A few days ago, I heard a man on the radio explain why Northerners should vote for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027. His argument was familiar: Tinubu backed Muhammadu Buhari when Buhari wanted to be president. The Southwest supported a Northerner, Buhari served two terms, and now, the argument goes, the North should return the favour.
Yesterday, the Speaker of the Jigawa State House of Assembly, Haruna Aliyu Dangyatin, made the same case at an APC stakeholders’ meeting in Jahun. He told Northerners—specifically Hausa and Fulani voters—to support Tinubu because of the role he and the Southwest played in Buhari’s victories in 2015 and 2019. He called it “payback,” the fulfilment of an understanding between North and South.
Then there is my neighbour, whose village in Katsina has become difficult to reach because of banditry. He also believes Tinubu deserves another term, for the same reason.
I keep asking what exactly we are asking ordinary Nigerians to repay.
I understand political gratitude. People are free to consider alliances, history, identity, ideology, personality and performance when deciding who to support. But I worry when an election becomes a ledger of political debts—and the people asked to settle it are the ones who stand to lose the most.
The poor have no business settling political debts. Their business is the fight against poverty and impoverishment.
The farmer whose harvest barely feeds his family has business with the price of fertiliser, access to markets and safety on his farm.
The parent whose child is out of school has business with its cost and quality.
The unemployed graduate has business with an economy that allows enterprises to survive.
My mother, who cannot safely travel to her village in Zamfara, has business with security.
My neighbour does not have the luxury of treating an election as an exchange of favours between elites. His first concern should be how he can visit home safely. And I am not saying this to scold him—I just think the argument he has adopted asks him to put himself last.
So when 2027 comes, I want us to ask different questions.
What has changed in our lives? What has improved, and what has gotten worse? What was promised, and what was delivered? What is the plan for the next four years, and how will we know it is working?
These are better questions than “Who supported who in 2015?”
These questions are not an argument against Tinubu. We should put them to every candidate, the incumbent included. At the signing of the National Peace Accord in August, he himself urged politicians to campaign on “superior ideas” and debate issues. That is the standard I want us to hold.
Democracy is not a wedding, where a gift given today is expected back, often in larger measure. A vote is not a thank‑you card. It is a citizen’s instrument for choosing who exercises power over them and in their name.
Someone can look at Tinubu’s record and decide he deserves another term. Someone else can look at the same record and disagree. Both should decide on evidence and experience.
What troubles me about “Tinubu helped Buhari, therefore Northerners owe him their votes” is that it places ordinary citizens at the bottom of a transaction between powerful people. We have treated them too long as foot soldiers in alliances negotiated far above their heads.
The farmer does not owe Tinubu.
The market woman does not owe Buhari.
The unemployed graduate does not owe the APC.
The displaced person does not owe any party.
No voter owes a politician a vote because politicians once helped each other.
What citizens owe themselves is the responsibility to pay attention. Ask questions. Compare records. Reject lies—whether they come from government supporters or the opposition. Look beyond ethnic and regional calculations and ask the simplest question: What kind of leadership will improve our lives?
Leaders should welcome that question. I want one who can stand before Nigerians and say: This is what I promised. This is what I achieved. This is what I failed to achieve. This is why. And this is what I will do differently.
I want leaders who can discuss insecurity without turning every question into a partisan fight, and poverty without shrinking its bearers to statistics.
COURTESY: politicsdigest.ng
