The rave of the town at the moment, no thanks to the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), is Tell Your Papa, a one-tracker by Eedris Abdulkareem. Eedris’ protest song directed at Seyi Tinubu, whose self-indulgent claim that “my father is the best president Nigeria has ever had” does not resonate with the mood of ordinary folks across the country, and not least, with Eedris.
As did the Iranian government when it banned the “Satanic Verses”, the NBC gave life to Eedris’ song by prohibiting it on broadcast stations, with the fabulous charge of violating Nigeria’s Broadcasting Code.
As is to be expected, the forbidden song has taken on nine lives on social media, a counterforce that NBC can do next to nothing about. Tell Your Papa garnered 214 thousand views plus 21,700 subscriptions on YouTube; and 46,475 streams on Spotify in just four days of its ban. It is flying across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and really whizzing up a whirl of dust.
Though Eedris' song is about poor governance, it’s becoming a theme song in the opposition politics of 2027. It’s so topical that it stirs memories of the redoubtable works of Fela Kuti, the late king of Afrobeat and band leader of protest singers.
Billboards proclaiming Tinubu for 2027 have surfaced in strategic advertising locations in Abuja, with posters lining up Airport Road in the nation’s capital and its major gateway. Principals and aides are chewing the microphone in denials and recriminations. It is a well-practiced con art, and only the naïve will give them the benefit of the doubt.
Yet, like the late Chief Tony Anenih proclaimed for Obasanjo and late Edwin Clarke would re-echo for Jonathan later on, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has declared that there shall be no vacancy in the presidential villa come 2027.
In spite of Clarke’s confidence that there was no vacancy in Aso Rock in 2014, he lived to witness the landslide that swept Jonathan from behind the protection of the rock and out of power the following year. The question is if the party that ousted Jonathan has learned any lessons from history.
Amidst the political shenanigans, folks are sharing Tell Your Papa as though it brings relief from the hunger Eedris is asking Seyi to tell Tinubu about. The bang from the ban is enough to tell the every political papa that 2027 is two years away and that governance should be the most urgent item on the cards.
But do they even care? Are they even listening? Politics in 2026 is sure to be on overdrive. So Nigeria would have spent one election cycle to the next just politicking?
More voices are proliferating, and the message remains the same: more governance, less politics.
Last week, the national executive committee of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), rising from a meeting at its headquarters in Kaduna, advised politicians already campaigning for the 2027 general elections to stop. The forum thinks it is too early, considering the crises in all phases of national life – the spate of insecurity, the economy, and the cost of living.
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It is difficult to contradict the advice of the ACF against the groundswell of political realignments seeking to displace President Bola Tinubu come 2027. The opposition can, and has the luxury to play all the politics they want. But the ruling party owes the country good governance and has to be seen to be doing just that.
Looking from afar, forging rainbow alliances and coalitions like the Labour Party, Social Democratic Party, and the Peoples Democratic Party are trying to do ought to be an incentive for the ruling APC to raise the bar on governance. But, APC has doubled down on politics instead, with annoying billboards defacing the FCT.
Pilgrimages to former President Muhammadu Buhari have lately assumed special significance for the opposing camps. Not even when Buhari won the presidency in 2015 did he attract the mix of traffic lining up outside his Kaduna home as it is now.
Politicians know which pond to drain for fish and which to cast the net for votes. Known for his mass appeal across the northern electorate – a tactic many politicians exploited in the past – key players are out to explore the Buhari factor against Buhari’s party. How far they can go remains to be seen.
In the recent past, all an aspirant at whatever level needed to win an election across many northern states was to place their image beside Buhari’s on a campaign poster or flier. The voters did the rest. But the dynamics are no longer the same in many respects.
The opposition are not helping themselves either. If Eedris’ dissing of Seyi Tinubu is as it should be, the ambivalence in the main opposition PDP is confounding.
How they hope to upstage Tinubu with this cocktail of contradictions is just infantile. And except something drastically changes, a repeat of the 2023 election, where the opposition bickered and splintered at critical moments, is well on its way to yielding Tinubu another term.
A Buhari acolyte, Faruk Adamu Aliyu has already put a signage on the wall: “Those running to Buhari are practically running to Tinubu.”
It would be politically good for Tinubu if Seyi stepped aside before Eedris waxes another number. Warts and all, the mood of the people at the 2027 elections will be an X-factor.
Eedris’ message should sink beyond Seyi and his father to all elected and appointed representatives at every tier of authority across the country. Subsidy has gone and more funds are accruing to the federal, states, and local governments. Nigerians deserve value-driven governance and are tired with politically motivated palliatives.
Ogar writes from Utako, Abuja