Nigeria Sinks Deeper Into Cult Politics as Tinubu’s Cap Replaces Governance and APC Officials Compete in Ritual Displays of Obedience

Nigeria’s political landscape is descending into a full-blown cult of personality around President Bola Tinubu, as politicians, appointees, and public officeholders increasingly appear in public wearing his signature “Emilokan cap” and chanting “On Your Mandate We Shall Stand.” What once began as a campaign chorus has now morphed into an unofficial loyalty anthem, sung at government events, legislative gatherings, and even solemn national occasions, raising concerns that governance is being replaced by ritualistic praise-singing.

Across ministries, parastatals, and the National Assembly, officials now proudly don the president’s trademark cap as if it were a uniform of allegiance. Lawmakers enter chambers decked in Tinubu’s insignia, commissioners pose for photos in the same regalia, and APC loyalists treat the chant as a sacred rite. This resembles a political cult, where public servants seek validation from one man rather than the nation they swore to serve.

This feverish display of loyalty reflects a ruling party that has abandoned ideology and policy, instead clinging to personal worship and unquestioning obedience. With the country battling kidnappings, murdered soldiers, collapsing institutions, poisoned communities, and unbearable hardship, the obsession with Tinubu-branded symbolism feels, to many Nigerians, like proof that the APC’s priorities have detached from the nation’s realities.

Instead of solutions, APC leaders are performing loyalty rituals, caps, chants, and songs, while insecurity deepens and hunger spreads. Rather than addressing mass abductions, economic misery, or the death of Brigadier General Musa Uba and his men, the political elite find time to rehearse choruses celebrating Tinubu. The disconnect is so absurd that one wonders if this is governance or a cult gathering.

The situation worsened when senior politicians declared allegiance by singing “On Your Mandate” at state functions, sometimes in the presence of grieving families or communities facing tragedy. This is not just tone-deaf, it is national gaslighting. APC is no longer a political party, but a loyalty cartel, where access, protection, and appointments are tied to how loudly one praises Tinubu, rather than competence or integrity.

In a country groaning under insecurity and despair, the spectacle of cap-wearing politicians chorusing a campaign song feels like a slap to the faces of Nigerians. It signals a ruling class performing worship while the nation burns.

APC promised renewed hope. What Nigerians see instead is renewed loyalty theatre, an emerging cult built around a man, not a country.

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