The race toward Nigeria’s 2027 general elections has placed the Igala nation of Kogi State under a blinding spotlight. Once the undisputed custodians of political leadership in the Confluence State, the Igala now find themselves fragmented and weakened, struggling to recover the marrow of unity and vision that once animated their dominance. For many, the coming election is not just about power but about survival, legacy, and whether history will remember the Igala as landlords or as tenants in their own political house.
“The Igala have the numbers, the history, and the cultural weight, but they bleed from disunity,” said Professor J. Idachaba, a political historian. His words capture the essence of a nation that once held power firmly but lost grip after the 2015 succession crisis that elevated Yahaya Bello to governorship, ending decades of Igala supremacy. An elder in Ankpa expressed the loss more bluntly: “The iroko that forgets its root becomes firewood for strangers.”_
The stakes of 2027, therefore, run deeper than who wins the governorship. They embody an existential question for the Igala: can fractured bones live again? Without unity, the Igala political structure risks remaining brittle, vulnerable to both external exploitation and internal betrayal. Bishop David Abioye once warned, “When destiny is abandoned, strangers will write the script of your history.” This warning is already manifesting in Kogi, where the Igala majority has been sidelined by smaller blocs empowered by their disunity.
The pain of this displacement is visible in everyday conversations. At the busy Ega market square, a trader lamented, “We, who were once landlords, now crawl like tenants in our own compound. If 2027 slips away, Igala power will only exist in ancestral tales.” The lament is resonated by younger voices too, who see their generation’s future threatened. In the words of one youth leader in Dekina: “Our fathers dropped the torch. It is left for us to either pick it or let the fire die forever.”
The path to redemption will not be easy. Unity must transcend rhetoric and become a covenant, while leaders must reject political merchants who trade collective destiny for personal gain. As Prophet TB Joshua once said, “God does not anoint the greedy; He anoints the yielded.” For the Igala, the challenge is to yield to the discipline of collective purpose. If they rise with one voice in 2027, they could restore their ancient standing. But if they falter again, the marrow may dry, and the once-mighty dynasty will remain a relic in Kogi’s political museum.
– Inah Boniface Ocholi writes from Ayah – Igalamela/Odolu LGA, Kogi state.
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