Are you one of the twelve?

Are You One of the Twelve?

There is a difference between belief and blindness. Between loyalty and self-sabotage. Between supporting a person and serving your own destruction. This is not about parties. It is not about tribes. It is about conduct. The quiet, daily choices that reveal whether we are citizens or subjects.

Check yourself. Not your neighbor. Not your rival. You.

1. The jobless person supporting the very people behind his or her joblessness. The mornings are empty. The afternoons are longer. The résumé gathers dust. And somehow, the loudest voice at the rally belongs to the one with no office to go to.

2. The student on strike, still raising banners for those who padlocked the school gates. Your lecturers are owed. Your future is frozen. Your hostel is quiet. And your energy is spent defending the ones who turned the key.

3. The father who can no longer feed his family, still running like a fool under the sun for the people who brought the poverty into his house. The children watch him leave with an empty stomach. They watch him return with an empty hand. And they are learning what a man should never teach.

4. Youths who support the killers that ordered the killing of their own fellow youths. The same generation buried in mass graves. The same future bulldozed into silence. And some survivors are clapping for the bulldozer.

5. Homeless and jobless persons supporting the people who brought the inflation that made them jobless and homeless. The street is now the bedroom. The marketplace is now a museum. And the campaign poster on the wall is the only decoration left.

6. People living without electricity, still raising banners and asking others to support the evil men behind the darkness. The generator roars at midnight. The candle flickers at dinner. And the phone in the dark room is busy typing praise.

7. People who cannot travel home because of bad roads, yet still campaigning and asking others to join them in supporting the people who looted the money meant for the road to their homes. The journey that used to take hours now takes prayers. And the passenger is the loudest defender of the contractor who never came.

8. People who could not sleep because of killing, kidnapping, and banditry, yet still supporting the founders of terrorism in the nation. The night is a war zone. The morning is a mourning. And by afternoon, the same voice is on radio defending the sponsors.

9. People who do not even have clean water to drink, but still planning to vote for the people who looted the money meant for water into power. The well is dry. The borehole is broken. The stream is polluted. And the ballot is already folded in their pocket.

10. People buying fuel at ₦1,200 instead of ₦65, yet still supporting the evil men stealing the crude and refusing to build refineries that brought us to where we are today. The tank is half-full. The wallet is fully empty. And the tongue is fully busy with excuses.

11. People supporting others because of ethnicity or tribe, forgetting competence, capacity, and track record. The hospital has no drugs. The school has no teachers. The road has no tar. But the name sounds familiar, so the hand must rise.

12. People supporting others because of food on the table and stomach infrastructure, forgetting the future. The plate is warm today. The belly is full tonight. And the child who needed a school is now old enough to need a job that does not exist.

Are you any of the twelve above?

If you are not in this group of people, circulate this message. Educate those who are still being fooled. Do not keep the mirror to yourself. Send it to the family group chat. Send it to the village square. Send it to the friend who defends his oppressor louder than his own dreams.

Vote wisely in 2027. Not with your stomach. Not with your tribe. Not with your fear. With your eyes open.

Because the twelve are not a myth. They are real. They are around us. And sometimes — they are us.