By joshua 
THAT ALLEGED N800 BILLION “ESUSU” AND THE DEATH OF OUTRAGE
By Tunde Olusunle
No regime in Nigeria’s Fourth Republic trajectory has demonstrated the kind of desperation which the incumbent dispensation of the All Progressives Congress, (APC), has undisguisedly expressed for a second term for a President, since it’s outset. Politicking for President Bola Tinubu’s second term began in earnest almost as soon as he was inaugurated May 29, 2023. If an underwhelming President Muhammadu Buhari was endured by Nigerians for a whopping eight years, which of course included rigging out his major challenger and now publicly acknowledged winner of the 2019 presidential poll, Atiku Abubakar, why not Tinubu the kingmaker turned king himself? Wasn’t the “First Son” of the Federal Republic, Seyi Tinubu, rumoured to have once said “not even God can stop his father from completing his eight years as President?” His campaign creation, the “City Boy Movement,” last week refuted the proposition which expectedly, has been knocked as recklessly blasphemous.
And so with increasing fiscal allocations to the subnationals following the removal of fuel subsidy and reforms in the oil sector, governors of the 31 states controlled by the APC, elevated the President to the pedestal of a quasi-deity. You must have heard Monday Okpebholo of Edo State say in a television interview, that “it is the President that is giving us all the money we are spending.” You get a feeling the President is making disbursements straight out of his own wallet, and is thus individually responsible for the fiscal oxygen Nigeria breathes. Governors seem to have come into office without their independently articulated visions and manifestos, because they all chorus the “renewed hope” agenda, even if the man on the street will tell you his hunger, hurt and hopelessness is renewed by the day.
Whereas the President believes increased resources at the state and local government levels should impact the overall wellbeing of Nigerians and the socioeconomic health and security of the nation, APC governors have a different idea. Yes, in fairness to the President, he has chastised his governor lieutenants at various fora, about the need to ensure that this period of fiscal bliss, reflects on their constituents. Delta State governor, Sheriff Oborevwbori did say on one occasion that more funds than ever before is coming to the subnationals, and leaders at those levels of the governance pyramid owe it a responsibility to Nigeria to make it count. Oborevwbori whose 2026 budget sits in the elite class of trillionaire states, is regularly undertaking people-oriented, high impact, multibillion naira projects, and engaging some of Nigeria’s most competent contractors to ensure value for money.
It came to light a fortnight ago, that the APC Governors Forum, might have been surreptitiously pooling resources together from public funds to support the reelection of President Tinubu in January 2027. There are 31 of them and they had, reportedly at the end of April 2026, polled about N800 Billion, out of the N1Trillion war chest they project as funding support, to return the President. I tried to do the maths and it boils down to the fact that each state has averaged *N26 Billion* thus far. Reports indicate that the recent resignation, or dismissal of Wale Edun as Finance Minister, might not be unconnected with this discovery. He reportedly conceded to the request by the concerned governors, to deduct on a monthly basis, an agreed sum at source, when funds are being remitted to the various tiers of government are being paid from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, (FAAC).
The N800 Billion in question was indeed going the way of what Yorubas will describe as *ole gbe, ole gba,* which translates as a thief stealing from a thief. Imo State governor, Hope Uzodinmma, who, as chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, (PGF), was entrusted with warehousing the humongous fund, momentarily ran into stormy weather with his colleagues as he purportedly stammered and dithered when it was time to render account. An in-house putsch to oust him and install Peter Mbah of Enugu State, one of the standout performers in the present crop of governors as leader by 18 of the 31 governors, was quieted by Tinubu. The President reportedly called from his engagements in France, requesting that status quo ante be maintained. Ijeomah Arodiogbu, APC National Vice Chairman, South East’s defence of Uzodimma, did little to tincture popular perception.
I’ve alluded severally in my writings to how constrained my moving around Nigeria has been in recent years, owing to the festering insecurity and decrepit road infrastructure in the country. A younger cousin reminded me the other day that I attended his wedding in Kaduna in 2017. That was my last visit to a city to which I have profound attachment having been born there, despite my geographical proximity from the nation’s capital. There are states I have visited within the same period, nonetheless, whose governors are contributors to this dimwitted, questionable, needless, endowment, even when their people are in very searing, seething multisectoral lack. The good works of Abdulrahman Abdulrasaq of Kwara State are largely limited to the Ilorin emirate, which partly explains the constant ravaging of the northern and southern senatorial zones in the state by insurgents and bandits. True, Hyacinth Alia of Benue State is undertaking some urban renewal in the Tiv heartlands of Makurdi and Gboko, Otukpo at the bosom of Idomaland and adjoining towns and communities in the area, remain forlorn and forsaken. Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti State has completed the Ado-Ekiti airport begun by his predecessors, but the interstate access road remain dilapidated.
In the face of the embarrassing underdevelopment, pervading poverty and crippling insecurity in Kogi State, it is surprising that Ahmed Ododo is part of the monthly *esusu* being driven by his colleagues to support the reelection of a very affluent President who “privately” funded his election three years ago. The foremost gateway between the north and south of Nigeria, Kogi State has some of the worst roads in the country as we speak. True, Dave Umahi, the Works Minister has prioritised some roads in the sprawling state. He has been quick to remind though that resource inadequacy remains a major hindrance on the path of government’s completion of the many projects it is simultaneously undertaking. The gestation of many of the said road projects will therefore take some time.
Kogi Central district where Ododo hails from, is privileged to have the chief executive of Kogi State into the 11th year now. It is most probably all-sufficient in infrastructure and services, arising from the *awa lokan* mantra that typifies Nigerian politics. Kogi West, however, wallows in wanton deprivation and could do with conscientious uplifting. A visionary Kogi State governor would have initiated a quadrangular meeting of the Federal Ministry of Works, Dangote Industries, Mangal Cement Company and the Kogi State Government, and requested the collaborative reconstruction of the Lokoja-Obajana-Kabba-Egbe, and the Kabba-Iyara-Omuo Ekiti roads, and pledged *N26 Billion* as initial counterpart fund.
Just imagine the socioeconomic opportunities that will be unlocked and unleashed in an area with two of Nigeria’s largest cement companies already in operation in Lokoja and Ijumu local councils respectively; with the preexisting, underdeveloped, underutilised Omi Dam which will power agricultural development in the district, and the upcoming lithium production facility in Yagba West. Kabba, host of the Kogi State University, (KOSU) and adjoining communities will flourish, as would the Federal University of Entrepreneurship which is quietly evolving in Ekinrin Adde, Ijumu council area. There will be fewer hiding places for bandits and marauders who leverage the inertia and stasis occasioned by decayed infrastructure, especially the absence of good roads, to ply their trade. These are samplers of how fundamentally good and functional infrastructure can impact the micro and macro-economies.
On a broader scale, however, one is supremely stunned, stupefied and outraged that two weeks after this purported scandal broke, Nigerians have not organised protests and demonstrations across the country about this blatant betrayal of their trust, by those who claim to lead them. Governors unilaterally decide to commit staggering sums of public wealth to purposes other than what they are statutorily appropriated for, to the tune of nearly one trillion naira without accountability and Nigerians regard it as just normal. There’s unemployment, hunger, insecurity, stagnation, despair, disillusionment in the land, and governors bereft of how to positively affect the lives of their people divert resources to unrelated causes and Nigerians just *siddon look,* without a whimper? Is this a case of mass hypnosis, or one of steaming, unspoken vengeance come January 2027?
*Tunde Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja*