Youth Leaders Get Prados, Rest of Youth Get “Please Be Patient”

Gather round, because this one has everything: cars, youths, a First Lady, a former Vice President, and the cost of living standing at the back of the room looking tired.

Here is the gist. On Sunday, the APC National Youth Leader, Dayo Israel, announced on social media that he had donated several 2026 Toyota Land Cruiser Prado SUVs to party loyalists ahead of 2027, and thanked First Lady Oluremi Tinubu for her support. Within hours, ADC presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar, speaking through his spokesman Phrank Shaibu, was asking the question every Nigerian asks at every party where the jollof is suspiciously generous: who paid for all this?

Atiku’s camp puts each vehicle at about N150 million. That is their estimate, not a receipt. They also called the gifts an insult to Nigerians struggling with food and transport. For context, this is the same country where one danfo ride now needs a short prayer and a calculator.

Now, “youth leader” is a very flexible title in Nigeria. It does not mean you are young, and it does not mean you lead any youths. It usually means somebody gave you a microphone at a rally and you never gave it back. So when the Prados arrive, the actual youth, the one with a degree, a CV, and three unpaid internships, is entitled to ask: where is mine?

To be fair, every party rewards loyalty, and nobody has a clean record on gifting. Also, to be fair, Atiku’s question is a good one: was it personal money, donations, or something with a government stamp on it? Of course, it is slightly funny to hear “who paid for this?” from a man who has been in presidential races so many times that his campaign posters are now vintage. But funny and fair can sit in the same car.

The APC, the presidency and the First Lady had not responded when the reports came out, so, with statements presumably stuck in traffic, this remains a mystery wrapped in a very shiny wheel.

Meanwhile, social media is doing what social media does. One section is calculating how many bags of rice, hospital bills or school fees fit inside one Prado. The other section is insisting that it is their money and they can enjoy it. Both sections are arguing in a comment thread where nobody will ever be gifted anything except a block.

The lesson is simple. In Nigerian politics, a car is never just a car. It is a campaign message with four-wheel drive. Until somebody explains who paid, we will keep refreshing and waiting for the answer, which, based on experience, will arrive at the same time as our own Prado.