By Suyi Ayodele
(Published in the Nigerian Tribune on Tuesday, September 8, 2026)
https://tribuneonlineng.com/2027-apc-and-the-wife-snatcher/
On Friday last week, the Yobe State Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Muhammad Gadaka, urged women whose husbands would not allow them to vote for the APC in the 2027 general election to divorce their husbands.
Gadaka had a plan for such women. He announced that he would marry them. Here is how he stated it: “If your husband won’t allow you to vote for the APC, stand up to him and seek a divorce. If you leave the marriage, I will pay your dowry and marry you,”
The backslash that followed was drowning. He quickly backtracked. Gadaka said that he was merely joking. “I withdraw my earlier statement that any woman whose husband prevents her from voting for the APC should end her marriage, and that I would marry her. I apologise to the public; I only said it as a joke.” Gadaka was later quoted to have said.
The bombastic, pedantic, colourfully elegant and cosmopolitan politician of the First Republic, Chief Adegoke Adelabu, aka, Penkelemesi (peculiar mes s), observed, long ago, that ruling parties in the newly independent Nigeria would not allow the opposition to thrive.
The Ibadan politician put his thoughts on the matter across this way: “An overdose of doctrinaire socialism without a judicious admixture of progressive conservatism, of orthodox liberalism and of that centre-stabilizing process, leads inevitably to communism, to totalitarianism, to regimentation and to fanatical, ideological and doctrinal intolerance of opposition.”
Two narrations below support Adelabu’s postulation, and also affirm that the intolerance of the opposition that we are witnessing today is as old as the creation of the Nigerian nation.
A certain Mr. Jaiyeola was a sales manager for a commercial company in Ibadan. He returned from work one evening to his new house in the Onireke area of the city to discover that his wife was not at home. That was very unusual.
While pondering where his wife could have been, the houseboy emerged, greeted him and he asked the fellow: “Where is your Madam?” The answer he got was: “She go. She lef dis.” The houseboy handed him a piece of paper. Jaiyeola could recognise his wife’s handwriting. So, he went to his room to read the letter but met another shock!
He noticed immediately, when he got to his bedroom, that there was nothing to show that he once shared the room with a woman. His wife had packed all her belongings and left for where he could not fathom. He tried to unravel the mystery before him.
The previous day, he could recall, he had had a discussion with his wife, Bolanle, over the invitation extended to the couple by the Action Group (AG) for them to grace the occasion of the inauguration of the Free Primary Education in Western Region. The Avatar, Chief Jeremiah Oyeniyi Obafemi Awolowo, Premier of the then Western Region, who conceived the idea, would inaugurate the programme himself.
Jaiyeola had just won an election to the Western House of Assembly on the platform of the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroons (NCNC). Bolanle’s father, an Akure, present-day Ondo State man, was a staunch supporter of Awolowo’s Action Group (AG). He joined AG in Owo when the party was founded.
While informing Jaiyeola of the AG’s invitation, Bolanle teased her husband by reminding him, saying: “I know your Ibo members cannot do it in their region, but that is no reason why we cannot do it here in our own place.” Husband and wife shared two different political ideologies. But for Bolanle, her husband’s stance to remain with the NCNC while virtually everyone in the Western Region was in the AG was something she could not comprehend. She told her husband that on not a few occasions. Jaiyeola, however, remained adamant.
The argument that ensued that night, Jaiyeola recalled again, led to Bolanle vacating the bedroom to sleep in the sitting room. So, putting the puzzle together, the salesman began to find the missing links. He knew that he had told his wife that he would not be attending the Free Education inauguration ceremony because the NCNC he belonged to regarded the programme as a deceit!
The matter was not resolved the following morning before he went to work. He intended to come back from work and discuss the issue and the fact, as he used to reason, that “the NCNC is not an Igbo party. It was founded jointly by the late Herbert Macaulay and Nnamdi Azikiwe.” He picked the note his wife left for him and read.
Bolanle wrote that she had made up her mind to attend the inauguration and expressed optimism that her father would take her to the ceremony. But the real message for Jaiyeola was in the postscript to the note, wherein, Bolanle stated: “when you come to your senses and become a member of the Action Group we can resume our marriage.”
Jaiyeola did a mental calculation and linked his wife’s note to what happened earlier in his office when the Lebanese Chairman of the company, while congratulating him on his election to the Western Region House of Assembly, said: “Congratulations on your election victory. I hear your party is introducing free primary education straightaway. That is very good.”
When Jaiyeola informed the Lebanese that he had won the election on the platform of the NCNC and not AG, which had the free education programme as part of its cardinal points, the Lebanese had retorted: “You would be better off in the Action Group!”
So, juxtaposing the two scenarios, especially the insistence of Bolanle that when he became a member of the Action Group, like her father, they would resume their marriage, he simply sighed and said to himself: “Well, if she truely loves me, she would stop all this foolishness and come back to me.” But that was not the end of his troubles.
Getting to the office the following morning, a letter was handed over to him. The letter, marked “Urgent, Personal and Confidential,” simply stated that Jaiyeola had been transferred to Fika in the Northern Region to set up a sales office there.
“Where the hell is Fika in this country? I have never heard of such a place”, he stated loudly such that his secretary, an old Igbo man, old enough to be his father, heard him and rushed in to find out what happened.
Upon reading the letter, the old man asked Jaiyeola: “You know why?” he responded: “Expansion of the company business, of course. But why me?” The secretary was amused, and said: “You boys sabi book but sometimes you no sabi common sense. What did the chairman tell you just yesterday?” “Oh, don’t mind that one,” answered Jaiyeola lightly. “You better mind him, if you wish to keep your means of livelihood!” warned the secretary. “What did he tell you?” the secretary asked again. “That I would be better off with the Action Group.” Jaiyeola answered.
Then, the old secretary gave Jaiyeola his first practical political lecture thus: “You would not have to go anywhere, Fika or Kufa if you join, if you cross over to the Action Group. My son, I know you are my boss, but you could be my son too. Don’t fool yourself. Nigeria is a country. You have only one life. A country lives for a long time, sometimes even forever. Live your life now according to what is possible and one of those things is being a member of the House of Assembly as an Action Grouper rather than an NCNC.”
Adamant, Jaiyeola said: “I’m just going to ignore the letter anyway,” and tossed the letter away into the bottom drawer of his desk. The old secretary left him, shaking his head, probably because, as it is said: what an elder sees sitting down, a young man on top of the tallest Iroko tree will never see it.
The truth in the above axiom came rushing like a tidal wave a week later, when Jaiyeola got another letter dismissing him from his employment. He was given one month’s salary in advance, and asked to vacate the company house he occupied in Onireke. In addition, he was asked to return the car, which the company had bought for him.
“All this for refusing to cross over to the Action Group?” Jaiyeola exclaimed, called his old secretary and showed the Igbo man the letter. The following conversation ensued between the boss and the father-figure secretary:
“Even now, it is not too late for you to cross carpet. When is the next meeting of the House of Assembly?” The secretary asked him. “Not until another month,” Jaiyeola answered, wondering what to do about all this. “But there is a public occasion coming up soon,” pursued his secretary. “What is that?” Jaiyeola asked. “The inauguration of the free primary education in the region. That is your opportunity”, said the secretary excitedly, “to show them that you are no longer in the NCNC.” Jaiyeola began to shake his head. “I don’t want you to tell me anything now,” said the secretary. “Your wife has left you, you are being asked to leave your job. In all these, what has the NCNC done for you? Have they found you another wife? Have they suggested that you can have another job?”
Jaiyeola got up, the inevitable weighed on him. “Tell the chairman’s secretary,” Jaiyeola told his secretary as he went past him, “to leave a note for the chairman that I will do what he knows is good for me. That’s all.”
Jaiyeola closed for the day, went back home, packed a few things and drove all day to Akure where his wife was staying with her father. A week later, he showed up at the ceremony for the inauguration of free primary education in the Western Region, alongside Bolanle, his lovely wife. They sat close to Bolanle’s father and other AG leaders, beaming from cheek to cheek!
Ceremony over, Jaiyeola returned to his office in Ibadan and his wife came back home. “Nobody said anything any more about the transfer or the loss of job, as soon as it was known that Jaiyeola was prepared to do what his elders thought was good for him.” The author concluded.
Here is another narration (a direct lifting without paraphrase) to show that, as the elders of my place are wont to say: the chicken comes home to roost everywhere (ibi gbogbo làá tií kó adìye alé).
“In 1939, the colonial government had set up monopoly marketing boards. These boards bought cocoa, palm produce, rubber, groundnuts, hides and skins far below the price they received in the world market. The income, thus withheld from the producers, was transferred to the state and its beneficiaries. Soon after the various regional governments had taken over from the British in 1952, the British government released millions of pounds to each of the regional marketing boards.
“Nnamdi Azikiwe, as the premier of the Eastern Region caused one million pounds of the Eastern Region’s share to be deposited in his bank, the African Continental Bank, to save the bank from collapse. Eyo Ita, leader of the opposition in the Eastern House of Assembly moved a motion calling for an inquiry into the whole affair.
“Azikiwe had other problems as well and under the leadership of Mbadiwe, a group of people within the NCNC demanded the resignation of Azikiwe as president of the party. Chief Obioha, a businessman, was one of those who supported the call for the resignation of Azikiwe. He held a major license for the purchase of produce in the region. He made his money buying produce from the farmers even cheaper than the state, and reselling to the state marketing board. He became a rich man and a chief.
“When Azikiwe had ridden over the storm and won, he immediately revoked Chief Obioha’s produce buying license! Chief Obioha found himself desperately looking for someone to talk to Azikiwe and present his apologies.
“Go and talk to Kola Balogun,” advised Mbadiwe who was himself just making his peace with Azikiwe. So, Chief Obioha came looking for Kola Balogun in Ibadan and together they went to London where Azikiwe was attending the constitutional conference of 1958. They checked into the same hotel and Kola Balogun called Nnamdi Azikiwe who then gave him an appointment for the following morning. Together with Chief Obioha, Kola Balogun went to Azikiwe and pleaded with him for the return of the produce buying license.” Obioha’s sins were forgiven and his license was restored.
I lifted and paraphrased the above narrations from the political documentation of the First and Second Republics by the egghead, the late Professor Kole Omotoso, in his book: “Just Before Dawn” (1988, pgs. 191-198).
Whatever Omotoso, popularly known as “Yebo Gogo Man” in the adverts for the South African telecommunications outfit, Vodacom, saw in the two Republics has since paled into insignificance in the face of bare-face intimidation and harassment of the opposition political parties in the present administration.
Was the politician, Gadaka, mentioned in the narration above really joking? I don’t believe him. My Scripture tells me that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34). The elders of my place amplify the Biblical assertion when they reason that a serious matter begins as a joke (ibi eré làá tií mo òótó òrò).
Nigerians should watch the Gadakas of this era. The recent gubernatorial election in Osun State and the attendant intimidation of the members of the opposition Accord in the state by the APC at the centre is a clear indication that like the proverbial selfish àkàrà seller, the APC does not want any other woman to fry àkàrà within the same neighbourhood!
Ask: what has happened to the senator representing Osun East Senatorial District, Francis Fadahunsi, who, on two different occasions, asked the APC supporters to kill any Accord member while the electioneering lasted? He made the statement before the election and again on the day of the election. Where is he? In custody? Or in court answering charges bordering on incitement and acts capable of causing public disorder?
What about the man before Gadaka? I mean Samuel Shekwolo, the Chairman of Kuje Area Council, who asked residents who would not vote for the APC to leave the area council. What has become of him? As usual, he came forward to withdraw the statement and we all moved on. Yet, the threat remains latent!
Again, do Nigerians still remember Sani Buba, the Borno State Commissioner for Youths and Sports, who, six days ago, threatened to chop off the fingers of those who would vote against APC in the coming election and “flog” their supporters? Of course, he has apologised but Borno residents who may be willing to vote for the opposition remain apprehensive!
Months ago, as the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) struggled to establish itself, what obstacles were not thrown on its paths? Were reservations paid for in hotels where the party intended to unveil its programmes not cancelled at the last minute because someone up there in the government threatened to revoke the license and Certificates of Occupancy of the facilities? The man who made the threat remains in power to date, drinking decades-old whiskey!
The politicians of the First Republic used health officers known as wolewole to intimidate citizens in opposition parties. Some shepherded herds of cows into the campaign rallies of the AG in the North; funny but sad! Their counterparts in the Second Republic doubled down and engaged in outright arson, killing and incarceration of opposition leaders.
This era has taken the perfidy to the bottomless pit. Opposition leaders are now branded cultists in some states and their property marked for demolition. The wise ones changed parties and they were spared!
A two-term former governor of Edo State and current senator, representing Edo North Senatorial District, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole once quipped that for any sin committed by any politician to be forgiven, all he needed to do is to join the ruling APC. We all condemned the former Labour leader for speaking the naked truth.
But Oshiomhole was right! All the rogue elephants in the country have since shipped into the APC, where they were not only warmly welcomed but have been given juicy appointments. Some of them who should be behind the bars for their past sins, are now members of the APC Presidential Campaign Council for the re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu! What more?
Even within the APC, dissenting voices are not spared. In my Ekiti State for example, members of the APC, who opposed the second term bid of the incumbent Governor Abiodun Abayomi Oyebanji, have one tale of woes or the other to tell. Kwara State does not fare better.
A governor in this political era once constructed a road through the family house of one of his political opponents. The graves of the opponent’s forebears suddenly became a tarred road! Let the man in opposition go and pour libation in veneration of his ancestors on the tarred road; who cares! So, just as the sage asked: If crocodiles eat their own eggs, what will they not do to the eggs of frogs?
The 2027 election campaigns have yet to kick off. But Nigeria is already on the edge. Gone are those days when the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) in our old Ondo State used to parody the Anglican Yoruba hymn, Ha! Egbe mi, thus:
Ha! Egbé mi, e w’ àsíá- Egbé UPN, e w’ àsíá wa
Bi tí nfè lelè! – Bo tí nfè lelè!
Ogun Jésù férè dé ná – Ojó ìdì’bò férè dé ná ‘
A férè ségun- Àwa yíò ségun un un
D’odi mú, Èmi férè dé! –E d’odi mú, ìdì’bò fé’è dé
Béèni Jésù wí, – Àwa yíò ségun
Rán ‘dáhùn padà s’
What we have in this era is the Olówó-aiyé dìgbò lù ú, kolù ú, dìgbò lù ú (Olowo-aiye pounce on him, fall on him) battle cry of the legendary Olowo-aiye, the hero of D.O. Fagunwa’s epic novel, Ígbo Olodumare. Morning, they say, tells the night. The coming campaign, given the present level of intolerance, promises a full-blown war.
May God save our nation!
