professes or is assigned by others. Language and culture may strengthen the claim, but they are not always the sole basis of membership.

People who can trace patrilineal or both patrilineal and matrilineal descent to Fulani ancestors, who self-identify as Fulani and who are called Fulani by the surrounding community are Fulani. This also applies to other ethnic identities.

So, yes, Shagari and Buhari were acculturated, linguistically assimilated or maybe even culturally distant Fulani people, but saying they were not Fulani at all amounts to deploying an unsociological and ahistorical cultural-purity test as an ethnic veto. The scholarship on identity does not support that as a basis for determining who belongs to collective identities.

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Opinion

A Political Economists Review of President Tinubu’s Democracy Day Speech by Adefolarin A. Olamilekan

by Editor
written by Editor

Nigeria marked 27 uninterrupted years of democratic governance on May 29, 2026, having sustained civilian rule since May 29, 1999.

According to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigerians have consistently chosen their leaders through the ballot box, witnessed peaceful transitions of power, and resolved political disagreements through the courts and legislative institutions rather than through violence.

However, as the President rightly noted, democracy must ultimately be felt in the pockets of the people.

Despite the democratic gains recorded over the past 27 years, many Nigerians continue to grapple with severe economic hardship. While the government has focused on reducing inflation, expanding food production, and creating employment opportunities, the reality of high living costs remains a major concern for households across the country.

Since assuming office in 2023, the Tinubu administration has embarked on a series of economic reforms aimed at restoring stability and credibility to Nigeria’s economic management framework. According to the government, these reforms have led to increased federation revenues, providing state and local governments with additional resources to invest in infrastructure, education, healthcare, and security.

The government also maintains that fiscal transparency has improved, revenue leakages have been reduced, and public funds are being directed more effectively towards national development priorities. These measures, it argues, have helped rebuild investor confidence, resulting in increased investments across critical sectors such as agriculture, energy, manufacturing, technology, mining, transportation, and the creative industries.

The ultimate objective of these reforms is to improve living standards, rebuild confidence in the economy, and create the conditions necessary for sustainable prosperity.

Furthermore, domestic refining capacity has expanded, strengthening Nigeria’s energy security and reducing dependence on imported petroleum products. In the power sector, efforts have been made to address long-standing challenges, including inadequate generation capacity, unreliable gas supply, and weak transmission infrastructure.

To tackle these structural problems, President Tinubu signed the Electricity Act, which seeks to liberalize the electricity market and encourage greater private-sector participation in power generation, transmission, and distribution.

From the perspective of the Federal Government, the Nigerian economy is gradually moving from uncertainty towards stability. President Tinubu has repeatedly stated that the next phase of his administration will focus on accelerating economic growth and ensuring that the benefits of reforms are felt in every home, community, and region of the country.

Nevertheless, the economic realities experienced by many Nigerians present a different narrative. Households and businesses continue to face significant pressure arising from rising costs, declining purchasing power, and economic uncertainty. While the administration argues that the reforms were necessary to advance Nigeria’s economic freedom and prevent a deeper fiscal crisis, the transition has imposed considerable short-term hardships on citizens.

Moreover, Nigeria’s public finances continue to face significant challenges, including mounting debt obligations, revenue constraints, infrastructure deficits, and the need for sustained economic diversification. These realities have raised important questions about the pace, effectiveness, and inclusiveness of the ongoing reforms.

As the nation celebrates 27 years of democratic governance and move on, the central question remains whether democratic consolidation can be matched by tangible economic progress that improves the welfare of ordinary Nigerians. While President Tinubu continues to pursue his vision of a better Nigeria, many citizens are eager to see democracy translate into greater economic opportunities, improved living standards, and a more prosperous future for all.

The bottom line

The true test of Nigeria’s democracy, therefore, lies not only in the conduct of elections and peaceful transfers of power but also in its ability to deliver economic development, social inclusion, and shared prosperity for its people.

While President Tinubu’s call for criticism of his government, we believe every core argument about the gap between democratic achievements and economic outcomes in Nigeria must be appreciated.

Adefolarin A. Olamilekan
Political Economists &
Host of The Market Report show Adbn Television Asokoro Abuja

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Opinion

State Police And Local Government Autonomy: The Answer To Many Questions

by Editor
written by Editor

By Titilope Gbadamosi PhD

Almost every democratically elected administration in Nigeria has had to grapple with pockets of insecurity in one form or another. Nigerians have watched uprisings metamorphose into banditry and terrorism, as though every administration had its own uniquely tailored brand of insecurity, defined by the modus operandi of these vicious elements. The faces change, the methods change, but the burden on whoever occupies the highest office in the land has remained heavy and constant.

Just two administrations ago, during President Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure, we witnessed the horror of the abduction of the Chibok girls and explosives going off in public spaces in Abuja, the nation’s capital. Every well meaning Nigerian was worried, and nowhere felt truly safe. The President’s seat was not the most desirable at the time, and it was clearly a difficult job.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration had its own share, mostly in the form of clashes between farmers and herders, driven by grazing routes lost to farming, droughts pushing herders toward greener pastures, and old accommodations between communities slowly breaking down.

I recall quite vividly, while serving as Special Assistant to the former Governor of Oyo State, the late Senator Abiola Ajimobi, joining the head of our team in several peace talks with farmers, traditional rulers, and the Hausa and Fulani community in the state. One lesson from those rooms has stayed with me ever since. The people who understood the grievances, the terrain, and the actors were all local, yet the command of security sat far away in Abuja. That gap is the question every administration has struggled to answer.

Today, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is in charge, and Nigerians who are students of history watched to see what shape insecurity would take and, more importantly, what this President would do differently. In recent development, the country received an answer that previous decades only debated.

On June 11, following the President’s formal request to the National Assembly to restructure our security architecture, the House of Representatives passed the constitutional amendment to establish state police, with 289 members voting in support and barely a voice against, while the Senate works to complete passage before year end. Today June 12th,2026, in his Democracy Day address, the President spoke plainly: the insecurity we face is partly the product of collapsed grassroots governance, and his administration remains committed to financial autonomy for our 774 local government councils. There it is, a two pronged solution: state police and true local government autonomy.

The first prong closes the gap I saw in those Oyo State peace talks. The amendment to Section 214 of the Constitution creates a dual policing structure under which each state may establish its own force. Security decisions will now be taken by those who know the terrain, the actors, and the grievances at first hand.

To his credit, the President did not merely champion the idea; he asked the National Assembly to institute controls to prevent abuses, the mark of a leader interested in a reform that endures rather than one that backfires. All of this rides on the largest security investment in our history, a 5.41 trillion naira commitment in the 2026 budget and over 50,000 new police officers approved for recruitment.

The second prong puts resources where the new responsibility will live. Since the Supreme Court ruled in July 2024 that federation allocations belonging to local governments must reach them directly, monthly allocations to the 774 councils have grown from roughly 387 billion naira in March 2025 to nearly 530 billion naira by September 2025.

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Opinion

Building a Healthier Nigeria Through Stronger Healthcare Systems by Peter Obi

by Editor
written by Editor

As part of our desire and commitment to building a healthier Nigeria, I met with some healthcare professionals and experts in the United States on Friday, June 5, 2026.

The meeting was essentially to deepen my understanding of how successful health insurance systems deliver improved healthcare, especially in the areas of primary and emergency care.

One of our key health objectives remains unchanged: to expand health insurance coverage, strengthen primary healthcare across our electoral wards, train more healthcare workers, and make quality healthcare accessible and affordable for all Nigerians.

A New Nigeria must be a healthier Nigeria.

A New Nigeria is possible. -PO

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Opinion

Betrayal of a Movement: How Political Interests Undermined Peter Obi’s Stronghold

by Editor
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By Tunde Simon

History will judge not only those who openly opposed a cause, but also those who claimed to support it while quietly working against it from within.

Many supporters of Mr. Peter Obi have watched with concern as a number of influential political actors within the South-East appeared more interested in protecting personal interests than strengthening the movement that inspired millions of Nigerians. Rather than consolidating the gains made by Peter Obi and his supporters, actions taken by certain political stakeholders have created the impression of a deliberate effort to weaken the very structures that gave the movement its strength.

One of the most troubling developments was the sidelining of Hon. Uchenna Harris Okonkwo, son of the late Senator Annie Okonkwo, a respected political figure and long-time friend and ally of Peter Obi. To many observers, this was not merely an internal political decision; it was perceived as an attempt to dismantle a strategic pillar of support within both Peter Obi’s political and business networks.

Supporters argue that individuals such as Tony Nwoye and other key South East stakeholders such as Sen. Ben Obi, Prof. Osita Ogbu, Prof. Udenta Udenta, Sam Egwu amongst others, played significant roles in political manoeuvres that ultimately worked against the interests of the Obi movement. Whether motivated by personal ambition or political calculations, the outcome has left many questioning the sincerity of those who publicly profess loyalty while allegedly pursuing a different agenda behind closed doors.

The replacement of Uchenna Okonkwo with an Aide of Bala Mohammed on the NDC platform has generated considerable controversy among party supporters. Critics have described the decision as a departure from the values of integrity, loyalty, competence, and grassroots representation that many believed the movement stood for. To these supporters, the decision represented not progress but a weakening of the principles that attracted millions of Nigerians to the cause of political reform.

What makes the situation particularly painful is that the perceived attack did not come from political opponents. Rather, it appeared to originate from individuals within the broader South-East political establishment who should have been protecting and strengthening the collective aspirations of the region.

Political movements are rarely defeated solely by external opposition. More often, they are weakened by internal divisions, personal ambitions, and the unwillingness of leaders to place collective interests above individual gain. The lesson from this episode is clear: no movement can succeed when loyalty is rewarded with exclusion and sacrifice is met with betrayal.

For many supporters, the events surrounding Uchenna Okonkwo’s exclusion are not simply about one individual or one political ticket. They symbolize a larger struggle over the future of a movement, the preservation of trust, and the question of whether those entrusted with leadership are truly committed to the ideals they publicly proclaim.

Comrade Tunde Simon is a political analyst and can be reached on [email protected]

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Opinion

A JOKE OF AN OPPOSITION BY FEMI FANI-KAYODE

by Editor
written by Editor

Now that we know who all the presidential candidates are permit me to say the following.

President Tinubu will not only win the 2027 presidential election fair and square but he will win it hands down.

The following words come to mind when I consider the opposition and those that seek to challenge him: weak, divided, insipid, deluded, vain, mendacious, intellectually bankrupt, morally challenged, manifestly dishonest and lacking in gravitas and integrity.

They present NO credible threat & offer NO serious challenge.

They are like the Biblical tower of Babel: a vexatious and cantankerous brood of venomous vipers, strange bedfellows, inexplicable paradoxies, irreconcilable contradictions, ill-bred and unlettered fools, specious liars, misguided souls, power-lusting degenerates, accursed malefactors and a loud and unbearable cacaphony of delusion and confusion all rolled into one and all speaking in different languages and moving in different directions.

Theirs is the noise of the market place: loud, empty, vacuous, insignificant, irrelevant and more often than not crude and obscene. They are more of a comedy show than an opposition.

Lost in their own sorry fables and fanciful tales, they attract pity and ridicule rather than respect and admiration. Like Shakespeare’s Macbeth said, their’s is “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”.

Failure, shame, defeat, decimation, humiliation and contempt stares them in the face and catastrophy is their portion.

Their anger, hate, bitterness, insults, desperation, blindness, wild allegations, baseless assertions, insincerity of purpose and sinister and increasingly desperate attempts to divide our people, destabilise our Government, terrorise and traumatise our citizenry and destroy our nation has set them on a path of self-annihilation and the road to eternal damnation. I feel sorry for them.

Permit me to add the following. Peter Obi, the IPOB candidate, may do well in the South East but he will not fare well elsewhere and therefore there is little point in wasting more than a couple of sentences on him in this contribution.

His candidacy is like a car with a knocked engine. It is doomed from the start regardless of his joint candidacy with Rabiu Kwankwaso who I fear has destroyed his hitherto outstanding political career by betraying his heritage and aligning with a man like Peter.

Many have said that Atiku Abubakar will sweep the North. I have lived in the North for the last 23 years and I assure you that they are wrong.

There is no doubt that the Wazirin Adamawa once had a hold in certain parts of the region but things have changed over the last few years.

After so many failed attempts to become President and his constant betrayal of those that brought him to political relevance like President Obasanjo and those that welcomed him into their ranks with open arms and gave him a platform when he was on the ropes like President Buhari and President Tinubu he has lost credibility, relevance and steam.

Worse of all is the fact that ever since 2007 when he left office as Vice President he has dedicated his life to ensuring that power remains in the North and has contested virtually every election either at the primary or party level to stop the South from enjoying power.

Thankfully the North now has a new set of leaders who have acquitted themselves well, who give meaning to the word loyalty who have proved to the world that their region has not only come of age but has also overtaken much of the rest of the country in terms of development and first class leadership.

Names like Vice President Kashim Shettima, Senator Abdul Azeez Yari, Governor Uba Sani, Governor Dauda Lawal, Governor Mai Mala Buni and others stand out.

These leaders will clip Atiku’s wings and prove to the world that Arewa has a plethora of seasoned and disciplined leaders who, unlike Waziri, are ready to put the interest of the nation before self.

(FFK)

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Opinion

The Shettima Danger for Tinubu By Farooq A. Kperogi

by Editor
written by Editor

Sometime in January this year, a senior Lagos-Ibadan journalist called my attention to a news story in which Hannatu Musawa, President Tinubu’s Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, said with earnest certainty that dropping Vice President Kashim Shettima as Tinubu’s running mate would gravely imperil Tinubu’s reelection chances. He wanted to know what I thought about it.

I promised I would share my thoughts in a column the following week, but more urgent matters that needed my discursive interventions came up, and I didn’t get round to doing it. In the intervening months, several other people have echoed Musawa’s sentiments. As maneuvers for the 2027 election intensify, the question of Shettima’s place in Tinubu’s 2027 calculus keeps taking center stage.

To my knowledge, no one has sufficiently articulated the socio-historical, political, strategic, ethnographic and even emotive reasons for the choice of Shettima as Tinubu’s running mate, or why his replacement, especially with a northern Christian as is being rumored, would convulse the foundations of the Tinubu presidency.

I have pointed out in many past columns that in Nigeria’s emotional cartography, there are five broad ethnographic cocoons, which I like to sometimes call emotional maps, that have evolved independently and have broadly shaped voting and other kinds of national behavior.

There is the Northern Muslim Bloc that largely transcends northern ethnic boundaries, the Yoruba Bloc that mostly papers over religious differences, the Northern Christian Bloc that collapses ethnic and subregional borders, the Igbo Bloc that is self-explanatorily ethnically and religiously homogenous and the Southern Minority Bloc that encompasses a multiplicity of ethnicities that are neither Yoruba nor Igbo.

This emotional cartography isn’t intended to be a simplistic, self-sufficient and unnuanced mapping of diverse people into unproblematized boxes where there are no internal differences. It is intended only to show that, generically speaking, these broad collectivities tend to coalesce around the same affectional bonds in relation to national issues.

In the politics of emotional affiliation to, or connection with, the center of power, feelings of group representation draw on these maps. For example, the appointment of General Christopher Gwabin Musa first as Chief of Defense Staff and later as Minister of Defense has been a source of recognizable representational nourishment for most northern Christians across ethnic and subregional divides, even though Musa is from Kaduna, which is supposed to be in the Northwest.

So, based on my mapping of the emotional contours of Nigeria’s ethnographic landscape, the Tinubu-Shettima ticket actually is not, strictly speaking, the Muslim-Muslim ticket people say or think it is. It is, in reality, a Yoruba-Muslim ticket. Here’s why.

Tinubu, like most Yoruba people, defines himself first and foremost as a Yoruba person before he is anything else. That was why, in his 2022 Abeokuta speech, he prefaced “Emi lo kan” with “Yoruba lo kan.” In other words, he derived the social, political and emotional basis for the legitimacy of his presidential aspiration from his Yoruba identity.

Islam is incidental, even expendable, to Tinubu’s identity. This was dramatized this week when the presidency had to debunk a bizarre rumor that Tinubu had converted to Christianity.

Shettima, on the other hand, can’t afford to define himself as Kanuri in the context of national politics. On the national stage, he is the symbolic representation of collective northern Muslims, although this does not erase his Kanuri and cosmopolitical credentials. In other words, Shettima is primarily a northern Muslim who provides the symbolic conduit through which Muslims in the North identify with the administration he is a part of.

Some, maybe even most, northern Muslims may disagree with the administration and even with Shettima himself. But that’s in the region of the head. In their hearts, however, it’s a different matter. It’s like having a mother you disagree with but whose presence you cherish nonetheless because her absence would create a crushing emptiness in you.

In fact, no northerner, whether Christian or Muslim, can stake his or her national political aspiration on an ethnic platform. They would usually choose a pan-northern platform or a religious justification for their aspirations, depending on the context.

It needs to be pointed out that I am not making any moral judgments here. Tinubu’s appeal to Yoruba nationalism is not inferior to northern politicians’ appeals to regional or religious solidarity. The differences merely reflect how differently we have evolved politically and emotionally.

Now, replacing Shettima with a northern Christian running mate is fair in view of what appears to be the systematic exclusion of northern Christians at the top since the return of democracy in 1999. However, even at the risk of being misunderstood, it needs to be pointed out that such a move would signal two things.

First, contrary to what many people are inclined to assume, it won’t be a Muslim-Christian ticket. It would be a Yoruba-Christian ticket. As I pointed out earlier, Tinubu’s self- and collective identity-definition is primarily Yoruba, and it’s the basis for his claim to the presidency. Until fairly recently, he didn’t even publicly identify with Islam and still stumbles when he tries to perform his secondary Muslim identity.

Second, Tinubu has to contend with the altered demographic calculations for the 2027 election that the choice of a northern Christian running mate would present. In the 2023 election, most northern Christians voted for Peter Obi, with Benue State being the notable exception. In Benue, Tinubu rode on the coattails of the then wildly popular APC governorship candidate Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia to victory.

Since 63.6 percent of Tinubu’s 8,805,420 votes in 2023 came from the North, it is safe to assume that most of those votes came from the Northern Muslim Bloc. To get rid of the ethnographic, emotional symbol of such a bloc in your quest for a second term, you have to be able to compensate for the electoral loss such a move would most certainly provoke. That seems like a tall order.

True, northern Christians seem to have warmed up to the Tinubu administration, perhaps because the anxieties that activated their hostility haven’t materialized. In fact, in May 2025, as Tinubu prepared to travel to Rome for the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV, the presidency reportedly supplied THISDAY with data that showed 62 percent of Tinubu’s appointees were Christians.

Bayo Onanuga later echoed the same claim at the Vatican when he said he had read that 62 percent of the president’s cabinet members were Christians.

Tinubu’s handlers can point not only to presidency-supplied claims about Christian appointments but also to a trail of public statements by some northern Christian bodies and clerics who said, in varying degrees of intensity, that his appointments had softened, answered or “allayed” fears over the Muslim-Muslim ticket.

For example, Rev. Kelvin Pwajok of the Northern Christian Forum thanked Tinubu in September 2023 for appointing northern Christians such as George Akume and Christopher Musa to strategic positions. Dominic Alancha of All Christian Youths in Northern Nigeria said the group’s earlier reservations had been eased by Tinubu’s appointments. Rev. Yakubu Pam of Northern CAN said in January 2025 that Tinubu had shown reasonable inclusiveness.

Archbishop John Praise Daniel of the Northern Christian Religious Leaders’ Assembly said in October 2025 that Christians did not feel sidelined and that Tinubu’s appointments had allayed many fears. Rev. Amos Mohzo of COCIN also thanked Tinubu for supporting northern Christians through appointments such as Akume as SGF and Nentawe Yilwatda as APC national chairman. In May 2026, the Christian Northern Nigeria Progressive Forum backed Tinubu’s re-election and framed its support around inclusion, fairness and national stability.

By contrast, Muslim groups and clerics have complained that the Muslim-Muslim ticket has not translated into commensurate representation for Muslims in Tinubu’s appointments.

For example, the Supreme Council for Shari’ah in Nigeria said Muslims remained politically marginalized despite their support for the ticket, while Professor Mansur Ibrahim Sokoto argued that Tinubu won Muslim votes but had since sidelined Muslims and the North.

Yoruba Muslim bodies have made a more specific regional case. MURIC has repeatedly alleged that South-West Muslims have been shortchanged. It even described some appointments as “Christian-Christian” under a Muslim-Muslim presidency. The Concerned Yoruba Muslim Scholars in Nigeria said Yoruba Muslims had expected Tinubu’s presidency to redress their long-standing marginalization but have instead faced deeper exclusion. MUSWEN also said South-West Muslims are underrepresented in federal appointments relative to their demographic strength and intellectual weight.

In other words, dropping Shettima in favor of a Christian running mate would effectively create a perceptual “Christian-Christian” ticket in the North. Northern politicians like Musawa who have an intimate familiarity with the sociology of northern politics know that this would sound the death knell of Tinubu’s second term bid, especially in light of Peter Obi’s dominance in the Southeast, which will deprive Tinubu of bloc votes from the South.

This choice comes with an even more poignant existential implication. Historically, in moments of political trauma, northern elites tend to instrumentalize religion to rouse the masses to popular action. Should Tinubu somehow manage to “win” without a northern Muslim running mate, he could have an unprecedentedly convulsive Nigeria to preside over.

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Opinion

Why APC May Lose Taraba Under Governor Kefas in 2027

by Editor
written by Editor

By our Correspondent

ABUJA (PRECISE POST)  –  Concerns are mounting among political stakeholders and analysts in Taraba State over the future of the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 governorship election, with many warning that the party may lose political ground if issues surrounding governance and internal cohesion are not urgently addressed

The concerns follow growing public debate over the performance of Governor Agbu Kefas’ administration since assuming office, particularly in critical sectors such as infrastructure, economic development, youth empowerment and rural development.

For the first time in the history of the State, the incumbent governor has to contend with several other aspirants for the ticket in his own political party. Three other aspirants: the embattled former Minister of Power Alhaji Salleh Maman, Chief David Sabo Kente and Alhaji Jaaji Sambo all purchased the forms to contest for the gubernatorial ticket against the governor.

Political observers say many residents had high expectations at the beginning of the administration, but critics argue that the pace of development has fallen short of public anticipation in several parts of the state.

Even more worrisome, the Christian Community in the State that played a key role in his election in 2023 seems disenchanted and is no longer holding out openly for him, despite moving from one Church to another lately to try and woo the members. The Muslim community has also complained bitterly about his discriminatory style of leadership and may likely not throw its weight behind him..

Recently, Hon. Dinshiya Usman, a favourite nephew of Gen. Theophilus Danjuma obtained the governorship form of the People’s Democratic Party ( PDP) to also vie for the ticket of the party ahead of the 2027 general elections. For several months, there have been speculations that the elder statesman Danjuma, who literally imposed Governor Agbu Kefas on the people in 2023 has fallen out with him.

For many people, this was not only far-fetched but out rightly preposterous. However, with his nephew now in the race against Kefas, there is no iota of doubt in anyone’s mind that the speculations are true and governor Kefas no longer has the blessing of his political godfather.

For someone who has performed abysmally in his first tenure, knowing well that he will be coming back to seek reelection, the people know only too well that trusting him with a second tenure is a recipe for a disastrous Four years.

With the people of the State disenchanted with him, his godfather ditching him and the people of his hometown of Wukari rallying massive pressure on one of them Chief David Sabo Kente to join the race and replace governor Kefas, it is now clear that trusting him with the ticket of the APC will inadvertently cost the APC heavily in 2027.

Knowing how very unpopular he has become, the governor is very jittery about even going in for direct primaries as he will evidently may be terribly disgraced. One of the frontline aspirants Chief David Sabo Kente told journalists that in a free and fair primaries, he will beat the incumbent governor Agbu Kefas and clinch a landslide victory, a position many have no doubt about.

Within the APC, some party faithful have expressed fears that unresolved internal divisions and lack of cohesion could weaken the party’s chances if urgent steps are not taken to unite stakeholders across the state.

They have therefore called on the national leadership of the APC to ensure transparency, inclusiveness and fairness in handling party affairs in Taraba, warning that unresolved crises and poor strategic decisions could affect the party’s electoral prospects.

The national leadership of the APC has both the proverbial yam and knife. The choice they make will most certainly decide the fate of the party in 2027. The people of the State however have⁰ the votes and it is now clear that they know where they want their votes to go.

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Opinion

AN OPEN LETTER TO NYESOM WIKE: WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? By Kio Amachree

by Editor
written by Editor

#WikeExposed #RiversState #WhoDoYouThinkYouAre #NigerianPolitics #AccountabilityNow #IJawAncestors #RiversNotForSale #TheKioSolution

I do not know you. I do not want to know you. Everything about you I find deeply, profoundly sad.

You were the kind of boy at boarding school who carried other boys’ books, cleaned their shoes, and waited gratefully for the tip — happy to be useful, biding your time, desperate not to return home to a dysfunctional household, yearning to be counted among boys born into a world that was never yours by birthright. That hunger — that gap between who you were and who you desperately wanted to be — created a serious inferiority complex that lives in your very bones to this day. It has never left you. It never will.

Everything about you is bravado. Exaggeration. Volume. Insecurity dressed up as authority. You think you are formidable. You are not. You are deeply, transparently vulnerable — and the tragedy is that you do not know it. You expose every defence, every weakness, every wound to people like me: sharks who smell blood in the water, who circle and circle and circle, and then strike, devour, and move on without a second thought.

The Rolls-Royce. The properties in Florida. The fabrications about your family background. The compulsive need to be seen, to be feared, to keep your face permanently in the public eye — these are not the hallmarks of power. They are the hallmarks of a man who has never been at peace with himself. I have been involved in Nigerian public life since 1982, when I served my National Youth Service in the National Assembly and the Presidency, and in all my years I have never encountered a figure quite like you. The only politician who came remotely close was the late Joseph Wayas — but once you got past Uncle Joe’s showmanship, you found a man of genuine intelligence and warmth. He liked to enjoy life, to be one of the boys, to attract laughter and women. A grand difference. You want to manufacture a legend that does not exist.

Your doctrine, as best I can discern it, is elementary: pour the Kai Kai, open the Star, dash the dollars, dominate the peasants. You look down upon your own people. You believe you know better than they know. You believe you are better than they are. But what does a man who walked out of university directly into the arms of political patronage and cult membership know of real life? You learned viciousness. You learned bullying. You learned scare tactics and mimicry. You never developed an original personality. You had no family foundation to speak of — those stories about your father the millionaire, the ones that supposedly explain the Rolls-Royce, made everyone who truly knows Nigeria laugh. Not politely. Genuinely. As in: *how much did he drink or smoke today before he said that with a straight face?*

You look older than me, and I am your senior. I look like your son. That tells me everything about excess — too much noise, too much alcohol, too many hands dipping into the treasury, too many grandiose dreams of being the eternal King of Rivers State.

Let me tell you something about Rivers State. I saw King Spiff — the first governor — working from an office in my father’s law chambers in Lagos when he was first appointed. My late father, Chief Godfrey Kio Jaja Amachree QC, was instrumental in the very creation of Rivers State. I was there as a child when the elders gathered — in the house on Bourdillon Road, on Graham Avenue — to discuss and negotiate the formation of the state you are presently attempting to claim as a personal fiefdom and family heirloom. I can assure you that in every one of those historic conversations, not a single elder stood up and said: *We are creating Rivers State so that one day it may be handed over to Nyesom Wike.*

My ancestors have asked me to put that question to you directly: Who Do You Think You Are?

They are puzzled, Mr. Wike. They are watching from the other realm — alert, present, deeply disturbed by your antics, your blasphemy, your violence, your ego, and your drunkenness. They want a plain answer: by what right? By what bloodline? By what spiritual authority do you insult royal fathers? By what logic do you steal from a people who are already hungry, already marginalised, already begging for the dignity they richly deserve as the very engine of Nigeria’s national wealth?

My father was the first Nigerian to be awarded an oil bloc — in 1969. By now, Rivers State should be Dubai. It should be the UAE. It should be a state within a state, a beacon of Black excellence and Ijaw achievement. Instead, it is a besieged territory occupied by armed strangers, treated like refuse, governed by a President who can barely string two coherent sentences together and who rules through fear, cash, and the calculated suppression of an entire civilisation.

How many graves lie across Rivers State, Mr. Wike, courtesy of your political career?

I should also mention — you carry a darkness around your aura. I have seen this before. A darkness that deepens every passing day, a spiritual weight that grows heavier with each act of impunity. One day it will swallow you whole. Let me remind you: there is only one God. There is only one Christ. And in Rivers State, in the Ijaw nation, the ancestors are not abstract. They live in each of us. They are not sleeping. They are not forgiving. And there will come a day when they say simply: *It is time to collect his soul.*

History is instructive on this matter. Men who mistake their moment of power for permanent dominion tend to meet instructive ends. Adolf Hitler, who believed a thousand-year Reich was his destiny, died in a bunker with a bullet in his skull. Napoleon, who once commanded an empire, rotted away on a rock in the South Atlantic, weeping for what he had lost. Stalin, the most feared man on earth, crawled across the floor of his own office begging for help — and not one of his terrified guards dared open the door to assist him. Mussolini, who fancied himself the modern Caesar, was shot, beaten, and strung upside down on a meat hook in a public square by the very Italian people he had spent decades humiliating.

You have too many sycophants around you, Mr. Wike. Too many professional liars. Too many parasites dancing for your money, whispering what you want to hear, keeping your vanity well fed. I am here — publicly, on the record — to tell you that the day of reckoning is approaching faster than you know, and when it arrives, you will stand before the ancestors of Rivers State and answer, in plain language, why you believed yourself to be a god in a land that already has one.

Pray, Mr. Wike. Pray hard. And then perhaps, finally, be quiet.

 

Kio Amachree is President of Worldview International and a commentator on Nigerian governance and the Niger Delta. He writes from Stockholm.

 

 

Culled from Kio Amachree’s Facebook Page

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Opinion

Tinubu’s Baffling Northern Exclusion Strategy By Farooq A. Kperogi(Opinion)

by Editor
written by Editor

The late Muhammadu Buhari wrested power from Goodluck Jonathan in a never-before-seen political upset of an incumbent in Nigeria precisely because of the northern establishment’s strategic coalition with the Southwest political establishment led by Bola Ahmed Tinubu. And Tinubu is president today because of the North’s requital, sort of, for Tinubu’s gesture.

I qualify the requital with “sort of” because Muhammadu Buhari, the chief beneficiary of the coalition, along with a significant number of the cabal that puppeteered him, didn’t want Tinubu to be president. That was the spark for Tinubu’s famously impassioned “Emi lo kan” speech in Abeokuta.

However, northern governors’ collective, full-throated, unambiguous support for Tinubu and denunciation of Buhari and his cabal with the slogan “The North remembers” compensated for Buhari’s treachery. Plus, 63.6 percent of Tinubu’s 8,805,420 votes came from the North.

That is now beside the point. Since becoming president, Tinubu has governed as if only the Southwest voted him into power, or as if the 25.9 percent of the votes he got from there is more significant than the 63.6 percent he got from the North.

I have pointed out in several past columns that Tinubu hasn’t been able to transcend his Lagos-centric and Yoruba provincialism. That’s why he still rules as if he were the governor of Lagos and not the president of Nigeria.

Tinubu is, in many ways, worse than Muhammadu Buhari, who held the record as the most narrow-minded and provincial president Nigeria ever had. In spite of Buhari’s manifest preference for northern Muslims across different ethnic groups, which I characterized in past columns as “undisguised Arewacentricity,” he ceded some power to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and left control of the economy to the Southwest.

Buhari formally transferred presidential powers to Osinbajo at least five times in his first term, if we count every Section 145 handover in which Osinbajo was to perform presidential functions or serve in an acting capacity while Buhari was outside Nigeria.

I am aware that some people count only three because they focus on the longer or more politically consequential acting-presidency periods, especially June 2016, January-March 2017 and May-August 2017, but the wider point is that Buhari trusted a Yoruba man enough to transfer power to him on many occasions.

By contrast, Vice President Kashim Shettima appears to have been marginalized in Tinubu’s presidency. Despite Tinubu’s frequent health-related trips to France, he has never transferred power to Shettima, even for a day. Instead, he seems to time his returns to Nigeria just early enough to avoid the constitutional requirement to hand over power, only to leave for France again a few days later.

Major economic and financial levers of government were held by southern figures, including Southwesterners. Osinbajo coordinated the economic team, Godwin Emefiele controlled monetary policy, Kemi Adeosun headed Finance until she resigned over the NYSC certificate forgery scandal, Babatunde Fowler ran FIRS, Udo Udoma led Budget and National Planning, Okechukwu Enelamah ran Trade and Investment and Ben Akabueze ran the Budget Office.

By contrast, under Tinubu, even the constitutionally recognized economic role of the vice president appears to have been hollowed out. Kashim Shettima may chair the National Economic Council on paper, but the commanding heights of economic policy are firmly in the hands of Tinubu’s Southwestern circle, leading to the increasingly plausible joke that Nigeria’s economic fate can now be decided entirely in Yoruba.

It used to be said that the only truly powerful and influential northerner in Tinubu’s administration was National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu. He appeared to enjoy Tinubu’s confidence to a degree that went beyond the normal.

But with the duplicative appointment of retired Major General Adeyinka Famadewa, from Osun State, as Special Adviser to the President on Home Security, there is a widespread feeling in the North that Tinubu has finally purged the last vestige of northern influence in his government.
There are many reasons for this perception. First, home security is a subset of national security, and no past government has ever seen the need to establish a separate office for a Special Adviser on Home Security.

In any case, the National Security Adviser is a constitutionally recognized office in the presidency and is part of the National Security Council, which advises the president on public security and agencies created for the security of the federation. It is responsible for the “leadership, management and capacity development” of Nigeria’s security architecture.

It’s hard to justify the creation of the office of SA on Home Security to focus on terrorism inside Nigeria, banditry, border vulnerabilities, intelligence coordination, critical infrastructure protection and inter-agency response when Nigeria already has the NSA, the Ministry of Interior, the DSS, the police, the military, the NSCDC, the Immigration Service and the National Counter-Terrorism Centre under ONSA.

The Ministry of Interior’s own mandate includes internal security and related services, while the NCTC is already housed in ONSA to coordinate counterterrorism efforts.

Second, Famadewa worked as the principal general staff officer to the NSA during the Buhari administration from 2015 to 2021, where he established the Intelligence Fusion Centre. The skills, experience and associational capital he is bringing to his new job as SA on Home Security are all derived from ONSA.

In other words, without being clearly subordinate to, or carefully coordinated with, the NSA and limited to domestic-security implementation, he is merely a Yoruba NSA. At least that’s what it comes across as.

Third, Famadewa is said to be a Hausa-speaking Yoruba man, and this fact is being read as a signal that Tinubu wants a Yoruba ear in the defense sector headed by northerners, which demonstrates a deep distrust of the people from the region he put there.

These speculations may have no basis in fact. For one, Ribadu is still the international face of the Tinubu administration. You don’t send someone you distrust to negotiate on your behalf with a government as crucial as the United States government.

Vice President Shettima also seems to get along just fine with Tinubu in spite of what seems to us outsiders like the diminished influence of the office of the vice president, especially in comparison with the outsized influence of Osinbajo in Buhari’s first term.

It is also possible that what comes across as Tinubu’s inexplicable animosity toward a region that gave him more than 60 percent of his electoral mandate actually comes not from him but from his ethnocentric kitchen cabinet that people have called his greedy, ignorant, shortsighted “Lagos boys.”

But it doesn’t matter. The buck stops at his desk. His studied representational exclusion of the Southeast is already well established. Apart from Nyesom Wike, there is no other notable southern minority in a key position in his government. Yes, he has made noteworthy symbolic overtures to northern Christians, particularly through his wife, Remi.

Nonetheless, for a president seeking a second term, he has an awfully perplexing electoral tactic. To dispense with a region that gave you more than 60 percent of your vote, you need several emblematic motions. First, don’t be seen to be undermining, relegating or ignoring your vice president from the region. It may not be true, but perception is the currency of reality in politics.

Second, don’t be seen to be calculatedly surveilling the second most important appointment given to the region, that is, the office of the NSA, by appointing a kinsman from your natal state, no less, to reduplicate his position.

If you have decided to initiate a political divorce with the region, which is perfectly legitimate even if it is treacherous, at least have a sensible alternative regional coalitional strategy.

As I have repeatedly pointed out in my columns, the Muslim North isn’t politically invincible. Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan have shown that convincingly. But to defeat it, you need to galvanize the entire South, the Christian North and a sprinkling of the margins of the Muslim North.

Tinubu is incapable of executing this strategy. Most of the Southeast won’t warm up to him in 2027 both because of his systematic exclusion of the region and because of the region’s enthusiastic embrace of its son, Peter Obi, who will most likely run again in 2027. Given Obi’s popularity among southern minorities, the best scenario for Tinubu would be that he would divide southern minority votes with Obi.

Votes from the Southwest, northern Christians, many of whom seem to have thawed their initial ice-cold hostility toward him on account of his choice of a Muslim as his running mate, and a plurality of southern minorities will never be sufficient to compensate for his active, self-created loss of northern Muslim votes.

And that causes me to wonder what Tinubu’s 2027 electoral game plan is. Whatever it is, it can’t be a legitimate electoral victory. But my biggest worry, more than electoral calculations, is the extreme, unexampled, in-your-face ethnocentric capture of the country by Tinubu, which sets an even worse precedent for his successor than Buhari set for him.

Nigeria needs a Nigerian president, not a sectional overlord who is Nigerian only in name.

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Opinion

Atiku, Obi, Kwankwaso are Tinubu’s Most Reliable Campaigners By Farooq A. Kperogi

by Editor
written by Editor

There is really no opposition in Nigeria in the true sense of the word. There are only politicians who have been temporarily kicked out of the inner sanctum of power and influence but who share no fundamental difference with the current temporary occupants of the power structure. Nonetheless, if all the people vegetating on the margins of the power structure came together, they could easily displace those within it in 2027.

Although the coalition of so-called opposition politicians angling to get back to power in 2027 has not articulated a coherent blueprint to show that it will be different from President Bola Tinubu (I strongly believe they are indistinguishable from him), it can effectively instrumentalize the crying incompetence, in-your-face corruption, ethnic bigotry, insufferable arrogance, unabating misery and insouciance that have become the hallmarks of Tinubu’s administration to convince a traumatized nation that it can offer an alternative.

It doesn’t matter if they will replicate or even exacerbate Tinubu’s unrelieved disaster when they get to power. Even the prospect of temporary relief from Tinubu’s unending torment is enough to get most people to give them a chance. But they have shown that they lack the discipline, cohesion and foresight required to wrest power from Tinubu.

Even before they have had a chance to come together, they are splintered. This became clear in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling that restored David Mark’s leadership of the ADC. Neither Peter Obi nor Rabiu Kwankwaso said a word about it.

There are credible rumors that Obi and Kwankwaso didn’t react to the Supreme Court judgment because they had already moved on. They are said to be heading to the NDC and no longer care about what happens to the ADC.

In other words, we are back to the 2023 factionalization of the “opposition.” Both Obi and Kwankwaso appear to be allergic to the internal democratic processes of political parties. They want to be canonized as candidates without contest. Since they can’t find that, they are moving away.

Atiku Abubakar may emerge as the candidate of the ADC, if the ADC survives, that is. He might choose Rotimi Amaechi as his running mate. Should this happen, the opposition will be fatally fractured, as it was in 2023.

Even now, the verbal darts between Atiku’s supporters and Obi’s and Kwankwaso’s supporters are more caustic and more venomous than the exchanges between either camp and Tinubu’s supporters.

In fact, Tinubu is the net beneficiary of their maximalist posturing and internal warfare. Obi and Kwankwaso supporters say they would rather let Tinubu continue for another four years than support Atiku’s aspiration to replace him. Atiku’s supporters, for their part, say they would rather put up with another Tinubu term than support an Obi/Kwankwaso presidency.

Beyond their crude, petulant name-calling, Obi and Atiku supporters advance arguments in support of their positions, both of which benefit Tinubu. Obi’s supporters say since it isn’t the turn of the North to produce a president, Buhari having ruled for eight continuous years before Tinubu took over, if another southerner can’t be presented as the opposition’s candidate, they would rather support Tinubu to complete the South’s turn.

Atiku’s supporters, on the other hand, turn that logic around and say that if Obi is supported to displace Tinubu in 2027, he would “eat into” the North’s turn, which they believe should start in 2031. They don’t believe Obi’s promise to rule for only one term since there is no legally binding or constitutional constraint that would forbid him from reneging on his promise.

There is a precedent for this in Goodluck Jonathan, who was “allowed” to complete Umaru Musa Yar’adua’s term on the understanding that he wouldn’t seek another term in 2011. He not only ran and won in 2011, he ran again in 2015 and almost won.

So, the argument of Atiku’s supporters is that supporting Tinubu to complete his term benefits the North more than supporting Obi because there is certainty, in their reckoning, that power will move to the region without contest after Tinubu’s term. It’s irrelevant if Tinubu’s policies incinerate them before power rotates back to the North.

It isn’t the logic or admissibility of the arguments of both camps that is the issue here. The point at issue is that in fighting each other, the opposition is fighting for Tinubu. His economic strangulation of the masses of our people takes the back seat. The insecurity that is ravaging the country, which he seems either unable or unwilling to confront and stamp out, is rendered irrelevant.

In other words, Tinubu’s most potent weapon isn’t INEC with its partisan chairman or a compromised judiciary. It is the opposition. Interestingly, the two main groups in the opposition like to accuse each other of “working for Tinubu” to ensure that their candidate doesn’t win. The truth is that they are both assets to Tinubu and are working for him for free. They are both weapons fashioned against each other for the benefit of Tinubu.

And that’s why I consider Tinubu’s excessive, underhanded zealousness in suffocating the ADC and other opposition parties from becoming viable platforms to challenge him a self-sabotaging strategic blunder. He could have a clear win, because of the selfishness and disunity of the opposition, and still be dogged by a crisis of legitimacy because he didn’t allow a fair contest.

On April 23, I wrote a Facebook post about two contradictory impulses of Nigerian politicians. I said Nigerian politicians are some of the most incurably optimistic specimens of humans you can find on earth. That’s why you have opposition politicians who can’t even agree on who their candidate will be in 2027 say with cocksure certitude that they can wrest power from a man who defied all odds to get to power while out of it and has since consolidated power by ensuring that INEC and the judiciary are in his pocket.

But I also pointed out that Nigerian politicians can be some of the most cowardly people while outwardly projecting faux bravery. That is why a politician who has 32 governors, INEC, the judiciary, an unrivalled war chest and a gravely divided opposition is still so fearful of his chances of winning that he doesn’t want the opposition to even have a platform to challenge him.

Tinubu joked on April 14, 2026, that he could send Godswill Akpabio to the opposition to “scatter them.” Days later, on April 20, his chief of staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, publicly urged ADC lawmaker Leke Abejide to remain in the party so that he could “fight them” and “scatter them.” Abejide said yesterday that Gbajabiamila was only joking, just like his boss, Tinubu.

An English proverb says, “Many a true word is spoken in jest.” That is, people often reveal serious truths while pretending to joke.

ADC’s fate is currently hanging in the balance, and if the past is any guide, the David Mark leadership of the party might lose in the federal high court. That would be an avoidably self-inflicted political injury for Tinubu. He doesn’t need to use the instruments of the state to “scatter” the ADC, the NDC, the PRP or any other potential platform opposition politicians might need. The opposition is doing a better job “scattering” itself than he can ever do, even with the instruments of the state.

Tinubu may not need to defeat the opposition because the opposition appears determined to defeat itself. An opposition that lacks the self-denial, strategic patience and moral urgency necessary to galvanize popular resentment and win power doesn’t deserve power.

Until Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Rabiu Kwankwaso and others understand that power is rarely handed to the disunited, the vain and the impatient, they will remain Tinubu’s most reliable unpaid campaigners.

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Opinion

INEC’s Farcical Self-Acquittal of Amupitan By Farooq Kperogi

by Editor
written by Editor

INEC said it investigated its chairman and found him not guilty of the allegation that he tweeted partisan support for Bola Tinubu in the 2023 election cycle.

If na you nko? How can you fail an exam you set and graded? How can you find yourself guilty in a court you established, where both the prosecution and the defense lawyers are your appointed minions and you are the judge?

There is a name for what INEC did. Self-exoneration. Some people call it self-exculpation. Others call it self-absolution.

It hides behind a blizzard of deceitful phrases without presenting a shred of evidence to support its self-exculpatory conclusions. It is shoddy for at least five reasons.

First, the claim that the timestamp of the “victory is sure” reply appeared earlier than the parent post, and therefore that it is “physically impossible,” ignores the fact that the parent post was edited, which altered its timestamp. The reply reflected the timestamp of the earlier version of the post before it was edited.

Second, as I pointed out in my April 13 post, independent, citizen-led account recovery efforts on the contested X account pointed to the phone number and email address associated with Amupitan’s official CV. If password recovery prompts consistently surface a masked version of a known phone number or email, that is circumstantial evidence of linkage.

Third, the “no archive trace before April 2026” claim actually says nothing. The Wayback Machine does not capture every account or every change in real time. Absence from the archive is not evidence of nonexistence.

The Wayback Machine is known not to archive low-traffic social media posts. Amupitan was an unknown quantity in 2023, so his reply attracted no eyeballs, which means the Wayback Machine had no reason to archive it.

Fourth, the self-exoneration tries to be clever by half by inverting the strongest circumstantial evidence that Amupitan tried to cover his tracks after he was caught pants down. The report said the change of the account’s name and locking it from public view after the partisan tweets were discovered was damage control by an impersonator. Hahaha! That was funny. These INEC “forensic experts” would have better success as comedians than as forensic analysts.

Anyone who is not a silly comedian knows that the most plausible interpretation of that action is that it is panicky, retroactive distancing by the original operator once scrutiny intensified.

Fifth, the fact that multiple fake accounts sprouted in Amupitan’s name after he was announced as INEC chairman says nothing about the authenticity of the X account he created in September 2022 when he was a barely known professor vegetating in obscurity. There were no multiple accounts in his name before he was appointed INEC chairman.

Finally, the threat to arrest and prosecute people who outed Amupitan introduces a frighteningly dictatorial element. That is an example of what in the United States we call a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP).

As I have pointed out in many previous columns, SLAPP is a type of frivolous lawsuit whose ultimate goal is to intimidate critics into silence and self-censorship, not necessarily to seek redress for intentional injury to reputation because, in the case of Amupitan, there is, in fact, no basis to seek any redress since all evidence points to the fact that he did write the tweets he is denying.

When an institution under scrutiny moves quickly from denial to criminalization, it usually signals an attempt to paper over guilt.

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Opinion

Tinubu’s Yoruba Agenda Risks Deep Rupture in Kwara By Farooq A. Kperogi

by Editor
written by Editor

Intra-state cultural and subregional tensions are building up in Kwara State ahead of the 2027 governorship elections because of credible worries that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s all-too-well-known Yoruba nationalist agenda is about to upend the state’s harmony through candidate imposition.

First, some background. Like several states in the country, Kwara is a multi-ethnic and multicultural state. It’s customary to divide it into three distinct geo-cultural zones. There is Kwara Central, which encompasses all of Ilorin and its adjoining areas. It’s linguistically Yoruba but ethnically a mixed bag of people who trace ancestry to Yoruba, Fulani, Kanuri, Baatonu (or Bariba), Hausa, and Nupe ancestors but who are, for all practical purposes, Yoruba. It is a little over 6 percent of the state’s landmass but constitutes 38 percent of the state’s population.

Then there is Kwara South, the most ethnically homogeneous part of the state, which is wholly Yoruba and, in many ways, culturally and linguistically indistinguishable from the Southwest. It is a little over 18 percent of the state’s landmass and 30 percent of its population.

Kwara North is the most ethnically diverse geo-cultural region and is peopled by the Baatonu (or Bariba), Bokobaru, Nupe, and Fulani. It is the non-Yoruba-speaking part of the state that constitutes more than 75 percent of the state’s landmass and 32 percent of its population, although Moro, a small part of Ilorin Emirate, was mysteriously grafted onto Kwara North. Nonetheless, the Nupe, Fulani, Baatonu, and Bokobaru people are culturally closer to the far North than they are to any part of the state.

Since the restoration of civilian rule in 1999, Kwara Central, that is, Ilorin Emirate, has dominated the governorship of the state. By the time of the next governorship election in 2027, Kwara Central would have ruled for 20 out of 28 years.

Kwara South produced the governor for eight years, from 2011 to 2019. Abdulfatah Ahmed, from Ifelodun Local Government, is from Kwara South.

But the entirety of Kwara North has never produced a governor for even a day since 1999, and only for a year and 10 months since 1992.

Kwara State governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, from all indications, is committed to course correction in 2027 by supporting a rotation of power to Kwara North. A news report I read said he is lending support to Yakubu Danladi Salihu, the Speaker of the Kwara State House of Assembly, who is from Baruten, the second-largest local government in the country, to succeed him. It may not be true, but it has crystallized in public perception.

Senator Sadiq Suleiman Umar, who represents Kwara North in the Senate and who is from Kaiama, is another contender who enjoys widespread support to succeed Abdulrazaq. Both Baruten and Kaiama used to be part of Borgu Local Government before one half of it was ceded to Niger State in the early 1990s.

Yet although consensus, even among prominent players in Ilorin, appears to be coalescing around the idea that the remnant of Borgu in Kwara State, that is, Baruten and Kaiama, should produce the next governor (because the Nupe briefly produced a governor in the aborted Third Republic), it is said that President Tinubu insists that a Yoruba person from Kwara South must be governor.

Widespread whispers indicate that Tinubu’s preference for Abdulrahman’s successor is a certain Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa, who hails from the same local government as former governor Ahmed and who used to be a local government chairman in Lagos.

A self-described “Yoruba irredentist” who has privileged access to people in Tinubu’s inner circle told me a few days ago that Tinubu wants to use his presidency to advance his sense of a pan-Yoruba agenda and be seen as the reincarnation of Oduduwa.

To that end, he said, Tinubu wants to force the election of “Yoruba” governors in Kwara and Kogi states. Since I didn’t listen in on any conversation where Tinubu said this, I can’t be certain that it’s entirely true, but given what I have described as Tinubu’s studied “Visibilization of Northern Yorubas” in my October 11, 2025, column, it would not surprise me if it were true.

But it would be a grave error of judgment to railroad Yoruba governors in multi-ethnic states, particularly in Kwara State. First, as I have pointed out, a person from Kwara South has been governor for eight years.

Second, Mohammed Lawal, Kwara’s first governor in the Fourth Republic, although from Ilorin, self-identified as Yoruba and performed many symbolic acts to signal that.

In fact, Governor Abdulrazaq, although a cosmopolitan person who seems to transcend ethnic and religious boundaries, is Yoruba. At least that was what one Sheikh Abdulrahim Aduranigba said seven years ago when he contrasted him with the PDP candidate for the governorship election.

“We have adopted Abdulrazaq as our governorship candidate because he is a Yoruba, and we have instructed him to conduct his campaigns in Yoruba language,” THISDAY quoted him as saying. “The PDP candidate is Fulani, and we challenge him to conduct his campaigns in Fulani language.”

In other words, the Yoruba are not a marginal group in Kwara that need saving by a reincarnated Oduduwa. The people who need “saving” are the non-Yoruba-speaking people of the state who have never produced a governor.

Third, the pushback that the imposition of a governor on account of his ethnic identity would invite could plunge the state into crisis. Ilorin people will resist it. People in Kwara North will resist it, and it will cause needless friction with the south of the state.

Interestingly, Tinubu’s second most prominent traditional title after “Asiwaju” is “Jagaban Borgu.” Kwara’s Kaiama and Baruten local governments, which have never produced a governor for the state since its founding in 1967, are one half of Borgu. It would be ironic if the champion of Borgu (that’s what Jagaban Borgu means) champions the political exclusion of the people he is symbolically supposed to lead and protect.

Tinubu himself is president because of a deliberate policy of positive political discrimination called power rotation, and he is anchoring his reelection on the basis that the South must complete its eight years, like the North before it.

As I have repeatedly pointed out, political representation at the highest levels is more symbolism than substance. Although the nature of ethnocratic governance we call democracy ensures that people in positions of power give preferential treatment to their kind and places of origin, for the most part, all politicians are the same. They first take care of themselves, their families, friends, and associates before the crumbs spread to their “people.”

Yet political representation is the symbolic conduit through which people vicariously connect with governments. When people of Ayetoro Gbede demonstrated the other day, telling Nigerians to leave their “son” Joash Amupitan alone, even though his past tweets question his neutrality and therefore his suitability as INEC chairman, I understood where they were coming from. He is the symbolic conduit through which they connect to the government. Ours is an ethnocracy, not a democracy.

That’s why it’s my long-term belief that the surest way to sustain the form of government we practice now is to deepen and constitutionalize representational equity. No ethnic group should dominate leadership because it has profound implications for psychic exclusion and the predilection to violence.

Baruten, Kaiama, Patigi, and Edu local governments, the non-Yoruba-speaking local governments in the state, are some of the least developed and most backward places in Nigeria. The first roads were tarred in Baruten only a little over a decade ago, and they are already death traps. Most towns are not connected to the national grid, and healthcare is among the worst.

A governor from the area will be compelled by ethnocratic pressures to attend to the most egregious infrastructural deficits that previous governments overlooked.

Let me end with a full disclosure: I am from Baruten Local Government of Kwara State and therefore from “Kwara North.” But my concerns are located in my broader concerns about representational justice, about which I have written in regard to other parts of the country.

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