By Chris Osa Nehikhare
… a president who cannot secure Edo roads, Edo farms, and Edo communities has no credible claim to Edo votes.
For Edo people, insecurity is no longer something we watch on the evening news happening “elsewhere.” It is now a daily reality that defines how we farm, trade, travel, and even worship. Under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Nigerian state has continued to retreat from its most basic responsibility: the protection of lives and property. Edo State has paid a heavy price for this failure.
The Benin–Auchi–Lokoja Road, once a vital economic artery, has become a corridor of fear. Regular commuters, traders, students, and civil servants now travel this route with silent prayers on their lips. Kidnappings for ransom have become so common that they are discussed casually, as though they were unavoidable acts of nature. Rural communities in Esanland, Owan, parts of Edo North and Edo South have seen farmers abandon their farms, not because the soil is no longer fertile, but because the risk of being abducted or killed is too high.
This climate of fear has devastated local economies. Farming communities cannot produce at scale. Transport costs have skyrocketed due to risk premiums. Markets shut early. Investors quietly look elsewhere.
For a state that prides itself on enterprise and resilience, this regression is not accidental—it is the direct result of federal failure.
Yet, in the midst of this worsening insecurity, Edo people are being told that their priority should be delivering 2.5 million votes to President Tinubu in 2027. The irony is staggering. What exactly are Edo people being asked to vote for? A continuation of a security architecture that has clearly failed them?
The Tinubu administration has shown no urgency in addressing the specific security challenges facing states like Edo. There is no tailored strategy for highway kidnappings, no decisive action to secure farmlands, and no accountability for repeated intelligence failures. Instead, we hear general statements, reshuffles of security operatives, and hollow assurances that things are “being addressed.”
Even more worrying is the normalization of self-help. Communities increasingly rely on local vigilantes and informal security arrangements, a dangerous sign that confidence in federal protection has eroded.
History teaches us that when citizens no longer trust the state to protect them, the foundations of national unity begin to crack.
Edo people should not be reduced to electoral statistics in a national power game. Votes are not substitutes for safety. Political loyalty cannot replace competent governance. A president who cannot secure Edo roads, Edo farms, and Edo communities has no credible claim to Edo votes.
Re-electing President Tinubu would amount to endorsing a Nigeria where insecurity is accepted as the norm and where citizens are expected to adapt to failure rather than demand excellence.
Edo people deserve a future where movement does not equal risk, and farming does not feel like a death sentence.
On insecurity alone, the case against a second Tinubu term is overwhelming and he will not get 25000 (twenty five thousand) legitimate votes in Edo State.
Hon. Chris Nehikhare is a former Commissioner for Communication and Orientation in Edo State.
This is the first in a series of essays on why President Tinubu will not get 25000 (twenty five thousand) legitimate votes in the 2027 presidential election in Edo State.
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