I never paid much attention to the concept of Juju or voodoo until Bola Ahmed Tinubu wangled his way to the Nigerian presidency. To add salt to injury, his regime is arguably the worst in national history, yet he has the audacity to eye a second term while the masses remain under a dazed, silent spell. For a long time, rational minds dismissed the supernatural as mere folklore, believing that the laws of political science and human endurance would always prevail. But the unfolding reality of modern Nigeria has shattered that logic entirely. What we are witnessing today is not standard politics; it is a form of collective hypnosis—a profound spiritual sedation cast over 230 million souls who are watching their own survival slip away without lifting a finger in resistance.
The journey to this twilight zone began with a campaign that defied every rule of decency and history. Tinubu entered the race as the shadiest and most controversial candidate ever nominated by a major party in Nigeria. His true origin, age, childhood, parental and educational backgrounds are shrouded in such deep mystery that not even his closest family can confidently verify them. He is the wealthiest Nigerian candidate ever to exist without a single known, legitimate source of corporate income outside of his grip on the state treasury. Furthermore, he made history as the first presidential candidate explicitly linked to a U.S. federal court case involving the forfeiture of drug trafficking proceeds.
As we contemplate the answer, let’s move our mind to physical defiance of reality. During the grueling campaign trail of 2023, Tinubu appeared to be a fading specter—frail, trembling, and frequently stumbling over his words. He often looked closer to the grave than the throne. The optics were so severe that many supported his candidacy with a quiet expectation of a sudden, inevitable transfer of power to his vice-president. Yet, the moment the crown touched his head, a chilling transformation occurred. The frailty vanished. Suddenly, he became agile, sharp, and relentless, traveling the globe and running the state with an eerie energy that left onlookers bewildered. What entity traded his weakness for this sudden, terrifying vitality?
Sadly, this vitality was of catastrophic proportions. The dramatic energy was deployed in plunging Nigeria into a severe economic crisis that feels less like inflation and more like a targeted ritual of mass extinction. The cost of basic items—food, cement, housing, and fuel—more than quadrupled in broad daylight. A perfect example is the cost of a bag of rice, which now equals the national minimum wage of 70,000 naira.
Even more mind-boggling, President Tinubu continues to push the narrative that his chaotic removal of the fuel subsidy has yielded a positive outcome. But the harsh reality tells a vastly different story. Nigeria—with a minimum wage of just ₦70,000—now faces fuel prices that rival or exceed those in the United States of America, where the minimum wage equivalent stands at about 3 million naira alongside robust public safety nets. He continuously feeds the public a glittering mirage, boasting that the subsidy removal provides historic billions to state governors. He chooses to ignore the hyperinflation . He chooses to ignore the stagnant minimum wage.
In any normal situation, this level of blatant inequality would trigger an unstoppable revolution. Instead, the docile public simply nods along, hypnotized by official press releases, completely blind to the fact that their leaders are growing unimaginably wealthy off their hunger.
With the public thoroughly sedated, the final pieces of the trap have been laid. In broad daylight, Tinubu has rounded Nigeria into a de facto one-party system. The opposition has been hollowed out and the judiciary sits firmly in his pocket to rubber-stamp every anomaly. He also executed an unapologetic, historic wave of nepotism by placing his regional loyalists at the apex of virtually every financial and security institution. What an unbreakable spell!
This is a leader who manipulates the courts, starves his citizens, and locks down the state, all while hiding a compromised past. Yet, he has the audacity to contemplate a second term while over 230 million people look on with glazed, indifferent eyes. Even the opposition leaders appear not to remember how past races were won and lost. Logic is amazingly dead, and the mind is forced to confront a darker, unseen reality. This juju might be real after mall, and it has successfully turned the collective willpower of a once-roaring state into stone.
Whether Tinubu is the ultimate political Teflon or a master of darker arts, his ability to remain untouched by devastating scandals remains unparalleled. Instead of cowering under the weight of his various vulnerabilities, he uses them as a springboard to launch ruthless media and political offensives against his detractors, turning potentially fatal blows into a grotesque showcase of raw dominance.
At this point, any reader would crave a solution. However, my research suggests that if indeed this collective hypnosis stems from Juju, a successful counter-offensive requires rituals performed in Tinubu’s true hometown. But his exact origin, remember, remains largely unknown. While political pundits attempt to link him to Osun State, deeper historical investigations reveal that individuals with his phenotype and lineage are more traceable to the Baga ethnic group in Guinea—a country where Tinubu is confirmed to have interestingly held dual citizenship. Whether he was born there or here, nobody can say for certain. The controversy continues…
Since Tinubu’s mysterious background does not appear to present the opportunity to engage him in the battle of supernatural mystique, the opposition leaders can take consolation in a system that has proven to be much more potent: the art of science. No amount of Juju or voodoo can deflect the objective realities of poverty, hunger, and insecurity currently ravaging the country. Likewise, no supernatural aura ought to be able to keep the public and the political opposition asleep forever. The opposition must wake up and fully commit to a rigorous, scientific political strategy. With Nigerian democracy hanging in the balance and the very fate of the nation in limbo, the 2027 election must be treated as a definitive, high-stakes struggle, a do-or-die. It requires a fiercely disciplined, completely unyielding opposition with a clear game plan to produce and defend votes.
The monopoly on aggression must no longer belong to the Tinubu machinery. The time has come for every opposition party to produce its own enforcers who can match the energy of those who have already started intimidating the electorate. The time has come to move from a defensive posture to a relentless global offensive—from Abuja and Washington, D.C., to the streets of London. The fight must be taken directly to Tinubu. The United States government cannot hunt and censure figures like Tinubu elsewhere while allowing him to globetrot in affluence while the Nigerian masses wallow in abject poverty and despair. But the opposition must make the case—and own the case—very aggressively.
SKC Ogbonnia, a leadership scholar, writes from Ugbo, Awgu, Enugu State.
