The Politics of Survival: Why APC Governors Are Clinging to Tinubu While Nigerians Weep

By May Abbi

Sometimes I wonder why every APC governorship candidate, senatorial candidate and others are campaigning only for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and not even for themselves. Or do they think that being APC candidates, they have automatically won their different seats in the national Assembly or govetnorship of their states?

Just a few days back, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta state went to Arise Tv and said President Tinubu is his personal project. He said he is marketing Tinubu because that is the project he has at the moment. He went further to say that all Deltans should vote for Tinubu because he's an in-law to the people of Delta state. In-law my foot. He added that it is evil for any Deltan to vote against the president. Haha!! Evil!!

Oborevwori must have goofed, very much unknown to him. There are a few people in the state who love the governor but are not ready to be associated with the president. They have some love for him. But hearing him abandoning his own campaign and carrying the president on his head, they see it as a turn off. And it's may lead to him losing their votes. And it's true!!

As far as they are concerned they have no business with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his government. For them, Tinubu has no business being President of Nigeria. Apart from his age, he doesn't have sution to the problems of Nigeria.

They believe there are more qualified Nigerians who should occupy the office of the president and not Bola Ahmed Tinubu. They believe he's paying a nonchalant attitude to the challenges of the people, hence, he has no hope returning to power in 2027. They have made up their minds, and it may be difficult reversing their views.

One came on Facebook advising the governor to stay away from the president if he must retain the few Deltans who still have little love for him. Yes, little for him. I can't understand why a governor who has an election to pursue will abandon his own campaign and carry president on his head and say that's his personal project. Oh, he thinks he has the people in his pockets, that may be the governor's biggest fallacy.

Also, Edo state governor, Monday Okpebholo, sometime ago, said he will deliver a number of million votes for the president in Edo state. He reportedly said the projects he is doing in Edo state are enough to make Edo people vote for the president. He lied to himself. Yes, almost all the governors in the APC are carrying the president's campaign on their heads as if their survival lies in the hands of the president. They are deceiving themselves. The election, definitely, will not go the way they are thinking.

They are undermining the pains, the economic hardship, the insecurity, the killings, the kidnappings and the high cost of living across the country. Instead of addressing these challenges they are engrossed in the president's 2027 electoral victory. They tell Nigerians that the economy is better, they sing on your mandate we stand, your victory is our victory but people are being kidnapped, people are dying of hunger daily and few are able to find three square meals daily.

This is the compound problem in Nigeria. Our political leaders are interested only in what favours them but think less of the people who voted them into power and who they are supposed to protect and provide for. They are interested in their own future at the detriment of the Nigerian people.

Our governors are only loyal to the president. They tell their people that Tinubu has improved the economy. They tell the people that things are getting better. But things are only getting better in the pocket of the rich people, in the pocket of politicians and in the pocket of thieves and corrupt leaders.

Their undue loyalty to the president is not unconnected with their ambition to win 2027 elections. Yes, they want to win elections. But not to provide for the people. We have a vast number of politicians who are only seeking their future with the pretense that they are working for Nigerians. They are deceiving us. It's time to say NO to them and hold our future in our hands.

Frankly speaking, not all of them love the president. That's the truth. Many of them campaigned vigorously against him in 2023. But today, they have developed undying love for him. All the PDP governors who defected from their party to the APC fought against him in 2023 but now he has suddenly become their pet project. What changed between 2023 and now? They are playing politics with us. And we must resist them, and it must be now!!