Stephen Adewale
Recently, my attention was irresistibly drawn to an opinion article penned by Professor Farooq Kperogi and published in the Nigerian Tribune on April 26, 2025. In his characteristically provocative style, Professor Kperogi, in the piece titled “In 2027, Tinubu Won’t Win; The Opposition Will Lose,” presents a grim diagnosis of Nigeria’s political landscape as the nation marches toward the next general elections. He contends, with cutting precision, that President Bola Tinubu’s greatest asset for 2027 is neither soaring popularity nor transformative policies, but rather the chronic disunity, provincial arrogance, and strategic naivety that plague the opposition. With a keen eye, he dissects the opposition’s vulnerabilities. With particular emphasis on the northern politicians and the recent movement into SDP, he asserts without evidence that the party is no more than a shadow extension of President Tinubu’s political machinery.
What truly caught my attention, and compelled this rejoinder, was the astonishingly misplaced assertion by Professor Farooq Kperogi, who referred to the SDP as “Tinubu’s spare car.” I was sorely tempted to dismiss his ignorance as just another example of armchair punditry, the specialty of writers who live comfortably outside Nigeria’s borders, cobbling together grand conclusions from snippets of newspaper gossip. In my quest for the “evidence” behind his bold claim, I diligently read through his column, only to discover that his solitary reference was a 2022 Business Day publication, which merely speculated that Tinubu might have opened backdoor discussions with the SDP in case his primary ambitions faltered. No hard facts, no insider confirmations, just recycled social media chatter dressed up as insight. With such flimsy scaffolding propping up his argument, it is clear that Farooq was not building a case but merely echoing the street-level rumour mill with academic flourish.