Will 2027 be decided only by Yoruba voters in Lagos?

The administrators of the Tinubu administration are no longer ashamed of being called nepotistic. They arrogantly celebrate the appointments of Yoruba people without worrying about public backlash. They know Nigerians are not unaware. And despite the national outcry, they are not thinking of slowing down on appointment of more Yoruba people in key sectors of […]

The administrators of the Tinubu administration are no longer ashamed of being called nepotistic. They arrogantly celebrate the appointments of Yoruba people without worrying about public backlash. They know Nigerians are not unaware. And despite the national outcry, they are not thinking of slowing down on appointment of more Yoruba people in key sectors of the country.

Likewise, the unbalanced capital expenditures allocated to Lagos through costly external loans which many doubt Nigeria’s ability to repay are not going unnoticed. I say unbalanced because Lagos State alone is getting allocations in trillions of Naira and billions of dollars that make them difficult to count.

Not many would know that apart from the publicised N15 trillion Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, there is N360 billion earmarked for Carter Bridge. Let’s not forget the ongoing plan to build the 38-kilometre long Fourth Mainland Bridge worth $2.5 billion—about N3.7 trillion.

Only last week, the federal government approved $238 million for a power supply project to Lagos industrial clusters. On the same day, the Minister of Works announced the federal government will need to spend N3.6 trillion to repair the 12-kilometre long Third Mainland Bridge. The outrageous news has shifted the public attention from the N700 billion approved for the maintenance of Murtala Mohammed Airport, the $250,000 Lekki access road, and $2 billion for Lagos Green Rail project.

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Yes, we can argue that Lagos is a commercial hub, and the infrastructure will benefit the whole economy. But let’s remember that no economy grows on one leg. The neglect of agriculture and manufacturing in the country is only weakening the national productivity. As it stands, no single state or geopolitical zone can boast of such allocation under one administration.

This is why I ask the question whether the administrators of this administration think that they can win the 2027 elections by focusing investments on Lagos alone and trusting that only Yoruba people have the capacity to deliver the governance this government envisioned.

Last week’s by-elections were an indication of what may happen come 2027. The people refused to vote for the ruling party based on its current performance. It is also true that the ruling party did not campaign on what they have delivered or what they are expected to deliver after spending more than half of their mandate—27 months to be precise.

They have relied on giving out cash and sharing rice to the voters in a strategic manner to get votes. In places the APC won, like Kaduna where I live, a significant observation of the activity during the voting exercise was the use of cash to buy votes and other methods of voter inducement. There are viral videos showing women  negotiating how much they will sell their votes to party agents.

The marketing of votes is happening because the government has weaponised poverty in sections of the country other than Lagos and some selected areas in the South. Many people are unemployed, and they feel that selling their votes is the closest thing they can do to earn a living for the moment.

The worrying thing is that no other arm of government or institution is making efforts to call this government to order. The National Assembly has rubber-stamped almost everything Tinubu sent to them. They have supported all the capital expenditures given to Lagos and the Senate approves all the nepotistic appointments Tinubu makes without reminding him that he is violating the Federal Character law.

It is on record that both houses have vowed never to argue against his demands. In fact, the work of the National Assembly members has been reduced to sycophancy. They spend more time chanting his praises instead of singing the national anthem whenever he visits. One wonders how they will justify this unhinged behaviour to the electorate when they go back to seek re-election.

Similarly, the governors have rallied around Tinubu and have endorsed him for a second term without any conditions. Those who decamped to the ruling party are unashamed of chanting their support irrespective of potential consequences. Even those in opposition are no longer hiding their unwavering support. Many of them will struggle to boast of any development brought by this administration, especially in the North where agriculture has been undermined by deliberate harmful policies of grain imports while the cost of inputs like fertiliser and labour is still extremely expensive.

In spite of these obvious weaknesses, one still asks: what is Tinubu giving in return to this group of politicians across the geopolitical zones other than the South West to gain their support? I would say not much compared to what he is building for Lagos and the Yoruba community.

One can argue that the N15 trillion Lagos-Calabar coastal highway will favour the South-South. The Minister of the FCT is from there too. But what are the people gaining from these appointments and these road projects? Let’s not forget that influencers like Asari Dokubo and the likes of him are turning their backs on this government because they feel disappointed with the lopsided appointment attitude and unbalanced investments allocated to their regions.

If you turn your attention to the North, the story is more disappointing. This is the region that gave the president hue votes. For context, I will bore you with the results of the 2023 presidential elections. The North gave Tinubu approximately 5.58 million votes out of his total of 8.79 million votes. That is 63.5 per cent of his votes, 2.37 million more than the 3.21 million votes he got from the South. It means for every 100 people who voted for Tinubu, 63 of them are from the North.

With all these glaring figures, one can only expect that Tinubu and his administrators are not seeing the bigger picture, which would be harmful to his re-election bid. I do not want to think they are myopic enough to think they are targeting only people from Lagos and Yoruba people to vote for them.  Whatever they are planning, it will be revealed in good time.