Questions northern governors must answer in 2027

Wednesday Column By Egena Sunday Ode

What a week.

If you’ve been paying attention to the political ecosystem lately, you’ll know the engine has already started. The sprinters are on the mark for 2027, clearing their throats, testing the ground, and positioning themselves early. And the most visible thing right now is endorsement galore. Every day there’s a new group on TV, on radio, on WhatsApp status, announcing support, pledging loyalty, promising votes.

Last week I wrote about this growing fashion of vote promises by different political support groups. They show up with banners, make grand declarations, and present it as bait for negotiations in the event their candidate or party wins. And I kept asking myself a simple question: can anybody actually deliver the votes they have promised? Because under our system, when it matters most, voters enter the polling booth all alone. No chairman is standing behind them. No group leader is checking their thumb.

But then, like the African proverb says, a toad will jump into the river just when everyone else is complaining of harmattan cold. Last weekend, reports came that about 600 university lecturers, all from the North according to the reports, announced their endorsement of President Bola Tinubu for the 2027 presidential contest. They didn’t go as far as the road transporters who claimed they could deliver every driver and conductor in the country. The lecturers were a bit more measured.

Still, the fact that they came out openly is what caught me. It appears to be the first time, or at least the first in recent times, that university lecturers as a bloc are publicly endorsing a candidate this early. And I found it interesting because of what many of us grew up knowing about them. We grew up knowing university lecturers as perpetual complainers about inadequate wages. We knew them as the people who would padlock the ivory towers for months and turn the academic calendar upside down. There is the other side. We knew them as serious and independent minded citizens. Not as peasants worshiping at the feet of politicians.

Let me make a confession here. As an undergraduate, strikes were my most delightful moments. No lectures, no tests, no pressure. Just time and space to hustle. Some of us did odd jobs to stay alive on campus. Some did small businesses. Some just slept. But we were happy the school was closed.

But the times are changing. Politics is changing. And in 2027, it looks like no group wants to be left behind in this business of endorsement. Everyone wants a seat at the table early. Everyone wants to be counted when the sharing starts, especially if the person in question is a sitting president with very high prospects like President Tinubu.

Are lecturers also Nigerians with families, bills, and political preferences? Absolutely. After all, they are also good Nigerians. But I’ll leave that conversation for another day.

What should interest us all now, really, is what the politicians are saying they will do if elected or reelected. The endorsements will come and go. The banners will fade. But governance will remain.

And in this piece, I want to focus on the subnationals. Not Abuja. Not the presidency. The states. And more specifically, the northern states, whether West, East, or Central. Because if there is any region that needs serious, honest, issue-based campaigning in 2027, it is the North.

The challenges here are not new. They are generic, they are loud, and they have refused to go away.

First is insecurity. It has lived with us for over two decades now. What started as an inconsequential dissenting group in the Northeast, Boko Haram, has spiraled into a tormentor-in-chief for the entire North and for the Federal Republic. We all watched it grow from a local nuisance to a national emergency.

And Boko Haram did not come alone. It birthed banditry, which has now taken over large parts of the Northwest. Entire communities live under the rule of non-state actors. Farmers can’t go to farms. Children can’t go to school. Markets have collapsed. Then in the Northcentral, we have the unprecedented violent rivalry between farmers and herders that has claimed thousands of lives and destroyed livelihoods. The cycle of attacks and reprisals has become almost normal, and that is the most dangerous part.

Second is education, or the lack of it. We cannot keep silent on the menace of out-of-school children. The figures being churned out daily by UNICEF, UNESCO, and other multilateral organizations are alarming. Every time a new report comes out, the number has gone up. It should shame all of us. A region with millions of children outside the classroom is a region breeding its own future problems. In 10 years, where will those children be? What kind of economy, what kind of society are we building with that?

Third is the economy of everyday life. Unemployment is high. Poverty is endemic. You drive through our state capitals and you see the same story: young people hanging around, graduates riding bikes, skills going to waste. Infrastructure deficits are everywhere. Some roads have not been touched in 15 years. Primary health centers exist in name only. Electricity is still a prayer point in many LGAs.

These are the issues. These are what should dominate conversations as governorship campaigns peak in the coming months. Not who hosted the biggest rally. Not who printed the biggest posters. Not who commissioned a bridge that nobody asked for. Like a certain governor in  Northcentral whose name I will not mention for now.

I’m glad President Tinubu himself has cautioned against that copycatism. Building overhead bridges and underpasses in places they are hardly needed just because another state did it is not development. It is waste. It is vanity.

For the current state chief executives, the question is direct. What have you done with the unprecedented revenue inflow to states? The President has said it. The governors have admitted it. FAAC allocations have gone up significantly since subsidy removal. So where is the money? Can citizens point to it in their schools, in their clinics, in their markets, in their security architecture? If the answer is yes, show us. If the answer is no, explain why. That should be our irreduceable minimum demand.

And for those angling to take over the reins in 2027, the question is even sharper. What have you got to offer? Do you have a plan to deal with bandits beyond press statements of routine  condemnation and sympathy? Do you have a plan to get children off the streets and into classrooms, and to keep them there with teachers who are paid and motivated? Do you have a plan for jobs that goes beyond “youth empowerment” and tricycles? Do you have a plan to fix infrastructure in a way that actually helps production, not just photography?

We need to move past politics as entertainment. The North cannot afford another four years of vibes and noise. We need candidates who can sit down and explain, in clear terms, how they will dismantle the insecurity networks in their states. How they will partner with traditional rulers, vigilantes, and the federal security architecture without politicizing it. How they will fund education and not just build new schools that will later have no teachers. How they will use the money coming from Abuja to create real economic activity, not just contracts for friends.

Let me be plain. Overhead bridges are good. Underpasses are good. But if a child cannot read, if a farmer cannot go to his farm, if a graduate cannot find work, then what exactly are we celebrating?

The next few months will be noisy. There will be more endorsements. There will be more promises. There will be more groups claiming they can deliver entire voting blocs. That is fine. Politics is politics.

But let the voters be guided. Let us make informed choices around these germane issues. When a candidate comes to your town, don’t just clap. Ask questions. Hard questions. Ask about security. Ask about schools. Ask about jobs. Ask about the budget. Ask what exactly will be different by year two of their administration.

We have given enough. We have given votes. We have given patience. We have given time. What we need now in return is leadership that is serious about the problems that keep us awake at night.

2027 is not far. The campaigns will soon be here in full force. And when they come, let’s insist that the conversation stays on the things that matter.

Because beyond the endorsements, beyond the slogans, beyond the rallies, the real question for every aspirant in the North is simple: what will you do, and how will you do it?

That is what should be on the ballot.