By Ibrahim Babangida Lawal
At a time when Nigerians can barely afford bread, when mothers are choosing between feeding their children and paying hospital bills, when young people roam the streets with degrees but no jobs, the Tinubu-led administration has found its grand idea for national development: a shiny new building for INEC. A structure of concrete and glass, poised to rise over the carcass of a nation choking on poverty, anger, and despair.
Let us not mince words-this is not governance; this is elite madness masquerading as progress. It is a sick joke, and we, the people, are the punchline.
What rational government, in the throes of economic catastrophe and widespread human suffering, decides that its most urgent need is to construct a multimillion-dollar fortress for a commission that many Nigerians no longer trust? Is it gleaming floors and glass panels that will fix the rigging, the vote-buying, and the institutional rot that define our elections? Or is it character, competence, and consequence?
INEC doesn’t need a new headquarters; what it needs is a spine—and perhaps a national exorcism to rid it of the political demons that have held it hostage for decades.
The people are hungry. Inflation is grinding their backs into the dust. The naira is gasping for life like a fish out of water. Fuel prices have soared beyond sanity, electricity is epileptic at best, and insecurity prowls our highways and villages like a rabid dog. And yet, in this theater of anguish, this regime chooses to focus on a vanity project. A building! A godforsaken building!
This is not just tone-deaf-it is morally depraved. It is an insult hurled in the face of every struggling Nigerian. A spit in the eye of every voter who stood under the sun in the hope that their vote would matter. Instead of investing in electoral reforms, secure digital voting systems, and staff capacity, Tinubu is offering us a monument to failure-a monument that will house nothing but the ghosts of stolen mandates.
Let us be honest: this isn’t about INEC at all. This is about contracts. About kickbacks. About feeding a network of cronies fattened on public misery. It is a masterclass in political diversion-a way to enrich the few while throwing the rest of us into another pit of debt and disillusionment.
This administration must be told, in unambiguous terms, that leadership is not a stage for architectural grandstanding. It is not about cutting ribbons or unveiling blueprints while the country bleeds. We are not dazzled by skyscrapers; we are begging for accountability, for integrity, for vision.
If Tinubu truly seeks to leave a legacy, let it be in rescuing INEC from the cesspool of partisanship and inefficiency it currently swims in-not in building it a mausoleum of marble and shame.
In conclusion, this plan is not just a poor decision-it is a betrayal, a national affront, a travesty of governance. It must be halted, and it must be condemned by every Nigerian who still believes that public office exists to serve the people—not to inflate egos or pad pockets.
We are not fools. We see through the glass. And we will remember.
