by Mohammed Bello Doka
I almost fell for it. Last week, I wrote a piece urging APC governors in the North to collect Tinubu’s rice, take his appointments, smile for his cameras, but stand with the people when it matters. I thought I was being clever. I thought I was offering them a way out. I was wrong.
On second thought, I realized I had walked straight into an elaborate trap. This piece is both an apology and a correction. The APC governors are not looking for a way out. They are looking for a way to survive the reckoning that is coming. And they will use every trick, every deception, every confusion to make sure the people forget what they did.
Let me be clear about what they did. In July 2026, first-term APC governors met in Kebbi and issued a communiqué declaring total support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and backing the continuation of his Renewed Hope Agenda beyond 2027. In that same communiqué, they admitted Nigerians were suffering. They said families, workers, farmers, traders, transporters, young people, women and vulnerable citizens have all felt the weight of current realities. They said they do not dismiss these difficulties. But then they told Nigerians to remain patient. They said the country should not abandon reform midway. They declared their total support for the man whose policies were crushing their people.
These are the same governors now trying to pretend they are distant from Tinubu. These are the same governors whose posters are suddenly appearing alongside Atiku’s image in Niger, Gombe, Borno, and Zamfara. These are the same governors who stayed silent while their people drowned in poverty and terror.
Let us talk about what those reforms actually did. President Tinubu’s own Special Adviser on Policy Communication, Daniel Bwala, admitted on national television in October 2026 that more people went down to poverty because of the reforms. He said it plainly. More people went down to poverty. Acknowledged. This is not an opposition claim. This is the presidency confessing. And the APC governors were the ones standing behind Tinubu, telling Nigerians to endure the pain that pushed millions into poverty.
The numbers are damning. Nigeria’s poverty rate is stuck at 63 percent in 2026. The World Bank says about 139 million Nigerians live below the national poverty line, with poverty concentrated largely in the northern part of the country. Three out of every five Nigerians are poor. Undernourishment has risen from 10.8 percent to 19.9 percent. The cost of a healthy diet rose to N1,589 per adult per day. These are not statistics. These are the lives of the people APC governors claim to serve.
And what did those governors do with the money? Federal allocations to states surged from N3.58 trillion in 2023 to N7.54 trillion between January and October 2025. States received record windfalls. The APC governors collected the allocations. They collected the monthly FAAC disbursements. They told their people to endure. And then they did nothing visible with the money.
Ask the simple questions. Why didn’t these governors confront the federal government when the policies were being designed? Why didn’t they insist on fair treatment for their people? Why didn’t they use their allocations to build schools, hospitals, roads, and water systems? Why didn’t they create jobs? Why didn’t they cushion the blow? The answer is simple. They did not care. They were complicit. They benefited. They were partners in the destruction.
While Nigerians were suffering, what were these governors doing about insecurity? The Arewa Consultative Forum, in February 2026, raised fresh concerns over the deteriorating security situation, rising poverty, and growing humanitarian crisis across Northern Nigeria. The ACF said terrorism, armed banditry, insurgency, and kidnapping are on the rise. Families and communities are violently uprooted and displaced. In March 2026, the ACF warned that rising poverty and hardship could trigger public protests. They said the North retains the unenviable status of poverty capital of the world. They said the situation is of despair, hopelessness and despondency.
And what did the APC governors do? What did they say? Where were their voices when bandits were raiding villages? Where were their statements when kidnappers were collecting ransoms? SBM Intelligence reported that 7,825 people were kidnapped between July 2025 and June 2026, a 66 percent increase from the year before. Kidnappers collected nearly $5.8 million in ransom payments. Boko Haram collected 90 percent of the recorded ransom payments from kidnappings in the northeast. The kidnapping industry is now a funding mechanism for the very groups that threaten Nigeria’s stability.
And what did the APC governors say? They issued a communiqué. They condemned the abduction of children and attacks on innocent citizens. They pledged stronger collaboration. And then they went back to their states and did nothing. Their silence was deafening. Their inaction was criminal.
Now let us talk about the trap. The trap is simple and it is deadly. The fake endorsement of Tinubu is designed to deceive the people, to soften their anger, to make them believe the governors are still loyal. What comes next is the real plan. They will secretly convince the people to allow Tinubu’s campaign to go through, to let him campaign in the North, but to vote Atiku at the presidential election. This is face-saving. This is deception. This is outright hypocrisy. They are afraid of the people’s reaction, and they are trying to manage it.
The second part of the trap is confusion. The moment the common masses, the less educated, the ones who have no time for political analysis, begin to wonder who to vote for and in which party, the seed of confusion has been planted. And in that confusion, the APC benefits. The APC logo is the most recognizable. The APC incumbents are the most visible. The APC has the deepest pockets. A confused electorate is an APC electorate. That is the point.
Assume the rainbow coalition succeeds. Assume Atiku wins the presidency. But the same APC governors who imposed four years of hardship are reelected across the North. Ask yourself what these governors have been able to achieve in the last three to four years. Record allocations. Collapsing schools. Failing primary healthcare. Unpaid gratuities. Unaffordable transport. No visible impact. Reelection would not be a reward for performance. It would be a reward for deception.
And then what? Those governors in power will destroy Atiku’s government. An Atiku presidency surrounded by APC governors is a government under siege from day one. These governors control state security apparatus. They control state media. They control state finances. They control local party structures. They will obstruct federal policies. They will sponsor unrest. They will feed propaganda to the same Northern masses. They will position themselves as the real Northern voice against a weak federal government. The result will be a paralyzed presidency and a North that suffers twice. Once under Tinubu. Again under a sabotaged Atiku.
The rainbow coalition, if it must exist, must not include the APC. Any coalition that allows APC governors to survive recycles the very politicians who enabled Tinubu. It sends a message that the party is not the problem, only the president is. That is false. The APC as a structure, from ward to national level, implemented and defended the hardship. Any coalition that leaves that structure intact has already failed.
2027 must be the masses against the APC from top to bottom. If you must vote across party lines, ensure that the APC is never in the option. Not for president. Not for governor. Not for senate. Not for House of Representatives. Not for state assembly. The APC is the party that produced the hardship, defended it, benefited from it, and is now trying to escape accountability. A partial rejection is not accountability. It is amnesia.
APC governors and Tinubu must bear the consequences of their betrayals. They supported Tinubu when it was convenient. They protected his policies when the people were suffering. They collected the allocations and told voters to endure. They stayed silent while bandits killed and kidnapped. Now that elections are near, they want to rebrand as Northern champions. No. They must carry the record. They must answer for the hunger, the fuel queues, the collapsed naira, the school fees, the hospital bills, and the dead businesses.
Betrayal has a cost. 2027 is the bill.
Mohammed Bello Doka can be reached via [email protected]
