The Ekiti And Enugu Elections: As 2027 Approaches, By Promise Adiele – THISAGE

Do you remember Ola Rotimi? He was the literary genius who masterfully adapted Sophocles’ Oedipus the King in one of the greatest literary Magnum Opuses in living memory.

His version is The Gods Are Not to Blame. Beyond the predestination motif, the text utilizes the artistic merit of proverbs as Africa’s inexorable cultural communication code. In the text, in a fit of anger, King Odewale asked Aderopo, “Aren’t you a Yoruba man? Must proverbs be explained to you after they are said”? It simply means that every African is expected to understand proverbs with little or no effort.

Strengthening the communicative potential of proverbs, Africa’s literary deity Chinua Achebe avers in his seminal novel Things Fall Apart, “Proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten”. There are other submissions in many parts of Africa that underscore the importance of proverbs and their meanings.

In evaluating Nigeria’s current political trajectory, one specific proverb by King Odewale demands our urgent attention: “To resign oneself to fate is to be crippled fast.” The depth of this statement is staggering, yet its reality is unfolding before our very eyes.

The collective attitude of Nigerians toward recent political developments suggests that, without a doubt, the citizenry has resigned itself to fate and is consequently being crippled fast. The painful truth is that the average Nigerian has seemingly moved on, caring less about what politicians do with the nation’s destiny. The political class has recognized this growing apathy.

Emboldened by our silence, they have shamelessly bared their fangs before the entire world. Ordinarily, if Nigerians maintained the fiery civic spirit of old, the brazen anomalies witnessed in Ekiti and Enugu states would have provoked mass public opprobrium. This outrage should have reverberated not just within those two states, but straight to the headquarters of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja.

The primary issue is no longer that the country continues its slide into democratic ignominy during every electoral cycle. The deeper, more terrifying issue is the blatant legitimizing process, where state-backed acts of criminality and electoral compromise are executed in the full glare of the public. Nobody, not even the host of heaven, can convince an objective observer that what transpired in Ekiti and Enugu states resembled an election.

We must carefully study the events that took place in Ekiti State, which returned Biodun Oyebanji of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the elected governor.

After a careful study, we must give it a name. Certainly, that was nothing near an election. For want of a better term, let us call it a travesty of democratic practice or a local charade that insulted Nigeria’s claim to democratic credentials.

Nigerians watched passively as democracy was systematically murdered. Bread and other edible items were openly shared in exchange for votes. Videos trended on social media showing a bizarre syndicate where political stalwarts, corrupt INEC officials, and uniformed men actively distributed voter cards to people, while instructing them to vote in a particular way.

Another video showed a lady flaunting crisp 1,000 naira notes, totalling fifteen thousand naira, as gifts to vote for the ruling party. While some people openly got different amounts of money, others got noodles, food, and other edible items. In the past, these kinds of criminal electoral interventions were conducted under the clandestine cover of darkness. But these days, they are legitimized and carried out openly while cameras record them. No shame, no honour. In Enugu, the story was the same. Video evidence showed people lining up in broad daylight, receiving sums of money to vote, while journalists and other content creators recorded the event with shameless relish. At the end of the day, Ikeje Asogwa, the APC candidate, won.

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Besides the short-lived social media angst over the election, Nigerians have moved on, each family thinking of the next meal. The winners of the charade are currently enjoying their loot, and life is going on smoothly for them. We have all resigned ourselves to fate and consequently are all crippled fast.

Elections in Nigeria have become a ritual of shame, cheating, stealing, and all manner of underhanded practices. Yet, we gleefully claim to practice democracy in this country. The results of these developments are upon us now. Crushing economic hardship, rampant inflation and pervasive insecurity saunter unhindered into our social fabric because incompetent people are in control of the power levers in the country.

Gradually, we have all resigned to fate, admitting electoral criminality into our existential armoury. It has become an aspect of our culture, it is normal. Because Nigerians have resigned to fate, they don’t bother about elections or the results anymore. They accept, without a squawk, that the system is compromised.

There must be something fundamentally flawed with our collective psychological response to different forms of electoral criminality. Fela, the Afrobeat legend, provides an answer – we always get reason to fear, we no wan die, we no wan wound, we no wan quench, we no wan go! Our love for an imaginary tomorrow is the reason we have resigned ourselves to fate. The ruling class preys on our primitive subservience and poverty to steal the country’s future. Although there are die-hard supporters of the systemic rot and institutionalized forms of structural manipulations, the weak resistance to these ugly developments ultimately ensures that our country is going to the highest bidders.

Where is the tomorrow we are so cowardly trying to protect when no one is sure of safety, given the insecurity in the land? Where is the tomorrow we are timidly trying to protect when inflation holds everyone by the jugular, and we reconcile ourselves to these oddities? A 12.5 kg cooking gas is now 25,000 naira, depending on where you live. Where exactly is the future when the naira continues to lose value, almost becoming useless, while the political class frolics in ostentation? Perhaps, we are all waiting, marking time for our turn to also extend the frontiers of criminality, plundering the collective patrimony.

The concluded elections in Enugu and Ekiti States convey a potentially ominous political atmosphere towards the 2027 elections. From all indications, it appears that the election will take place without genuine citizen participation, given the roles played by security personnel and electoral umpires in the just-concluded Ekiti and Enugu processions. The greatest tragedy is that Nigerians are playing religion with their future as the 2027 elections approach. I quite understand the power of God to intervene in Nigeria’s political chessboard as he did when Sani Abacha transmuted to a demi-god in the country. But God acted according to the power that collectively worked in Nigerians – everyone rose against Abacha in defiance, and God aligned with the people’s resistance, saving them from disaster.

In the current dispensation, Nigerians are struck with mute paralysis as we daily swallow the insipid crumbs from the tables of the ruling class. The situation will extend after 2027 if the people maintain the current indolent attitude. The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) was chased away – credit to the people, but the current political demagogue will not leave unless the people decide to chase them away through the ballot box.

One would have expected the opposition to use these bye-elections and off-cycle elections to test-run their oppositional machinery and stop electoral criminals from having a field day. But from all indications, it seems the opposition has resigned themselves to fate. In fact, most of the opposition political parties did not have candidates in the just-concluded elections. What would be the opposition’s answer to planned massive rigging, open vote buying, and the intimidation of voters on election day? How does the opposition hope to respond effectively to INEC’s chicanery when electoral hardware malfunctions? The discontent and despair in the country are palpable.

Evidently, Nigerians are suffering and gnashing their teeth. Regrettably, these conditions will continue beyond 2027 if Nigerians do not collectively reclaim their country from political predators and marauders. The Enugu and Ekiti elections are a fatalistic prognosis towards the 2027 elections. If Nigerians do not bestir, if the opposition does not respond with determination and conviction, worse days are ahead for Nigeria’s democracy.

As the 2027 elections approach, there must be concrete, determined efforts to save the exercise from being hijacked. To successfully neutralize planned rigging, open vote-buying, and targeted voter intimidation, the opposition must shift from reactive complaints to proactive, structured resistance. It is essential to establish independent data centers to collect, digitize, and track polling unit results (Forms EC8A) in real-time via decentralized mobile applications, before manual manipulation can occur during collation. The opposition must ensure every single party agent receives a clear, stamped, and signed physical copy of the result sheet immediately after counting, cross-referencing it instantly with uploaded digital data to trap algorithmic manipulation. Political change is often a product of sustained organizational efforts rather than individual sentiment. Strengthening democratic resilience involves shifting from reactive concerns toward structured civic participation.

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