By Kayode Emola

There is no doubt that politicians of various political colouration and ethnicity are beginning to prepare for the general election of 2027. Many governors who have served one term are no doubt seeking the opportunity to return for a second mandate, whether their first tenure was a shambles or not.

The President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is also no doubt seeking a second term in office, whether the people want him or not. With various sections of the country already queueing up behind him or against him. The opposition is also trying all they can to oust the President, citing broken promises like the uninterrupted power supply that has failed to materialise.

Whether Nigeria will remain one country in 2027 remains to be seen, with several ethnic nationalities, regions and stakeholders pushing to be the dominant power holder in 2027. The President, who is enjoying the power of incumbency, will do everything within his reach to retain power at all costs.

Likewise, the opposition, which is trying to oust the President from that lofty seat, will use every trick in the book to push him out of office. Whether their trick will be enough to unseat the Jagaban remains to be seen. The opposition has vowed to undertake their own live transmission of election results for the whole world to see. How this will be achieved in the face of multiple challenges in Nigeria beats my imagination.

For someone like me who had previously worked as an INEC presiding officer in the 2011 general election, I know that most results that come from polling stations are not what is eventually released to the public. How the manipulation of those results happens in high places is beyond me and a story for another day.

We all witnessed the many irregularities in the 2023 general election that brought this present administration into power. Gross manipulations of election results across several polling stations were the order of the day. Yet, that did not stop President Tinubu from winning the presidency even though he was an outsider. How anyone thinks they can unseat him as an incumbent remains to be seen.

Only time will tell whether the election will make or break Nigeria this time around, as I do not see President Tinubu bowing out after 4 years without a fight. Equally, I do not see the Fulani North enduring another 4 years of Tinubu’s presidency. The Fulani are so power drunk that they may decide to go to war to break up Nigeria if they do not get hold of the presidency in 2027. Their coalition party is not holding up presently, and doesn’t look like a formidable force that can stop President Tinubu from doing another 4 years.

This then brings us to our Yoruba nation struggle in the run-up to the 2027 general elections. Many Yoruba people who were staunch critics of Buhari and the Fulani militias’ merciless killings of Yoruba people between 2015 and 2023 are now suddenly mute because a Yoruba man is the president of Nigeria today.

Should Tinubu finish his presidency in 2031 if he wins a second term, what will be the fate of the Yoruba people, assuming another Fulani man becomes the president of Nigeria in 2031? Every right-thinking Yoruba person must know that with the current chaos in Nigeria, the country may not even exist beyond 2027. The binding glue holding the country together is now so worn out that every facet of the country is bleeding.

The terrorists troubling the peace and tranquillity of the country are now so emboldened that it will take a miracle to get rid of them. The President is not even shying away from the fact that he is not capable of solving the insecurity challenges bedevilling the country. Rightly so, if his predecessor, who was once an Army General, cannot tackle insecurity, how much more President Tinubu, who has not experienced any military training, talk less of combat.

My fellow Yoruba citizens, we must realise that the time to get out of Nigeria is now, and this is not a time to pander to the political machinations going on. We have no business in Nigeria, as there is neither hope nor future in the country that will uplift the millions of our people now trapped in abject poverty. With the abundant human and mineral resources God has blessed us with, I see no reason why we should continue to humiliate ourselves with Nigerian politics that has nothing to offer us or our future generations.

By Kayode Emola

The USA/Iran war is not going as planned, and the world is currently witnessing a stalemate. A stalemate that is bad not just for those who are directly involved but for the entire global economy. Every nation is holding its breath to see what happens with the peace talks being brokered by Pakistan.

While the US and Israel have succeeded in setting Iran back so many years in their weapons and nuclear program development. The Strait of Hormuz has handed Iran a serious lifeline. A lifeline that far surpasses any damage that the joint US-Israeli bombings may have inflicted.

Iran knows that it cannot withstand the US in an open combat. However, it knows that attacking US interests in the Gulf States will give it enormous leverage. Leverage that it can use to bargain at the negotiating table. Coupled with that, the geography of the Strait of Hormuz handed Iran an added layer of advantage, thereby multiplying its immense opportunity to reclaim its destiny.

Before February 28, 2026, when the first bombs started landing in Iran, the US held all the cards at the negotiating table. Once the table has been destroyed and no off ramp available, an exit becomes near impossible, hence the impasse that we all are witnessing.

As things stand, we don’t even know who oversees decision-making in Iran or who the decision makers are. Iran has learnt from Hezbollah’s mistake of announcing a new leader shortly after Hassan Nasrallah was killed by the Israeli forces in September 2024.

Once they announced Mojtaba Khamenei as the new Supreme Leader, Iran made sure he was not put before the public glare to keep him away from harm’s way. Fuelling speculations that he was badly injured during the attack on his father’s compound.

Whether Mojtaba Khamenei is dead or alive or in a coma, as some have suggested, the decentralised system of command built by the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has helped Iran withstand the firepower of the US and Israel. Iranians can come out of this war with their head held high that they have fought a good fight. Despite all the beatings they’ve received, they refuse to capitulate in the face of adversity.

If Iran, which is under severe sanctions and a broken economy, can withstand the firepower of the United States of America, then I believe the Nigerian government needs to bury its head in shame in their fight against insurgency. As it stands, we don’t even know which agency is responsible for the fight against the terrorists troubling the country.

The Nigerian Police Force (NPF) is not properly trained to combat terrorists and kidnappers in the forests. The Nigerian army is also not trained to fight insurgents that have no base from which they operate. Hence, the difficulties in putting this ugly charade to an end. Also, the corruption surrounding mismanaged funds meant to tackle insecurity shows that the country is not geared towards keeping its citizens safe.

Therefore, the over 200 million Nigerians who live in fear daily must realise that there is no one out there looking out for their safety. The Nigerian politicians are more interested in looting the treasury than in saving the lives and livelihood of the citizens. So, if we, the indigenous nationalities that make up Nigeria, continue to think we can remain as a single country with all this mayhem going on, then we must be mistaken.

Our Yoruba people must realise that we are only lucky that no Southwest state was mentioned in the travel advisory given out this week by the US. That is not to say Yorubaland is safer than anywhere in Nigeria. As any attack anywhere in Nigeria affects every Nigerian equally. We must see an attack in Jos, Maiduguri, Ebonyi, Kwara, Kogi, Ogun, Ondo etc as an attack on the Yoruba man.

We must use the ongoing mayhem as our collective starting point to start building a lasting security architecture for the Yoruba defence. One that can withstand both internal and external pressures. We must insist on building systems that will outlast an individual and even an entire generation if the Yoruba must continue to exist beyond the Nigeria that we know today.

By Kayode Emola

Just when we thought the Nigerian military was beginning to gain the upper hand in the country’s security situation, this Palm Sunday saw the terrorists strike a community in Jos with a heavy blow. The magnitude of the attack this time left scores of innocent people dead.

Many people have tagged this as political rather than religious. Whether that is the case, the fact remains that innocent people were killed for no fault of their own in a country they called home, a country they hoped would protect them from incidents such as this.

Sadly, their stories have ended painfully. Their memories and the pain of their passing will remain in the hearts of their loved ones, carrying this grief for the rest of their earthly lives. What more must Nigerians give to their government to be protected from non-state security actors? Are these terrorists too difficult to locate? Or is the Nigerian government unable to muster the courage to go after these lunatics?

At least this time, the President of Nigeria visited the families of the victims to condole with them. However, condolences alone should not be all the Nigerian government has to offer bereaved families.

The government owes a duty to go after the perpetrators of this heinous crime and bring them to justice. Anything short of this would appear to be tantamount to the government running scared from addressing the security situation in the country.

Whether those killed were Christians or not, I believe that the mere fact that the terrorists carried out their act on Palm Sunday carries great significance. Whilst US President Donald Trump has urged the Nigerian government to address the ongoing Christian genocide, the terrorists are using the significance of attacking on Palm Sunday to demonstrate that they do not care what the US President says or does. Nigeria is their hunting ground, and they will kill the innocent citizens for sport, just because they can.

To the eminent US Congressmen such as Riley Moore, Ted Cruz, and others who are champions of Christians around the world and Nigeria in particular, I believe this will serve as a reminder that more needs to be done. Merely shaking the hands of the Nigerian political officials and having their photos taken will not solve the insecurity situation in Nigeria.

Nigeria is not just bad; it is a society that is rotten to its very core. The Bible says in Psalm 11 verse 3, “If the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” So if anyone anywhere thinks that Nigeria can be fixed or repaired, then they are the most miserable of men.

The only solution is a total overhaul of the country, yet the dynamics of ethnicity and religion within the country will not allow this. Over 300 tribes were forcibly fused together by a foreign colonial master – Britain – to serve only the benefit and pleasure of the British government, which controlled the lives and destiny of the colonies.

Now, the good and innocent people of Nigeria will continue to pay with their lives the price for the self-serving and fallacious actions of the historic British government, because no one in the world is ready to listen to our plight. Conservative estimates are that over 600 people have been killed in Nigeria this year alone by terrorists – Fulani, Boko Haram, and others – a number that one might normally expect to see reported from a war zone, rather than a country allegedly at peace.

Yet, our stories do not make the international headlines because, on the world stage, Nigerian lives don’t matter. Contrarily, if Nigeria were to be situated in Europe, I am sure that the country’s turmoil would be reported on expansively and would horrify all who heard of it, whether local or foreign.

This is why the Yoruba and other ethnic nationalities are calling for a peaceful separation. We believe at least six new independent nations should be formed from what is currently one dysfunctional one. Surely, if Nigeria were to be dissolved today, just like the Yugoslavia of 1991-1992, into six new independent nations, insecurity would be a thing of the past.

The break-up of Nigeria into the Yoruba nation in the Southwest, Biafra nation in the east, Ijaw Nation in the south, Savanna nation in the Middlebelt, Hausa nation in the northwest, and the Kanuri nation in the Northeast will make the lives of the indigenous people safer. It will also be a cost-effective way of tackling the long-lasting security challenges that Nigeria has been facing.

However, the US government’s approach to assisting the Nigerian government in tackling insecurity, that is, one of providing military hardware and expertise, is unhelpful. To continue in this approach is to do the Nigerian people a disserve that will only perpetuate events such as that of 29th March 2026.

I know that salvation will come one way or another. I just hope that the US government –which claims to be the champion of democracy and freedom around the world – will be at the forefront of helping these millions of Nigerians currently trapped in a prison created by the British government. If not, then the resulting solution will be that every nationality will be faced with the option of a violent disengagement from this contraption called Nigeria.