Special to USAfrica magazine (Houston) and USAfricaonline.com, the first Africa-owned, US-based newspaper published on the Internet
On Friday, 20 February 2026, in Mabushi, Abuja, an APC campaign microphone became a weapon.
_“If you vote for ADC or SDP, you will not sleep in this town… pack your belongings and find your way out.”_
This was not whispered in a corner. It was not leaked from a secret caucus meeting. It was declared openly as part of campaign speech. Publicly. Proudly!
Open voter intimidation again?
APC again?
Under President Tinubu’s watch (again)?
At what point does any part of a republic begin to resemble a rented compound for some citizens – where political landlords threaten tenants for preferring a different caretaker? Why is this selective franchise not applicable to tax collections too?
Everyone is a full fledged Nigerian in tax collections. But not everyone who meets the statutory requirements is qualified to vote or be voted for. What a Nigeria! What a democracy!
*FROM EMILOKAN TO EVICTION NOTICE*
We have seen versions of this script before – in Lagos State, in Yorubaland.
Yes, in Yorubaland, especially Lagos State, territorial politics has matured into a fine art of expediency – refined over years of “this is our land” theatrics, crescendoing in Tinubu’s Emilokan era. Whether one admires or critiques it, Lagos evolved into a politically consolidated fortress through decades of machine discipline and identity signaling.
But here is the constitutional irony: Lagos was once the Federal Capital Territory – built with federal resources, funded by national taxes, sustained by the sweat of Nigerians from every region. Yet history allowed it to culturally consolidate without constitutional revolt.
Abuja was created precisely to avoid that controversy. This Federal Capital Territory was carved out in 1976 to neutralize ethnic ownership of the capital. It is not Yorubaland. It is not Igboland. It is not Hausa-Fulani territory. It is a constitutional sanctuary – engineered to belong to everyone and owned exclusively by no one.
So when an APC party loyalist stands in Mabushi and issues eviction threats over ballot choice, what exactly is that? Campaign confidence? Or electoral violence in soft focus? Or xenophobia wearing a party cap?
Since when did democracy become landlordism?
*THE LAW IS NOT DECORATIVE*
Nigeria’s Constitution guarantees freedom of movement and political participation. The Electoral Act criminalizes voter intimidation. Threatening citizens with expulsion for voting differently is not motivational speaking; it is coercion.
Where is the Nigeria Police?
Where is the DSS/SSS?
Where is INEC’s condemnation?
Where is the National Orientation Agency’s civic alarm?
Where is the presidency’s reprimand?
Silence is not neutrality. Silence is instruction.
If this rhetoric passes without consequence, it becomes rehearsal for 2027. And that is the real danger.
*THE TINUBU LITMUS TEST*
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently defended his assent to amendments of the Electoral Act, assuring Nigerians of free, fair, transparent, violence-free elections. The Abuja, Kano, and Rivers council elections holding today (21 February 2026) are supposed to be litmus tests of that promise.
It must be stated that democracy is not defended in press releases. It is defended in enforcement. If a party member can publicly threaten eviction or violence during an official campaign event without immediate interrogation by security agencies, then the guarantee of “violence-free electioneering” begins to sound ornamental – like a framed certificate in a collapsing building.
You cannot preach institutional reform while tolerating institutional erosion.
*IS THIS JUST POLITICAL HYPERBOLE?*
Some will say, “Relax. It’s campaign exaggeration. Nigerian politics is dramatic.” But democracy dies gradually – not dramatically.
In 2007, ballot snatching was “normal.”
In 2011, post-election violence shocked the nation.
In 2019, militarized polling units became strategic theatre.
In 2023, “vote APC or be punished. Otherwise, stay away from the polling and collation centers.” was doctrinal in Lagos and Yorubaland.
Every normalization begins as a joke. Until someone does not sleep in that town.
*ABUJA IS NOT A MOTOR PARK*
Let us be clear:
No party owns Abuja.
No ethnic bloc inherited it.
The FCT belongs to no tribe – and to every tribe.
Infact, no campaign has deportation rights anywhere within the country.
If voting for PDP, NNPP, LP, APGA, AAC, ADC, SDP, or any other duly recognized political party suddenly qualifies a citizen for eviction anywhere in Nigeria, then the federal republic has quietly mutated into a conquest project.
That is not partisan alarmism. That is constitutional realism.
*WHY THIS MATTERS BEYOND MABUSHI*
This is not about APC alone. It is not about opposition sympathy. It is about precedent.
If Abuja – the neutral capital – or even Lagos can become a testing ground for territorial intimidation, what stops replication elsewhere?
Yesterday it was “go back to your home state” in Lagos and other parts of Yorubaland.
Today it is “pack your belongings” in Abuja.
Tomorrow it becomes “you will not vote here” across the country
Next it becomes selective accreditation and vote validation.
Democracy rarely collapses in one dramatic implosion. It erodes through tolerated absurdities.
*WHAT MUST HAPPEN NOW*
1. Immediate investigation and public caution from security agencies.
2. INEC must publicly restate voter protection guarantees.
3. The Presidency must condemn voter intimidation unequivocally – not selectively.
4. Civic institutions must amplify citizens’ rights to vote anywhere without fear.
Not because of ADC, PDP APC, SDP, LP, ANPP, AAC, APGA, or any other party. But because of Nigeria.
*FINAL WORD*
Threatening citizens over how they vote is not strength. It is insecurity masquerading as dominance.
If Abuja – the capital designed to unify – and indeed Lagos become stages for eviction politics, then we are no longer debating party supremacy. We are negotiating the survival of republican order.
This is not motor park politics. It is supposed to be a republic. And republics do not issue eviction notices over ballot papers.
