Citizen Bolaji O. Akinyemi.
Politics, like the street game of Whot (WOTH), is not won by the loudest player—but by the one who understands when to drop the last card.
For a while now, the APC has played the game like a master of the table—calculating, patient, and ruthless in execution.
One by one, the opposition cards have been neutralised.
APC’s Opening Hands: Breaking the Table
First, the quiet conquest of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Not by outright defeat—but by stealth division:
Structure weakened
Leadership split
Soul and body separated
Today, one could argue:
The body of the PDP sits with Seyi Makinde
The soul is held in custody by Nyesom Wike
A party alive—but not whole.
Then came the containment of the Labour Party.
A movement that surged from obscurity with over 6 million votes behind Peter Obi in 2023 elections was gradually hemmed and boxed into:
Leadership disputes
Legal entanglements
Structural fragility
The energy may remain in a latent mode, but the direction of party is blurred.
The New Nigeria Peoples Party was next.
Its strength concentrated in one man—Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso—and one state: Kano, and with a fringe fervor in the North-West.
Strong, in Kano, yes. But isolated.
And the African Democratic Congress, ADC?
Confused. Searching. Unsettled. Noisome, everywhere and nowhere.
Checkmate… Or So It Seemed
At this point, the board looked predictable.
APC in control.
Opposition fragmented and terminally subdued.
2027—already leaning in one direction.
The game appeared to be entering its final phase.
Then Came Kano: A Different Move
Kano changed the optics.
Not with noise—but with alignment.
Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso hosting Seyi Makinde was not just a courtesy visit.
It was a signal.
A suggestion that:
The North-West is still in play
The PDP body is not entirely immobile
Conversations are ongoing beneath the surface
But even that was not the real move.
The Real Move: The Last Card Appears
Just when the table thought the game was closing…
Henry Seriake Dickson stepped in.
Quietly. Strategically. With a Davidian mien and placed a card many had ignored:
The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC).
Why Dickson Matters in This Game
Dickson is not noise.
He is:
A former Rep Member
A former governor
A serving senator
A political bridge between South-South, PDP legacy structure, and national reformist thinking
More importantly, he is not trapped in the internal contradictions consuming:
PDP
Labour Party
NNPP
ADC
He represents something rare in Nigerian politics today:
Mobility without baggage.
The NDC Card: Underrated, But Strategic
At first glance, the NDC looks like a minor card.
But in Whot, the last card is rarely the loudest—it is the most timely.
Consider the vote arithmetic in 2023 elections:
Over 6 million Obi voters—disillusioned, searching
Over 1.5 million Kwankwasiyya base—strong, but nationally limited
Over 7 million PDP votes upon a sturdy structure is fragmented but not extinct
What they lack is not numbers but espirit de corps
What they yearn for is a vehicle.
The Proposition: NDC is the Vehicle?
This is where the Dickson card becomes alluring.
The NDC offers:
A clean legal platform
Room for coalition architecture
Flexibility for new alignments
In a political environment clogged with:
Court cases
factional leadership
legitimacy battles,
clean structure becomes strategic advantage.
The Bus Metaphor: Politics Needs Conductors
Structure alone is not enough.
Politics, like public transport, needs:
Drivers (leaders)
Conductors (mobilisers)
Passengers (voters)
Right now:
The stranded passengers at cited bus stops are no longer stranded but waiting at the bus stop.
Negotiation is on for the driver in providence.
Of course, a bus is needed to move the passengers.
Then Dickson showed up to say, here is a brand new luxurious bus !
When the NDC becomes that bus …,
Then the conductors must move fast.
APC’s Likely Reaction
The APC will not ignore the luxurious bus.
Expect:
- Early Disruption
Infiltration
Internal fractures
Leadership contests
- Narrative Control
Framing NDC as weak or irrelevant
Undermining its credibility early
- Strategic Co-option
Pulling key figures away
Offering incentives to fragment alignment
Because APC understands one thing:
Opposition divided is victory guaranteed.
Opposition aligned is a real contest.
The Real Question: has the Last Card ever failed to win the Game?
The emergence of NDC may not guarantee victory.
But it changes the game from:
Predictable → Competitive
Fragmented → Potentially aligned
The real work now is not theory.
It is execution.
Final Analysis: The Game Is Not Over
For those who thought 2027 was already decided—Kano says otherwise.
The table is shifting.
The players are rethinking.
And somewhere between Kwankwaso’s base, Makinde’s structure, and Dickson’s quiet calculation…
A new possibility is forming.
Closing Line
In the game of power, it is not the number of cards you hold—it is the one you play last. And with the NDC on the table, Nigeria’s 2027 game may have just found its missing move.
