Politics
Nigeria dying under Buhari’s jackboot
Tunde Odesola
Once upon a Babel, there was a tower that reached to the heavens. Like Nigeria, Babel was a country that thrived on visionless tyranny, but eventually fell off the global map into extinction. For Babel to disintegrate, the country’s tongue lost the unifying power of communication and the falcon no longer heard the falconer.
Nimrod, the great-grandson of Noah, who built the all-saving Ark, led the construction of the all-destructive Tower. Sometimes, a prodigal son trashes excellent heritage by burning the tree of inheritance. Located in present-day Iraq, the remains of Babel ruled by Nimrod, a mighty hunter, fascist and narcissist, have become critical references in archeological studies and political misrule.
Babel shares a few disturbing traits with Nigeria. Like Babel, Nigeria, under Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), appears irreversibly committed to self-death, yet hounding all voices of reason pleading soul-searching and repentance from the sworn path of doom.
The breakdown of communication in Nigeria, as it was in Babel, is on three levels. They include intra-government level, government-citizen level and government-government level. Instructively, however, extreme leadership failure is the dagger to the heart of Nigeria’s communication breakdown and the harbinger of the accompanying hardship on the citizenry – just as it was in Babel.
The breakdown in intra-government communication is evident in the senseless wars that have rocked the Muhammadu Buhari nepotistic administration. They include the shameful combat between Buhari’s late relative and Chief of Staff, Abba Kyari and the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno; the insult by Okija Shrine client and Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, against Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of Bullion Van fame and his failed Kogi governorship hopeful godson, James Faleke; Inspector General of Police, Muhammamed Adamu vs the Chairman, Nigeria Police Service Commission, Musliu Smith; disgraced Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu vs Department of State Service; Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami vs Magu; Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu vs the late Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Maikanti Baru.
Within the mismanaged Buhari government, sacked National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole and Ngige the giant, assaulted Nigerians with individual public hubris. In line with the chauvinistic body language of the Buhari administration which limits women to ‘the kitchen and the other room’, the intra-government war within the Buhari rulership is clearly no respecter of women as the Chairman, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said the Minister of Communication, Ali Pantami, used armed men to chase her and her staff out of the office space given to her commission. The list of intra-government insurgencies in Buhari’s confused government is endless but I’ll limit myself to the above-mentioned examples in the spirit of fairness as I ask a simple question: Are all these fights in the interest of the nation or the pocket?
Communication breakdown on government-citizen level is the government’s unheeding of the daily lamentations of anarchy, starvation, diseases, poverty, insecurity and hopelessness by millions of citizens who regret the country’s political leadership and wished they were citizens of other countries where leadership is meaningful. It’s also the agony of thousands of citizens who’ve lost their loved ones to killer Fulani herdsmen, murdering Boko Haram and terminator kidnappers and bandits who daily paint the country with the blood of innocent souls while the Buhari government folds its arms akimbo and lounges on the throne with legs crossed in indifferent majesty.
The Buhari-led APC government is light years away from ordinary citizens. It’s not close to influential citizens, either. The government is just stranded in a world of its own do-nothing.
Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka, grabbed his fertile pen last week and warned that Nigeria was fast sailing to the cliff of extinction. For the first time in the foreseeable past, Soyinka publicly agreed with former President Olusegun Obasanjo on the perilous direction of the Nigerian ship.
In a frightening depiction entitled, “Between ‘Dividers-in-Chief’ and Dividers-in-Law,” Soyinka said, “We are close to extinction as a viable comity of peoples…On Africa Day, May 2019, organised by Union Bank of Africa, I similarly seized an opening to direct the attention of this government to warnings by the Ota farmer over the self-destruct turn that the nation had taken, urged the wisdom of heeding the message even while remaining chary of the messenger.
“That advice appears to have fallen on deaf ears. In place of reasoned response and openness to some serious dialogue, what this nation has been obliged to endure has been insolent distractions from garrulous and coarsened functionaries, apologists and sectarian opportunists.
“This nation is divided as never before, and this ripping division has taken place under the policies and conduct of none other than President Buhari…Does anyone deny that it was this president who went to sleep while communities were consistently ravaged by cattle marauders, were raped and displaced in their thousands and turned into beggars all over the landscape?”
Soyinka went on to bemoan the suffering of pensioners, numberless Benue farmers slaughtered by suspected Fulani herdsmen, army of jobless Nigerian youths, age-long corruption in the petroleum ministry headed by Buhari in military khaki and the lopsided unitary system of government being deliberately practised by the country.
For a global literary colossus of Soyinka’s stature, preemptive intuition should be a given. Having been in the vanguard of social re-engineering struggle for 70 years, Soyinka perfectly preempted the unintelligent response of the Buhari administration to his admonition. He said, “The rains did not just begin to beat us yesterday in the nation… Past leaders will not be permitted to forget or gloss over own self-centered interests and nation corrosive lapses that brought us to this parlous present.
“But we do endure in this here and now, in the immediacy of current governance, so let no uppity flunkey attempt to divert attention from current realities, realities that now clearly pronounce this nation of once promising prospects a basket case of abject penury and insecurity, where hordes of trained minds and sturdy limbs roam the streets as beggars, as haphazard vendors of the products of other people, other lands.”
By his response to Soyinka’s advice, Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, is a perfect fit for the uppity flunkey character described by the octogenarian. And uppity flunkey means arrogant uniform-wearing manservant.
In his characteristically insulting reply to the myriad of cracks identified by Soyinka on Nigeria’s famished geography but which Buhari has widened into abysses, Adesina said Buhari inherited a ‘terribly’ divided Nigeria from Goodluck Jonathan in 2015, adding that there was nothing special about Soyinka’s warning.
If a terribly divided country was truly inherited from Jonathan, Buhari’s misgovernance has terribly shattered the delicate egg of the Nigerian nation into smithereens. If Buhari reads the news and has answers to Nigeria’s problems, he would’ve long known he doesn’t need uppity flunkeys like Adesina around him. Unfortunately, however, the delusive Adesina probably knows far too much than Buhari in everything except cocking a gun and herding.
Last but not least level of communication breakdown inherent in the Babel and Buhari governments is the government-to-government communication breakdown. The inability of the Buhari regime to get repatriated former public officers, who stole billions during the Jonathan years and fled abroad, is a telling indictment on the ability of the Daura leader to communicate the goals of his government to other world leaders.
Also, Buhari’s reaction to the visa ban imposed by the US and the UK on perpetrators of violence during the Kogi and Bayelsa governorship elections exposes the mouth of a crying government in diapers. If democracy had been improved by a grain in the last five years of the Buhari leadership, the US and UK needn’t hold up the cane of visa ban.
Make no mistake, countrymen, I hear deep snoring from the cockpit of the green-white-green plane on auto-pilot. The signs are ominous.
Email: [email protected]
Politics
2027 BATTLE: How Much Nigeria Can Save, Invest In Infrastructure By Rotating Power Among Six Geo-political Zones For A Single Term Of Five Or Six Years
2027 BATTLE: How Much Nigeria Can Save, Invest In Infrastructure By Rotating Power Among Six Geo-political Zones For A Single Term Of Five Or Six Years
As a Southernern, particularly from the South East Geo-Political Zone, I believe the most potent argument for us in 2027 is that the North/South zoning arrangement of political power at the center is a scam. It’s a scam because it has only benefitted the South West and the North West geo-political zones since the return of ‘democracy’ (civil rule) in Nigeria on May 29, 1999. Nigeria, it must be clarified has six geo-political zones, not two.
Nigeria was divided into six geo-political zones in 1996 by the military government of General Sanni Abacha. This new zoning arrangement was a brainchild of the 1994/1995 Constitutional Conference chaired by the late Justice Adolphus Karibi-Whyte and empaneled by General Sanni Abacha.
At that Conference, no less a person than former Vice President Chief Alex Ekwueme and a group called Mkpoko Igbo proposed that since Nigeria will now be divided into six geo-political zones, to give all zones a sense of belonging within the Nigerian State, that power at the center should rotate among the six geo-political zones for a single term of five or six years. In their thinking, if power was rotated among the six geo-political zones for a single term of five or six years, within 30 years or 36 years, all six zones would have had one of their own leading Nigeria, particularly, from their first 11 (primus inter pares). The North and the South West delegations at that conference pooh-poohed Chief Alex Ekwueme and summarily shut down that all-important proposal. The rest they say is history.
More than 30 years later, there is yet no national peace, national cohesion, national political stability, national unity, and national loyalty to the Nigerian State. Had the proposal of Chief Alex Ekwueme and Mkpoko Igbo been adopted and implemented since 1999, at least, the 5th Geo-Political Zone would have had one of their own in Aso Villa today, and by 2035, the last geo-political zone would have being sending us one of their own to contest the Presidency across Nigeria’s current 18 political parties. This mathematics is if we had gone with a single term of six years (the maximum limit) as proposed by Dr. Ekwueme and the South East and South South delegates in that 1994/1995 Constitutional Conference.
Fast forward to today, in his recent Arise TV interview, and in some other public and private fora, H.E. Atiku Abubakar asked for Dr. Ekwueme’s forgiveness as he was among key Northern delegates in that Constitutional Conference from the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua group that opposed the rotational presidency among Nigeria’s geo-political zones. Waziri Adamawa had disclosed that he even apologized to Alex Ekwueme when he visited Oko, Anambra State, to pay homage to the former late vice president sometime in 2017/2018.
By and large, for 2027, I believe that the most potent argument that will sell in the South East is that the North East where Waziri Adamawa hails from, just like the South East (our region), had also been marginalized in the scheme of things in Nigeria. Aside from Alhaji Tafawa Balewa from Bauchi State (North East), nobody from the region/zone has been head of national government, head of state, or even president since 1966.
So, H.E. Atiku Abubakar is right in contesting the Presidential election billed for January 16, 2027, to right this wrong, and return Nigeria’s presidency to an equitable distribution of power at the center. When elected, and it’s entrenched in the Nigerian 1999 Constitution (as amended), that power rotates among the six geo-political zones for a single term of five or six years, this new formula will bring about national peace, national cohesion, national unity, and tremendously commandeer national loyalty among Nigerians from across the six geo-political zones for their beloved country, the Nigerian State.
As a budding political scientist of repute and ardent student of contemporary Nigerian history and politics, let me tell us what this formular would do for the Nigerian State. The battle for the soul of the Nigerian State will be ferocious at the zonal level, while the center will become unattractive. So, let’s say it is the turn of the North East Geo-Political Zone to produce the Presidency in 2027, the battle to gift Nigerians their First 11 (primus inter pares) will be ferocious across the States in the region. The people of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba, and Yobe will now be more interested in partisan politics, thus being proactive participants within the current 18 political parties in Nigeria.
Giving Nigeria’s configurations and peculiarities, one of the positives of this political proactiveness is that it’s a win-win situation for the entire region if a man from Adamawa becomes President of Nigeria in 2027. The people from Yobe, Borno, Taraba, Gombe, and Bauchi will be largely happy, contented, hold their peace, love Nigeria better, and be more loyal to the Nigerian State because one of their own is now the GCFR, the primus inter pares, and the No. 1 Citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The steep insecurity that has ravaged the North East Geo-Political Zone since 2009, largely owing to perceived agelong marginalisation, oppression, injustices, would largely die down.
This will be the same case for the South East Geo-Political Zone. Biafra secessionist agitations, IPOB, ESN led by Nnamdi Kanu, will die a natural death. Justice and equity for all breeds contentment among men, and contentment among men births peace, unity, commandeers loyalty, and tremendously brings about prosperity. I stand to be challenged on this self-evident truth on any national television station.
When it is the turn of another region to produce the Presidency, after the North East has had their turn, all political parties in Nigeria must constitutionally present a Presidential candidate from the region whose turn it is to produce the presidency for a single term of six years. This rotational presidency formula must be entrenched in Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution (as amended) by May 29, 2027.
I avow that rotational presidency among Nigeria’s six geo-political zones for a single term of five or six years is the best political science solution to the agelong hydra-headed problem of Nigeria, especially in the guise of disunity, unpeaceful, and disloyalty problems among Nigerian citizens. Doing this will also largely curtail the executive rascalities, legislative rascalities, and judicial rascalities currently being perpetrated by the Bola Ahmed Tinubu led Executive arm; the Godswill Akpabio led Legislative arm; and the CJN Kudirat Motonmori Olatokunbo Kekere-Ekun led Judiciary arm.
The over desperation of getting re-elected for a second term in office, as shown today by Bola Tinubu, will be eraced for future Nigerian Presidents. The humongous money and depletion of Nigeria’s national treasury just for seeking re-election at all cost, and conducting elections will also be erased.
The Highfalutin, Draining Cost Of Conducting Elections In Nigeria?
For the 2023 general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) proposed N305 billion in May 2022, which was a 62 percent increase over the 2019 budget. Ultimately, the National Assembly approved N355 billion for the exercise, though the commission spent N313.4 billion as of September 2023.
For the 2027 general election, INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan proposed a total budget of N873.78 billion to the National Assembly in February 2026. This proposal includes N375.75 billion for election operations, N209.21 billion for technology, and N92.31 billion for administrative costs. The Bola Ahmed Tinubu led APC regime had previously allocated N1.01 trillion to INEC in the 2026 budget presented in January 2026.
Ladies and gentlemen, INEC’s election budget ballooned from N355 billion in 2023 to a whopping N873.78 billion for a re-election season in 2027? This is approximately a percentage increase of 146.13%. This is unacceptable, opprobrious, and insalubrious.
If we entrench in the Nigerian 1999 Constitution (as amended), zoning the presidency among the six geo-political zones for a single term of five or six years, this proposed N873.78 billion to coduct the 2027 re-election season would have been eliminated.
What Can N873.78 billion Do For Nigerians In Terms Of Infrastructural Developmental Projects?
If hypothetically redirected or matched in scale for infrastructure development, N873.78 billion could significantly advance Nigeria’s infrastructure across key sectors:
1. Roads and Transportation: This amount could fund the rehabilitation of over 10,000 kilometers (6213.712 miles) of rural and urban roads, especially when combined with technical support from institutions like the World Bank’s RAAMP-SU project.
It could complete critical projects like the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway or support the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, enhancing regional connectivity and trade.
2. Railway Development: Based on past projects, N873 billion could finance a new 600–800 km (373-497 miles) standard gauge rail line, similar to the Abuja-Kaduna or Lagos-Ibadan lines, which were partially funded by Chinese loans.
Rail expansion would boost freight movement, reduce road congestion, and create thousands of jobs.
3. Power and Energy: The sum could support renewable energy projects, such as solar mini-grids for 10,000 rural communities, or fund transmission infrastructure to reduce power losses.
For context, Power Africa facilitated $63 million in renewable energy investments over 26 months—N873 billion could scale such efforts dramatically.
4. Water and Sanitation: Funds could build or upgrade water treatment plants, boreholes, and sanitation systems in underserved urban and rural areas, improving public health and reducing waterborne diseases.
5. Agricultural Infrastructure: The NSIA’s Multipurpose Industrial Platform Ltd (MIPL) in Akwa Ibom, including an ammonia and fertilizer plant, is a multi-billion-dollar project. N873 billion could fund multiple such agro-industrial hubs, boosting food security and reducing import dependence.
Analyzing The Current Infrastructure Spending In Nigeria In Relation To N873.78 Billion?
For comparison, Nigeria’s actual infrastructure allocations are much lower than the humongous money INEC is proposing to conduct the shaky 2027 general elections in Nigeria.
The 2025 Federal Budget allocated ₦4.06 trillion ($2.7 billion) for infrastructure—about 7.4% of total spending.
The National Integrated Infrastructure Master Plan (NIIMP) aims to raise infrastructure stock to 70% of GDP by 2043, requiring $100 billion annually—far above current spending levels.
Pension funds invested ₦262.57 billion in infrastructure in the first 10 months of 2025. This is below N873.78 billion being earmarked for the 2027 elections.
Without mincing words, let me aver that the N873.78 billion could transform infrastructural developmental projects in Nigeria, But the fact that this amount is proposed for elections, not infrastructural developmental projects, highlights a mismatch between public needs and government spending priorities in Nigeria, especially under the disastrous APC regime of Bola Tinubu.
Conclusion
While N873.78 billion is earmarked for elections, its scale underscores what Nigeria could achieve in infrastructure if similar resources were consistently invested. Redirecting even a fraction of election budgets toward roads, power, rail, water, and agriculture could accelerate economic growth, create jobs, and improve quality of life in Nigeria. However, transparency, accountability, and long-term planning are essential to ensure such investments yield lasting benefits.
Finally, ladies and gentlemen, let’s consider the substantial ingredients of this political seminal and fix this mess of power rotation at the center among Nigeria’s six geo-political zones for a single term of five or six years. Let’s stop wasting scarce resources in Nigeria conducting re-elections at the center and across state levels. Let’s stop wasting everybody’s time in Nigeria.
Ikenna Asomba is a political scientist and journalist. He writes from the State of Illinois, United States.
Politics
2027 BOMBSHELL: Dismantling The Myth Around Kwankwaso’s So-Called Electoral Dominance In Kano
2027 BOMBSHELL: Dismantling The Myth Around Kwankwaso’s So-Called Electoral Dominance In Kano
Politics
I am fully ready for the 2027 general elections”- ADP, presidential aspirant, Prof. Omolaja, declares
“I am fully ready for the 2027 general elections”- ADP, presidential aspirant, Prof. Omolaja, declares.
By Comrade Samson Ajibade Alabi, NLP Media Director
A presidential aspirant under the Action Democratic Party (ADP), Prof Muhammad Omolaja, has said that he is fully ready for the 2027 general elections especially the presidential contest.
Prof. Omolaja who disclosed this in an exclusive interview with pressmen in Abuja on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, said he has done his consultations with leaders of the Party, boasting that he is the next president of Nigeria by the grace of God.
He submitted that he has won the heart of the people at the grassroots across all the States and geopolitical zones including the federal capital territory (FCT); and convinced them about his clear vision and mission for Nigeria.
According to him, Nigerians are tired of the APC government and ready to vote them out in favour of his Party; the ADP!
Prof. Omolaja added that ADP is the only Party that can liberate Nigeria and rescue the citizens from the prevailing insecurity and other challenges facing the country.
The presidential aspirant said “you are asking me if I am ready for the 2027 general elections or not, I hereby inform you categorically that I am fully ready for the election; we have done what to be done, we have systematically carried Nigerians along in our preparations especially the people at the grassroots; and we have let them know that ADP is the only credible alternative Party that can liberate them from all the challenges the country is facing under the prevailing APC government. I am confident that I will get the ticket of our great Party being the leading contestant, and win the upcoming 2027 presidential election by the special grace of the Almighty God”
He therefore urged Nigerians to rally support for him and his Party (ADP) at the polls in the spirit of peace, love, unity, and patriotism in Nigeria.
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