‘In the year that King Buhari died’; 2027 and the growing market of political infidelity

The table is turned. Yesterday’s hunters have become today’s hunted. The cries are deafening. The Northern political elite group is uncomfortable and kicking. These are happening just because King Uzziah died! The burgeoning market of endorsements and defections seems to be paying handsomely, and political infidels are making a kill out of it. Nigeria is in grave danger.

Is the table turning so fast?

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple,” (I kings 6: 1).

Prophet Isaiah in the above quoted verse tried to convey his experience following the passage of revered and powerful King Uzziah.

It was after King Uzziah’s death that he saw a vision of the magnitude of the rot in society and his own true nature. “Then said I, woe is me for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts,” he said.

Since the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari on Sunday, July 13, 2025, many politicians of the Northern extraction are beginning to see the true picture of politics in Nigeria. They have also begun to see their true nature and confessions are being made in some quarters.

At the death of ‘King Buhari,’ his wife, ‘Queen Aisha,’ for the first time, appreciated the iniquity of her husband and the wickedness he visited on his compatriots. She said: “…for the sake of Allah, I beg everyone to forgive him before he is taken to his final resting place.”

Since the exit of the king, it does seem that some elements in the north who had enjoyed their position as the hunter, are alleging that they are now being hunted.

While the king was alive and pampered them, they never saw the tears of the truly marginalised. While all the juicy political appointments were funnelled to the north, they clinked glasses in celebration.

While the king lived, the political elite of the north lived like princes and princesses and revelled in unbridled enjoyment at the expense of the masses.

With the yanking off of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other national cash cow institutions from the stranglehold of the late king’s acolytes, the owls have been hooting endlessly.

What has happened is that the people who used to go to the CBN and the NNPC on the orders of the king (or by mere dropping the king’s name) to move money for themselves and their families are no longer having such access.

Read also: Buhari’s death: Counting the cost

While the king lived, a few privileged individuals were engaged in unbridled round-tripping. They were in the habit of commanding, and in some cases, wheeling and dealing with the CBN governor who availed them of bullion vans of foreign exchange, which they in turn sold to businessmen and women and, of course, to operators of unauthorised bureaux de change.

And, without stepping out of their sitting rooms, they became instant billionaires. By their action, the nation’s economy was brought to its knees, which is why there is intense suffering in the land today.

While the FX racketeering flourished, The Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, raised the alarm as far back as August 2016.

“For instance, when the CBN was selling dollar at N197 and people were buying at N300, if I sit down in my garden and pick up my phone I would have enough people to call in the industry to get 10 million dollars at official rate and sell at N300 and make a profit of over N1billion and if I do that four times in a year…For doing nothing, I would have earned N4bn,” Sanusi said.

Businesses that genuinely needed the foreign exchange were starved. That was the time Chairman of BUA Cement Plc, Abdul Samad Rabiu, referred to when he recently noted that the foreign exchange reforms by the CBN have eliminated the need for companies to lobby for FX which was the order of the day in the days of King Buhari.

“I was making a joke a few weeks ago that I’ve only seen the current CBN Governor maybe twice since his appointment. That’s because I don’t need him. Before now, I used to visit the CBN every two weeks to lobby for FX. That was the only way to survive,” Rabiu said.

Those that were making it impossible for the likes of Rabiu to access FX for genuine businesses have run out of their shady deals and they are kicking. Those are the kind of things that happened when King Uzziah died in the days of Prophet Isaiah!

Political realignments

Following King Buhari’s death, there are alignment and realignment of political forces. Those who hid under the King to perpetrate and perpetuate all manner of economic heists are screaming foul at reforms that do not give them the same opportunities and access they had during the eight-year reign of King Buhari. Even while some of them claim to remain members of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), they are bad-mouthing the government and alleging being sidelined and lack of inclusiveness in the government. They are crying out now because the table seems to have turned against them.

Cries of marginalisation from the North

These men who made the country uncomfortable for the citizens are now crying out, alleging marginalisation of the North. They now masquerade as the defenders of the Northern masses, whereas when the King was on the throne, they never protected the interest of the less privileged in their region. They are now parroting jejune opinions and ideas that are divisive. Allegations of marginalisation have been part of Nigeria’s history. Where were they when the late King described a whole geopolitical zone as a dot in the circle?

Ejaculatory endorsements for stomach infrastructure

In the battle for survival in the present dispensation, some members of the northern elite group who are not happy with the goings-on in Nigeria, but lack the balls to stand before a moving train, are careful to speak out. They have decided to play a kind of “hermaphrodite” kind of politics- they are neither for nor against. In the day, they speak for the APC and Tinubu, to the extent of endorsing him for the second term, but under the cover of the night, they become like demons and loathe to mention the President’s name.

The rave in town nowadays is an endorsement. Everyone is engaging in ejaculatory endorsement for the sake of stomach infrastructure. This is why some members of the opposition accuse the federal government of weaponising poverty.

Read also: Coalition against APC desperate, lacks ideology — Speaker

Outright threats and tantrums

Whereas some Northern politicians are going about their resentment with equanimity, some others make a hell of fuss about it. Some of them are engaging in throwing tantrums, threats and overt anti-party activities just to prove how angry they are. They threaten that though they are APC members, they are not going to support Tinubu in 2027. They are remembering the carrots, onions and cucumbers they ate in abundance in the days of the king, and they dream of going back to “Egypt.”

It is interesting to see how people react when they are at the receiving end. No condition is permanent. Nigerians must learn to “live and let live.”

The growing market of political infidelity

The twin businesses in Nigeria at the moment that may be paying handsomely are endorsement and defection. Politicians are doing everything to outdo one another.

Some youths have also latched on it. It is either they are organising one event or another throwing up a politician’s name or they are pasting posters to “beg” their funders to “heed” their call.

They are making a mockery of politics. There is a lot of wheeling and dealing going on.

An army of endorsers has taken over the political space. Ahead of 2027 election, many politicians on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) are already endorsing the sitting President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The whole scenario is worse than a farce.

It began with Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State, who eventually moved to the APC.

For a very long time, reports had it that Governor Sheriff Oborevwori was plotting to defect to the APC, but he continued to deny until in April when he openly emptied himself, his cabinet, and all the PDP machinery in Delta State into the APC.

Ifeanyi Okowa, former governor of Delta State, who was among those that kept the PDP in its present condition, also ditched the umbrella association and picked up a bunch of brooms along with his governor.

A few days ago, Ademola Adeleke, governor of Osun State, who denied he was being pressured to join the APC, came out to say that he was not moving into the APC, but that he was endorsing President Tinubu for second term. That is disingenuous and absurd! He is bodily of the PDP!

On Monday, Ayodele Fayose, a former governor of Ekiti State, openly endorsed Tinubu and the governor of the state, Biodun Oyebanji, yet he is claiming to belong to the PDP and would never leave the party.

Since 2022, Fayose has played the role of a rice weevil inside the PDP family. It seems he has sworn to destroy the PDP by playing anti-party activities openly.

The same endorsement came from Chukwuma Soludo a governor of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) when the President visited Anambra State in May.

But on the other hand, a purported endorsement of the governor by the president for a second term in an election billed to hold on November 8, 2025 was refuted by the South East chapter of the APC.

No day passes these days without stories on endorsement of President Tinubu by some opposition party members. Observers believe that some of the endorsements are not organic as they are prompted by certain ulterior motives.

The hefty lie that is being told about these endorsements is that it is in the interest of the masses.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), American writer, said: Politics is a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles; the conduct of public affairs for private advantage.”

It is strongly believed that the gale of endorsements is fueled by self-interest. Whether it is coming from sitting governors, serving political office holders or ex-this/ex-that politicians, the common thread is self-protection and continued relevance