I’m very excited now in my discoveries about the practical issues of the current Nigeria political system. I’m excited because I’m discovering every single day in practical terms why Nigeria has not developed and may never develop. If we continue with the current system we may just as well forget about development.
The last time I voted was during Muhammadu Buhari’s run with Pastor Tunde Bakare, my pastor, in 2011. I voted because my pastor assured us in our church, the Latter Rain Assembly in Lagos, that Buhari was divine will. Of course it had to be, because the way my pastor also became his running mate was nothing short of divine package. I particularly joined in and did what I called political evangelism. It was an application of our training in house to house evangelism in the church to political campaigns.
I campaigned vigorously despite my poor economic condition at that time because I felt it was a divine mandate and I had to apply the same zeal as I apply to the preaching of Jesus as the Saviour. Unfortunately, the Buhari/Bakare ticket taught me some practical lessons. And that is that not everything is “thus saith the Lord.” Practical sense has to come into everything we do as Christians. We have to work on both ends.
I did not vote during the popular MKO Abiola election in 1993 because I did not believe in Abiola and since the Buhari-Bakare ticket I have not voted. I simply refuse to take part in electing the next fool to rule Nigeria. Friday October 16, as I prepared to go on my usual evening walk a call from a strange number came into my phone. I normally don’t answer calls that are not registered in my contacts but I felt prompted to answer this one.
Hello, who am I speaking with? What I got was the voice of a lady who obviously must be very young, perhaps a recent university graduate was what I got. Why are you talking to me? She was doing a survey for the Hamzat Campaign organization. I shouldn’t be concerned about Lagos since I am in Ibadan. But eh I was in Lagos until recently and I will soon be back to that hectic city when I finish what I’m doing in Ibadan. What’s more, my son is still in that hell, living in a hole and paying a whooping 1 million naira for a one bedroom apartment that looks more like a hellhole.
Let me answer. “Please go on”, but I have little time to spare since I am almost ready to go on a walk. The young lady, one of the current generation that the Nigerian government has forgotten except they have fathers or mothers in high places. Call them the forgotten race and you wouldn’t be wrong. Her answer came effortlessly and with grace: “you won’t have to answer any questions you don’t want to and I will be very brief.”
“Do you have a voter’s card?” “Yes I do, but it is still with INEC. I went to check it as they invited me to in the first week of October but they told me to come again in November which made me lash out at them for inefficiency.“ The young lady must have calculated that I transferred my voter’s card from Lagos to Ibadan. She was correct and I answered in the affirmative. “ Would you vote in 2027?” was her next question. My response was unequivocal: “I will not because I have no candidate but I want my voter’s card for keeps.”
She didn’t stop there but fired the next question; “would you vote for President Bola Tinubu? I literally got mad and roared: I will be the last person to vote for President Bola Tinubu. He is my enemy. He has ruined Nigeria and has transferred money from the poor to the rich in his policies.
The lady was still not deterred. She fired the next question; “what about Dr. Obafemi Hamzat? Hamzat is the deputy governor of Lagos State. I also have a quarrel with him. Is he not the one reported to have asked youths to live with their parents even after they have reached age 18 because of the high rent in Lagos. “That was very insensitive of him to have said that. Didn’t he live in America before he came back to Nigeria? Was he living with his parents? That opinion could cost him the governorship of Lagos. It means he is not thinking about the youth demographic which is highest now in Nigeria.”
The well-trained young lady thanked me and let me leave after we concluded our conversation. But her demeanour and survey immediately made me remember my appreciation for Lagos State. Even though they are also corrupt, I rate Lagos above all states in the south in their approach to policies. Everything is studied. The survey also reminded me of a course I also took at the University of Lagos taught by Professor Idowu Sobowale, a very hard working and committed academic who died on October 7, 2026. The course, precision journalism which he handled and taught with dexterity became a vital tool with which the Lateef Jakande administration in Lagos State tackled the issue of free education. Professor Idowu Sobowale was brought into government by the late Alhaji Jakande.
When President Bola Tinubu, as governor of Lagos State, retained Professor Idowu Sobowale, his precision journalism was very useful to the Tinubu administration. I heard that Sobowale was also engaged to do a survey for President Muhammadu Buhari in his first tenure but that the almost illiterate leader did not use the findings of the survey on necessary policies for the nation. Buhari came in with a Fulani agenda and no survey will swing him to the contrary. Buhari failed and had to ask Nigerians to forgive him as he departed never to return again.
The excitement of my discussion with the smart Lagos lady coupled with my latest interaction with politicians from the level of community engagement and involvement with second level politicians heightened my excitement. I am getting an inner involvement with politicians. Why have they consistently failed Nigerians? First reason especially in Oyo State where I come from, was their archaic approach to policy formulation and implementation. They still think like the old politicians of the 1950s. Everything is by the rule of thumb.
I went straight to a middle level politician who had been a local government chairman and one of the respected strategists in a major political party. As they all do, he has been in virtually every political party. They are all migrants. I asked him if his current party has any research team for its gubernatorial candidate. Indeed, when they started meeting after their gubernatorial candidate was declared, they formed many committees, one of which was research, but he could not say for sure if it was functional. He would find out for me.
I told the story of my interview with the young lady and the questions I was asked. I told the story of my exposure to a course in precision journalism and how Professor Idowu Sobowale had used it to help Lateef Jakande and Bola Tinubu as Lagos State governor. I recommended it to help them in their work for their gubernatorial candidate so that they will not be boxing empty air but hitting issues straight on their heads. I recommended the Lagos approach to them.
My first practical findings as I got mixed in political groups was this archaic approach to issues. A typical Yoruba politician will prefer juju (traditional medicine) to research. Yet many of them are university products. President Bola Tinubu is out of that pack. Yet he also went to Umrah or lesser hajj to pray during the 2023 elections. He said he went to pray when the journey became very hot. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has alleged that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar is a master at consulting the marabouts. I was in the house of a gubernatorial candidate on the day he was to travel to Mecca for Umrah in Saudi Arabia. He had about three Alfas to travel with him. They were going to the place to pray obviously for success in the election. He would not see the people he wanted to serve, but rather evade them. God will impose him on them, so I think he thinks.
Rather than concentrate on appropriate policy formulation to improve the society, they will rather go to hide in a place to pray. Christians go to the wailing wall in Jerusalem to pray while Muslims go to Mecca to pray so that God or Allah will win the election for them even when it is certain they had no programme for the people. They do not make adequate preparation for the office they seek to occupy.
Is God or Allah senseless? I don’t think so. God or Allah are the most logical persons you can think of. Yet Nigerian leaders treat them so. They kill and maim and plot evil and are lazy and yet hope to substitute false piety and prayer for hard thinking and hard work. They pray and yet in their mind they think of rigging the election. They think about God/Allah, yet they consult the occult. They may win by their means but they are never going to succeed unless they plan and decide to move the society in the right direction. We will continue in the second part.
First Published in METRO
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Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos.
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