We are in the first month of 2026, and there is no doubt about it. The dirge for 2025 started with the ember months and climaxed at 11.59 pm on 31/12/25. It was characterised by the usual seasonal signs and wonders: chaotic and inexplicable rise in prices, reverse migration, accidents and fires caused by the devil (never by human recklessness), some people being easily swindled, and the city being depopulated to the advantage (or disadvantage) of the hinterland, which witnesses imported inflation and traffic madness. The price of a one-way ticket on the four-wheeler roadcraft rose from N40,000 to N100,000, while that of the aircraft was unmentionable. Curiously, it became cheaper to fly to foreign countries than to fly within Nigeria, especially to the southeast. Between 11.30 pm on 31/12/25 and 12.30 am on 1/1/26, people were chasing away the old year while welcoming the new year with noise, bonfires, explosive ‘knockouts’ (which the police always pretended to ban) and environmental degradation as all sorts were dumped on the roads. There were also hurried efforts by ‘evil servants’, especially those in the finance and budget departments, to ‘finish up’ whatever was approved but not yet expended before the clock ‘knocked’ 12 midnight on 31/12/25. All free and floating cash was downloaded and sideloaded into spurious accounts, which the almighty BVN failed to capture, just as the NIN woefully failed to track the phone numbers used for hostage negotiations. I must confess that there was an unusual development this year; the price of rice did not run riot like other commodities (but it cannot compare with the pre-APC days).
Sure, across the globe, this is 2026, but in Nigeria, we are already in 2027. The only things that remind us of 2026 are my birthday, which was attended by cloud-friendly fellows on 1/1/26; New Year resolutions, which people have already started breaching; and prophecies by pastorpreneurs (including laughable and obvious ones like ‘a powerful politician will die in a foreign hospital this year’ and ‘PDP has collapsed’ or ‘most non-APC governors are usually in opposition by ‘standing on his mandate’ by night’).
“There is no 2026 budget because what we shall be operating this year is the consolidated 2024 & 2025 budgets, which we could not execute as at, and when due.”
I will start with the fiscal dimension. There is no 2026 budget because what we shall be operating this year is the consolidated 2024 & 2025 budgets, which we could not execute as at, and when due. And the 2025 budget was used to buy the opposition, reward loyalists, and start projects to showcase during the 2027 elections. Politically, everything since 2025 is all about 2027. Go and verify via Google: in 2025, the most mentioned year in Nigeria was 2027, not 2026. We jumped to 2026 and concentrated on 2027. Of course, the campaign for 2027 started in 2023, immediately after the swearing-in. By 2025, the 2027 movement had become so visible and desperate, and nothing was spared for that purpose. People were coerced, bought or blackmailed to either defect to APC or endorse the renewed hope president or declare him as the only candidate for 2027 when he had not gone half of the first term. As Okey Osiji wrote in Ihuowelle Quarterly of April 2025,…. ‘A new orchestra comprising all manner of political town criers, stooges and compromised surrogates suddenly converged in town, playing to the delight of some and to the irritation of others. The choir, top-heavy with paid professional praise singers and groveling sycophants, finds willing allies in some dailies, which give free rein to perceived endorsements of Tinubu. Unarguably, political governance has been relegated to the background, and all that Nigerians hear and see every day are the number of state governors and lawmakers who have decamped from the opposition parties to the APC. The entire exercise has been reduced to a stage comic opera in front of television cameras for visual effect. It is indeed a carnival of party cross-carpeting. Even when the president visited Benue on a condolence visit, it became a campaign ground, politicking on the graves of compatriots murdered by rampaging and bloodthirsty terrorists
Check the records; without any major elections and in obedience to the gods of cross-carpeting (which started in the Western House of Assembly in the days of yore), the APC members of the House of Representatives increased from 162 to 242; senators from 59 to 73; and governors from 15 to 27… all of them fully focused to win elections for Tinubu and retain their own seats in 2027, or to be protected after 2027. Even Fubara, the ‘sim without network’, has just decamped to APC to ensure electoral victory for BAT in 2027. The Rivers case has also showcased the absurdities of Nigerian politics, as APC members of the house decided to impeach an APC governor in obedience to the invisible-hand manipulations of an APDP stalwart.
The fate of 2026 was recently sealed by the rumours that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released the 2027 electoral timetable. And you know that whenever the political season starts, governance takes a backseat. So, from the calendar, this is 2026, but operationally in Nigeria, this is 2027. But one of my friends is named Onye-ma-echi, which simply means ‘who knows tomorrow!’
Welcome to 2027!
Ik Muo, Dept of Business Administration, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye
