By Abdulmumin Yinka Ajia (PhD), Associate Professor, School of Business, Lincoln University, Missouri, USA.
When Senator George Akume, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, suggested yesterday at the Arewa House in Kaduna that the North should “wait until 2031” before seeking the Nigerian presidency again, he did more than speak as a loyal APC man, he spoke in a manner that assaults the very foundations of Nigeria’s democracy. His position is not only undemocratic but also deeply patronizing to Nigerian voters and distressingly tone-deaf to the realities of our national hardship under the current administration.
To suggest, as Akume did, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should be allowed to complete two terms in office regardless of performance, is an insult to every Nigerian who believes in the sanctity of the ballot box. It reduces elections to mere rituals and voters to pawns in a pre-arranged political chess game. This type of thinking is not only undemocratic; it is dangerous.
In a democracy, no leader, no matter how storied their political past, is guaranteed a second term. That right belongs solely to the Nigerian people. President Goodluck Jonathan lost his re – election and Nigeria did not come to an end.
Akume’s comment also dangerously assumes that Tinubu is the South’s best and only option. This is false.
Even if the principle of rotation is to be respected and power remains in the South in 2027, it is intellectually lazy and politically dishonest to reduce that choice to one man, especially one whose tenure has brought Nigeria to the brink of economic ruin.
The South has a wealth of competent, visionary leaders with track records in governance, innovation, and people-centered leadership. Nigeria does not suffer from a lack of capable minds; it suffers from a deliberate suppression of choice by a political elite afraid of meritocracy.
Let us speak plainly: the Tinubu administration’s economic policies have been catastrophic. Under his watch, the naira has plummeted, inflation has spiraled, and millions of Nigerians have fallen deeper into poverty. The abrupt and unplanned removal of fuel subsidies, executed without safety nets for the most vulnerable, has devastated households. Transport costs have doubled, food prices have tripled, and essential goods are now luxuries. Nigeria today is poorer, hungrier, and angrier than it was three years ago. Yet rather than look inward and retrace their steps, Senator Akume is asking Nigerians to endure more suffering in the name of political rotation.
This is not leadership. This is elite complicity in the erosion of democratic values. The call to wait until 2031 is a call to silence criticism, to normalize failure, and to foreclose the right of Nigerians to demand better.
The presidency of Nigeria is not a reward for political loyalty; it is a sacred trust that must be earned through performance, vision, and the will of the people. If President Tinubu believes he deserves a second term, let him earn it not through backroom endorsements but through meaningful results and the ballot box.
Nigerians must reject the dangerous logic that elections should be decided by zoning arrangements and political promises made behind closed doors. We must reaffirm that in a true democracy, the voter, not the politician, holds the ultimate power.
Senator Akume may believe he is speaking for political stability. But in truth, he is speaking for a political order that places party loyalty above performance, allegiance above accountability, and incumbency above the public will.
Let it be known: the future of Nigeria will not be dictated by politicians seeking to protect one of their own. It will be decided by the Nigerian people who are tired of hunger, unemployment, and broken promises.