By Nnaoke Ufere, PhD
Ganduje and Tinubu have long embodied the rot at the core of our nation’s unraveling: decades of impunity, zero-sum politics, and an insatiable thirst for power without accountability. They were not merely shaped by our broken system; they helped design and weaponize it to serve narrow, selfish ambitions rooted in control, patronage, and personal survival.
Under their grip, and as a direct result of their cynical political machinations, governance degenerated into crude deal-making designed to buy loyalty and orchestrate defections, all in pursuit of entrenching a one-party regime. In chasing this authoritarian ambition, they abandoned every promise made to our long-suffering citizens.
Ganduje has now been discarded. Shettima, once a co-pilot, has been pushed to the sidelines. The triumvirate that engineered the APC’s dominance is crumbling, leaving Tinubu as the last man standing, isolated, embattled, and increasingly viewed as the problem rather than the solution.
True to his politics of horse-trading and survival, Tinubu deployed Ganduje to do his political dirty work, sabotaging opposition strongholds and inducing defections across party lines. He used Shettima to build and legitimize his Muslim-Muslim ticket, a tactical alliance driven entirely by electoral calculations, not competence or any commitment to national cohesion.
Now, faced with the mounting failure of his administration and the growing likelihood of being ousted in 2027, Tinubu has defaulted to the only game he knows how to play: fabricate the illusion of change. By ousting Ganduje and sidelining Shettima, he hopes to reset the narrative, swapping them out for a new cast of loyal opportunists and disposable enablers willing to serve his 2027 ambition.
This is classic Tinubu. When he is cornered, when he is desperate, he recycles the playbook, ditches yesterday’s tools, stages a spectacle, and rebrands himself as a reformer.
But this crisis has outgrown his usual political tricks. The country is watching, and this time, survival will not come so easily. Nigerians cannot afford to be deceived again. He must be removed if the nation is to move forward and have any real chance at a better future.
In my last essay, The Madness of Ganduje and Tinubu’s One Party Delusion, published two days before Tinubu dismissed Ganduje, I wrote:
“The sun has set on Ganduje and Tinubu. Their era of back-room deals and predatory politics is over, and Nigeria must not remain captive to men whose actions and political baggage threaten the nation’s future. Their hold on power reflects the past, not the future. Nigeria cannot progress while it clings to politicians who treat a country of more than 200 million as private property.”
I concluded:
“Ganduje and Tinubu must step aside. Their time is up. Nigeria cannot move forward while it remains hostage to leaders who are detached from reality, consumed by power, and unwilling to change.”
For Tinubu to remove Ganduje yet remain in office is like a snake shedding its skin and expecting Nigerians to believe it has changed; the same predator lies beneath, only more desperate. We must not mistake this for reform. It is a diversion, a survival tactic, not a break from the past. If we allow ourselves to be fooled again, we risk cementing a future defined by repression, failure, and unending deceit.
This illusion of change cannot mask the reality on the ground. Our national crisis is Tinubu’s crisis. He has failed to govern, failed to inspire, and failed to deliver. Inflation has soared, hunger has deepened, the naira has collapsed, corruption thrives in the open, and insecurity remains unchecked. Every institution he touches bends not toward reform but toward the consolidation of personal control.
Even within his inner circle, the strain is showing. According to well-placed insiders, at least eight senior ministers are expected to exit the administration by year’s end, either pushed out or quietly sidelined as Tinubu scrambles to keep his grip on power:
• Wale Edun (Finance): Once sold as Tinubu’s economic brain, now blamed for policy confusion and a worsening cost-of-living crisis.
• Dele Alake (Solid Minerals): Known more for noise than results, with industry actors frustrated by inertia.
• Muhammad Ali Pate (Health & Social Welfare): Once praised as a reform-minded technocrat, now facing criticism for failing to address the deepening healthcare crisis and for his silence on widespread dysfunction within the sector.
• Mohammed Idris Malagi (Information): Tasked with shaping the government’s message but overwhelmed by disillusionment and public anger.
• Nyesom Wike (FCT): Loud, divisive, and increasingly isolated, now seen as a political liability that has outlived its usefulness. Wike is of little value to Tinubu now that Rivers State has been effectively captured under the guise of emergency powers.
• Adebayo Adelabu (Power): Presiding over a worsening energy crisis, with no credible recovery plan and deepening investor frustration.
• Muhammed Badaru (Defence): Failing to inspire confidence in a security architecture that remains fractured and ineffective.
• Abubakar Kyari (Agriculture): Criticized for inertia and failing to respond to rising food insecurity amid soaring prices and declining productivity.
Their likely departure signals disorder, not reform. Tinubu is not leading; he is firefighting. What Nigerians are witnessing is not strategic governance but a regime in survival mode, shedding expendable parts to protect the core.
This internal shake-up is not the sign of a system under repair, but one that feeds on dysfunction. Nigeria is not paralyzed because our problems are too complex to solve. It is paralyzed because those in power profit from the chaos. Tinubu has no genuine interest in reforming the system; he is the system. The rot, the dysfunction, and the impunity are not barriers he is trying to dismantle. They are the very instruments of his rule.
Seen for what it is, Tinubu’s presidency is not a break from Nigeria’s troubled past but a continuation of everything that has brought our country to its knees. Until he steps aside or is forced out, Nigeria and all of us will remain trapped in the same vicious cycle of elite manipulation, public suffering, and unfulfilled promises.
This is why cosmetic changes will never resolve the crisis. The problem begins and ends with Tinubu. Removing Ganduje severs only one arm of the political monster; the head remains firmly in place. The other half of the rot is still in power—untouched, unaccountable, and determined to cling to control at any cost.
If Nigeria is to have any real chance at recovery, Tinubu must go in 2027. The country cannot endure another four years of failure, repression, and deceit. The path to rebuilding begins with removing those who have benefited most from its collapse.
