Lagos APC Just Placed All Its Candidates on House Arrest, Politely, Using the Word "Mobilisation"

There's a particular kind of comedy that only Nigerian politics can deliver, and this week it arrived fully formed: Lagos APC has told its own candidates they are not allowed to leave the country until after the 2027 elections are over. Not a suggestion. Not a gentle nudge. A directive, delivered at the inauguration of the Tinubu-Hamzat Campaign Council in Ikeja, straight from party chairman Cornelius Ojelabi's mouth: "No candidate is allowed to travel outside the country until after the general elections."

Let that sink in for a second. In a country where half the population is actively trying to japa, and where getting a single visa appointment can take longer than an actual election cycle, the one group of people who has never struggled to leave, politicians, just got told they can't. The passports still work. They're just not allowed to use them.

Ojelabi framed it as commitment to "cooperate with the campaign council and make yourself available," which is the kind of phrase you'd expect from an uncle at a family meeting, not a political party chairman. But fair enough, apparently, the council itself is not small. We're talking about a 1,235-member campaign structure, spread across 20 directorates, for Lagos State alone. If keeping that many people organised requires every candidate to be physically present and reachable at all times, honestly, the travel ban almost makes sense.

Almost. Because somewhere out there is a Lagos APC candidate who already had a "business trip" to Dubai booked for November, quietly cancelling it right now while smiling for the cameras at the inauguration, nodding along like house arrest was their idea all along.

Mobilisation, apparently, starts with nobody being allowed to leave the room.