Prof Adekunle Oloyede, former Vice-Chancellor and professor of medical engineering, recently offered a metaphor that deserves serious attention. Responding to my piece “Tribe is a Race in Nigeria… Dual Citizenship is…”, he wrote:
“The hard shell must be broken before the delicious prize inside it is revealed. We Nigerians must realise that what we face is the hard shell of the coconut that was created by people who need us in the state we are — both colonially and indigenously. Breaking that shell requires different thinking and uncommon actions — it would never be easy, neither would it be as a result of making do with what we have! We cannot wish our situation away!!”_
I have read it a few times. It is profound. And it is incomplete.
Prof is right about the coconut. Nigeria is a coconut — hard shell outside, delicious prize inside. The shell was created by people who need us in the state we are. Breaking it requires different thinking and uncommon actions. We cannot wish it away.
But we must ask the question his metaphor invites but does not answer: Who are the people who need us in the state we are? Who benefits from the hard shell remaining unbroken?
Because while we theorize about coconuts in Western world and staff quarters, the majority of our citizens are going through hellish reality inside that shell.
The Colonial Shell
The colonial shell is 1985 education still being taught for a 2040 world that no longer exists. Children memorizing facts to pass exams, teachers rushing to complete syllabi, schools without roofs in Taraba for ten years where pupils sit on bare floors — as Sahara Reporters documented. This is the shell that produces graduates who cannot compete with a child in Bangalore and Berlin. My piece “Nigeria is Still Teaching Children for a World That No Longer Exists: The 2040 Test,” published this week by Sahara Reporters from its New York desk, argues that we must teach every Primary 2 child to touch a computer and every secondary leaver to own one digital skill. People who need us memorizing, not thinking, created that shell.
The Indigenous Shell
The indigenous shell is the GLE 350 with NURTW 001 special plate — intimidation on wheels. An Agbero who collects toll with violence rides an N80 million Benz while the professor enters the polling unit with a small car and ideas. It is also tribe as a race weapon in Lagos 2023, where citizens were told not to vote because they looked Igbo. “This is our area, go back.” That is hard shell — tribalism as political weapon, created by indigenous elites who need us divided to rule.
This is why Barr. Femi Falana, SAN, warned two days ago: “Get ready, form groups to defend the votes of everybody in Lagos. Because going by what happened in last election, violence will be introduced.” It is why a Canadian Federal Court recently ruled that APC and PDP use of violence and coercion meets the definition of terrorism. And it is why the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 criminalizes intimidation for political purpose.
Both shells need us in the state we are — poor, divided, memorizing, afraid.
Why We Cannot Swallow the Position Completely
My friend, Prof Oloyede has every right as one the sympathizers of the present gladiators for reasons of benefits or tribe. I say this with profound respect. That position explains why his prescription — different thinking and uncommon actions — stops short of naming the uncommon actions that will step on the toes of gladiators.
We, on the side of the majority, must name them.
Different thinking is Sun Tzu’s principle: terrain determines tactics. 2027 is a new ball game. Old terrain in 2015: Agbero with GLE 350 and boys could seize PVCs and newspaper editors would beg before publishing. New terrain in 2026: a message written in Ijebu-Ode is published same day in New York by Sahara Reporters — founded in 2006 in a small room in Manhattan by Omoyele Sowore, funded by grants, taking no money from Nigerian government — and broadcast to 10,000 phones before the Agberos starts their GLE. BVAS and IReV now allow citizens to photograph result sheets and upload them. Information is no longer in their hand. Mic na our hand now.
Uncommon actions are not theory. They are:
1. Enforce the law that already exists. The Senate passed the Electoral Offences Commission Bill in July 2021 to prosecute vote intimidation. The House killed it. Why? Because gladiators benefit from the hard shell. Uncommon action is to demand it now as non-negotiable for 2027.
2. Apply the Terrorism Act. Intimidation for political purpose is terrorism under Section 1(3) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022. GLE 350 equals intimidation on wheels equals disqualification, not celebration with a special plate.
3. Break the education shell. Implement the 2040 TEST: coding as basic literacy, not making do with colonial-era regulations.
4. Use the 5Cs as hammer. Conscience to reject tribal suppression, Character to refuse N5,000 vote selling, Capacity to build institutions, Competence to know that asking a citizen not to vote because he is Igbo is a crime, Courage to stand at the polling unit and say “I will vote and my vote will count.”
We cannot swallow the coconut metaphor completely without recourse to reality being on the side of the majority going through hellish conditions. The metaphor helps us explain. But breaking the coconut requires a hammer that will hit the fingers of those who need the shell intact — including, with respect, sympathizers who benefit.
That is why our hammer is WITNESS 2026/2036 — not just different thinking, but uncommon courage to say characters like Sego are not permitted in a decent democracy, Agbero politics is terrorism, tribe is family not race, and 2027 must be an election of ideas, not Agberos.
The delicious prize inside the coconut is Nigeria that works. But the prize will not reveal itself. We must break the shell, even if those who built the shell are our friends, our tribesmen, our benefactors.
Richard Olanrewaju Odusanya is Convener of Africa Covenant Rescue Initiative (ACRI) / WITNESS 2026/2036 and author of NIGERIA NEEDS NEW NATIONAL MODEL (426 pages, nearly 100 pages on Fourth Industrial Revolution) and THE PEOPLE’S CURSE — odusanyagold@gmail.com — Ki Olorun Tun Ilu Wa Se — May God repair our nation
