15/10/2026
*CAN WIKE, SOLUDO AND ADELEKE ALL BE WRONG? - Yomi Adejumo*
_What are they seeing?_
There are moments in politics when the most important story is not what is said, but who is standing where.
This week in Abuja, three men stood in a place conventional Nigerian politics would ordinarily not have assigned them.
Nyesom Wike is a leading figure of the PDP. Chukwuma Soludo governs Anambra on the platform of APGA. Ademola Adeleke governs Osun outside the APC.
Yet all three were present at the inauguration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's Presidential Campaign Council. More significantly, they are not spectators. Wike has been named campaign coordinator for Rivers State and the FCT, Soludo for Anambra, and Adeleke for Osun.
That is not an ordinary political photograph.
It deserves a question:
What are they seeing?
Let us resist the temptation of easy conclusions.
Their support does not automatically make President Tinubu right. Political leaders have interests. Alliances have calculations. Power has its attractions.
Wike can be wrong.
Soludo can be wrong.
Adeleke can be wrong.
But when consequential political figures, coming from different political platforms and constituencies, choose not merely to praise an incumbent but to accept responsibility for campaigning for his re-election, serious citizens should examine the development rather than dismiss it.
And that examination must lead us away from personalities and towards evidence.
Nigeria has travelled through a difficult season of reform. Families have felt it. Businesses have felt it. Communities have felt it. Government itself acknowledges that the reforms imposed hardship.
There is no wisdom in pretending otherwise.
But neither is there wisdom in measuring a journey only by its most difficult mile.
The proper question is whether the sacrifice is beginning to produce a stronger foundation; whether difficult decisions are yielding stability, investment, growth and opportunity; and whether the country is better positioned today to build prosperity than it was when those reforms began.
That is the argument Nigerians deserve as 2027 approaches not abuse, propaganda or manufactured optimism, but records against records, policies against policies, alternatives against alternatives.
Perhaps this is what makes the presence of Wike, Soludo and Adeleke politically consequential.
Wike told the gathering that previous administrations had identified some of Nigeria's problems without confronting them, while Tinubu began tackling them from his first day in office. Soludo and Adeleke also publicly committed themselves to the President's re-election.
They may have their politics.
They may have their calculations.
They certainly have their interests.
But their names are not the evidence.
Their decision is an invitation to examine the evidence.
And here in Amuwo-Odofin and Oriade, we should do precisely that.
Let us ask questions. Let us demand accountability. Let us compare yesterday with today and today's direction with tomorrow's alternatives.
*But let us not permit old quarrels, inherited grievances or partisan reflexes to become substitutes for judgement.*
Because elections should ultimately answer one question:
*Which direction gives the next generation the better chance?*
If, after examining the evidence, Nigerians conclude that the country is moving from painful adjustment towards recovery and renewed growth, then perhaps the greater risk is no longer continuing the journey.
Perhaps the greater risk is turning back halfway.
Wike has made his judgement.
Soludo has made his.
Adeleke has made his.
The final judgement belongs to the Nigerian people.
And it must be made with open eyes.
*This is not the time to look back.*
- *Yomi Adejumo writes for PBAT-KOH Amuwo-Odofin Media Think and Tech Think*
