First, one is glad that there is a year actually called 2026! Yes, of course. Before now and even as I pen this, our political gladiators and their followers made it seem we’ll jump dashingly from 2025 to 2027 in a blaze of aplomb.
Conversations before the breaking of this year centred primarily on 2027, which is an election year in Nigeria. Everything in political circles revolved unapologetically around the 2027 sweepstakes. Who gets what, who defects next to the governing All Progressives Congress (APC), and whatnot.
It was so intense that many a Nigerian literally got confused, thinking the year 2026 had already been wiped off the calendar, even before 2025 gave way. You can’t blame them much, given how talk of 2027 dominated discourses and all.
But alas, here we are. 2026 is here. Projections are being made. Speculations and permutations remain the order of the day. The political milieu remains hot on discussions, and high-wired strategies remain a permanent feature. The All Progressives Congress (APC) are welcoming new entrants almost every other day. Governors are falling over themselves to join them. To belong there now seems a free ticket to El Dorado. If you join, your political future is guaranteed. For governors, we hear that in defection, huge sums exchange hands. Plus assurances of unfettered access to reelection for those seeking a second term.
But how does the gale of defections help or add value to our beleaguered democracy? How does it promote civil engagement? What do the long-suffering, hapless citizens stand to gain in all of this? Well, the truth remains that, since politics, as they say, is a game of interest, our defectors do so not for the people, as they deceptively claim, but for themselves, to secure the health of their political life. It’s all about where the bread is currently buttered. And, it needs no clairvoyance to know that it is Tinubu’s APC that has all the butter now. Hence, wonder no more why many a politician is in the queue to join the party.
But what those who know remain unbothered about is the fact that sooner, there will be an implosion. One that will happen based on the party’s inability to manage the sheer number of contending interests that will certainly crop up, especially before or immediately after the primaries. There is no way the nomination process and outcome will favour all those jumping on the broom train in the belief that securing either a second term or advancing their political mileage is already a settled matter. But they have not, even for a second, spared a thought for the possibility of their expectations not seeing the light of day without friction, given how crowded the party is now.
Read Also: 2027: Why Opposition Must Not Die
Later this year, however, nominations will be held. Parties will know those flying their flags for the different offices on the cards. All eyes will surely be on the APC, which now holds all the aces, having succeeded in expanding its membership base with the entrance of a good number of governors into its fold. Will the party be able to manage the post-nomination process well, such that after it all, those whose expectations will be cut short will remain in the party and work harmoniously with their counterparts who’ll be favoured? If the party gets it right here, it’ll be a big boost for its quest to triumph on all fronts at the general polls.
Once a beautiful bride ogled at by many, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) now seems a shadow of its previously glorious self. The party is caught in the web of legal and internecine crises that have the potency of denying it a place on the political chessboard of 2027. Though efforts are on by the Kabiru Turaki-led umbrella party to revive it to life and position it as opposition number one to the APC, the Nyesom Wike-led camp is hell-bent on keeping the party on its knees. It’s a tough time for the PDP, as there’s a case of internal wrangling orchestrated by those who have links with the APC and have pig-headedly refused to officially drop the umbrella and pick up the broom. They prefer deceptive schemes to sincerely taking a stance on where they actually belong.
Only a miracle of far-reaching proportions will save the PDP at this material time. Those sincerely fighting for the party to live must be commended for their doggedness, but they face a herculean task as saboteurs within are equally battle-ready to ensure that their efforts amount to nothing. Who will win this battle of wits, will and steel?
So, as Nigerians watch our politicians intensify their scheming and shenanigans ahead of the next polls, one is again alarmed at how those in power are projecting their children to take one office or the other. The restless Nyesom Wike is pushing his son for the Green Chamber. His colleague in the Federal Executive Council, David Umahi, the self-styled Professor in Engineering “Practice”, wants his son as chairman of Ohaozara Local Government Area in Ebonyi State. The son, Osborne, had obtained the party’s N30 million form in the company of numerous supporters!
It has become a family affair! When a father, full of cash and power, reaches the zenith politically, he brings his son into the fray and hands him an office on a platter, leaving the sons of “nobodies” perpetually as cheerleaders, undeserving of holding any political office. They are the thugs used every other year for the dirty jobs. So, they remain in the backwaters, unschooled and unskilled, while awaiting the son of a big man to return from schooling abroad and take up a political office on a platter while they cheer the beneficiary to high heavens. “We die here,” they holler unabashedly. A sorry pass indeed for us. But the gladiators care not. Money they have, power they have, so who are you to stop them? This is our brand of democracy. Fathers and Sons Enterprises.
In Akwa Ibom, news is rife that a former legal adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Barr. Emmanuel Enoidem is on his way to joining the Governor Umo Eno-led Akwa Ibom United train. The governor’s key man in the run-up and aftermath of the 2023 polls, until the governor defects to the APC, Enoidem, who had pledged to remain a PDP member, is now reportedly poised to join the APC. While nothing is actually new or overly shocking about this development, some political watchers are surprised by what they have described as a volte-face. They are wondering why a man who has postured as one who has the PDP blood running in his veins will finally elect to join the bandwagon.
But they shouldn’t be so worried because in Nigeria, there is nothing new about defection. As an interest-based game, nothing is impossible. Need I list names of top politicians holding one office or the other who previously swore never to leave their party but did so in haste before the cock crew? There is no morality in politics here. It is about where one’s interest is guaranteed per time. Once that is certain, then an average politician is good to go. So if and when the strongman of Etim Ekpo politics joins the broom revolution, politically exposed persons should not beat themselves over anything. It is normal here. And more so, when you consider that most of these men know next to nothing about how life is in the opposition camp. With no muscle to stand the heat, they port with the speed of light to where it is convenient.
All of this will, however, only make the political space more interesting, even as the African Democratic Congress (ADC), with Peter Obi now in its ranks, spoils for a showdown with the governing APC, presenting itself as the only realistically serious opposition to the ruling party in 2027. Can the party swing a surprise in the political circuit by pushing APC all the way from federal to state and local government elective positions?
For the neutrals, nothing is as gratifying as grabbing sweetened popcorn, legs crossed in a fully reclined position on a swivel revolving chair, a chilled drink in hand, and dealing with the crispy snack with no care in the world, while watching political events unfold, with the gladiators slugging it out on the turf.
We are in for very interesting times politically. Whether politically exposed or not, brace up for the season. It has already started, and the key players are not pretending about it. But in all these, where lies the interest of the hoi polloi?
