The Lagos State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has told opposition parties that Nigeria will not use the 2027 elections to return to the country’s “dark, wasteful, and inglorious” past.
In a statement issued on Sunday in Lagos, the party’s spokesman, Mogaji (Hon) Seye Oladejo, said the nation has “irreversibly moved beyond” the era history will remember as the Years of the Locusts.
Oladejo was reacting to political realignments ahead of 2027, particularly opposition figures reportedly coalescing under the banner of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
“As the 2027 electoral season gradually comes into view, certain familiar political actors, now huddled under the banner of the ADC, have once again emerged from the shadows, draped in borrowed robes of reform and speaking in the hollow language of redemption,” he said.
“Nigerians must not be deceived by this tired masquerade.”
‘What exactly did they do?’
The APC spokesman argued that Nigerians should closely examine the records of those now seeking to lead the nation.
“Before anyone takes seriously the sanctimonious posturing of the opposition, it is only proper to rigorously interrogate the public service records and democratic credentials of the main protagonists now seeking to market themselves as national saviours,” Oladejo said.
He noted that many of these figures have held the highest offices in the land.
“These are not men unfamiliar with power. These are not voices from the margins. These are not reformers forged outside the corridors of influence,” he said.
“They are, in fact, the very old hands who for decades occupied the highest offices in the land as governors, speakers, ministers, senators, vice presidents, and party chieftains. They have sat at the tables of power, presided over vast resources, and wielded enormous constitutional authority.”
Oladejo then posed a direct question.
“The unavoidable question therefore is simple and devastating: what exactly did they do with the opportunities history handed them? Put together, they wasted decades of our life as a nation.”
‘Where was this moral outrage?’
He questioned the timing of the opposition’s newfound patriotism.
“Where was this newfound patriotism when they held office? Where was this moral outrage when public institutions were weakened? Where was this democratic fervour when the nation was being burdened by policy drift, fiscal indiscipline, and leadership inertia?” Oladejo asked.
“It is the height of political hypocrisy for those who helped create yesterday’s failures to now present themselves as the cure for the very disease they incubated.”
He described the opposition figures in stark terms.
“Nigeria knows these protagonists too well. They are the perennial merchants of power, serial defectors in search of relevance, and political nomads whose only enduring ideology is personal ambition. Having exhausted their usefulness in previous political platforms, they now seek refuge in yet another acronym, hoping that Nigerians suffer from collective amnesia.”
‘A conclave of displaced power brokers’
Oladejo dismissed the emerging coalition outright.
“What is being paraded as an opposition coalition is nothing more than a conclave of displaced power brokers and frustrated office seekers united by desperation rather than vision, by grievance rather than principle, and by ambition rather than patriotism,” he said.
He also questioned their internal democratic credentials.
“Even more troubling is the absence of democratic credibility within their own ranks. A group that cannot inspire internal consensus without rancour, intrigue, and factional maneuvering has no moral standing to preach democracy to Nigerians. Their history is littered with opportunistic alliances, expedient defections, and ideological shapelessness.”
‘Nigeria has left them behind’
Oladejo insisted that the country has moved on from the old order.
“Nigeria has left them behind. Our country has moved beyond the old politics of entitlement, elite rotation, and cynical power recycling. The Nigerian people are wiser, more discerning, and far less susceptible to the empty theatrics of recycled political veterans masquerading as change agents.”
He contrasted the opposition’s record with the current administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the country is undergoing bold and necessary reforms designed to confront long-standing structural distortions. These reforms may be difficult, but they are courageous, purposeful, and future-facing. They stand in sharp contrast to the years when many of today’s opposition protagonists occupied strategic offices yet left little more than excuses, evasions, and unfulfilled promises in their wake.”
‘The years of the locusts are gone forever’
The spokesman ended with a series of declarations about what 2027 will not bring.
“Let it be said without equivocation: 2027 will not be a pathway back to regression,” he said.
“Nigeria will not return to the era of squandered opportunities. Nigeria will not return to policy somersaults. Nigeria will not return to leadership by rhetoric and ruinous experimentation. Nigeria will not return to the years of the locusts.”
He warned the opposition against any tactics short of genuine democratic persuasion.
“And let the opposition be under no illusion: subtle blackmail, arm-twisting tactics, political brinkmanship, and mercenary rhetoric will not confer power on a coalition of yesterday’s men. Power is earned through vision, credibility, and the trust of the people ā it is never served Ć la carte to failed actors seeking a second bite at history.”
Oladejo described 2027 as a moment of democratic judgment.
“2027 will be the ultimate moment of democratic reckoning ā the season that separates genuine leadership from recycled ambition, substance from sloganeering, and nation-builders from political opportunists.”
He said the opposition’s decline is self-inflicted.
“No one owes the opposition a rescue from its self-inflicted descent into irrelevance. If anything, the Nigerian people are now witnesses to what can only be described as an unstoppable march toward political perdition and collective self-harvest of failed legacies.”
He concluded with a final verdict on the opposition’s place in history.
“History has moved on. Nigeria has moved on. The people have moved on. And those who squandered yesterday will not be entrusted with tomorrow.”
“The years of the locusts are gone forever ā and by the grace of the Nigerian electorate, they shall remain buried in the graveyard of failed political experiments.”
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