Segun Showunmi: A simple question, a thousand excuses 1. A simple question demands a simple answer. 2. When asked whether his wife, Oluyemi Adeyemi-Showunmi 's recent INEC deployment as Head of the Electoral Operations Department at INEC headquarters, was a reward for joining the APC, Segun @SegunShowunmi could have said simply said no. 3. Instead he launched into a t¡rade, first accusing critics of making it difficult for people to l¡ve in this country, then reciting his wife’s long career as an INEC officer who rose from the Ministry to Level 17. 4. He offered as proof of her honesty that in 2019, when he deployed money for a House of Representatives election that was later rescheduled, she knew of the change yet told him nothing, because disclosure would have given him an unfair advantage. 5. He added that she is the daughter of a 'presbyter' ( the late very Rev S. A Ogunfowora) and the younger sister of a high judge, then pivoted to Nuhu Ribadu’s status as Atiku Abubakar’s son-in-law, asking whether that kinship has stopped Ribadu from doing his job. 6. All of this, he claimed, issued from a place of high integrity and moral code. 7. Yet the very elaborateness of the reply revealed its premeditation. 8. He came armed with details of her earlier service as administrative secretary in Lagos State during the last election, an assignment that did not, he noted, prevent Peter Obi from securing strong numbers, and with carefully chosen anecdotes from his own past campaigns. 9. An innocent person answers a plain question plainly. 10. The over-studied response suggests either that the questions were known in advance or that the matter required more defence than truth alone could supply. 11. Either possibility undermines the claim of spontaneous integrity. 12.Integrity is not a performance of fluency. 13. Showunmi’s own record of shifting from the PDP to the APC and back has already cost him the public’s trust on moral questions. 14. No one doubts his verbal agility; few now grant him the benefit of the doubt on matters of principle. 15. Placing him in roles meant to replace figures like Reno and Bwala whose public standing has already been damaged only underlines the problem. 16. The conflict of interest is plain: he serves an APC government while his wife holds a sensitive @inecnigeria post. 17. In systems that still treat integrity as more than a slogan, one of them would step aside. 18. Shared residence and shared bed do not magically dissolve the duty to avoid even the appearance of influence. 19. Nigerians see the contradiction clearly, and no amount of rehearsal can turn an elaborate evasion into a simple no.

Tinubu's Electoral Map: 12 states to visit, 25 to ignore 1. Abia: Not important, no need campaigning there. 2. Adamawa: 4 January 2027. 3. Akwa Ibom: Not electorally important. No visit necessary. 4. Anambra: Votes already calculated. No need to visit 5. Bauchi: 29 November 2026. 6. Bayelsa: Not on the presidential priority list. 7. Benue: No political value in visiting. Alia to manage things. 8. Borno: 25 November 2026. 9. Cross River: Not worth the presidential journey 10. Delta: 12 December 2026. 11. Ebonyi: Not among the chosen states. 12. Edo: Electoral arithmetic says no visit. 2.5million Akpakomiza votes already secured 13. Ekiti: No need to meet the people. Just throw bread at them. 14. Enugu: 28 November 2026. 15. Gombe: Not important to the electoral equation. 16. Imo: The president can win without visiting. Hope there to manage things. 17. Jigawa: No presidential attention required. INEC to secure. 18. Kaduna: 24 October 2026. 19. Kano: 17 December 2026. 20. Katsina: Not worth interrupting governance for. Could be chaos. 21. Kebbi: The votes matter, but the visit doesn't. 22. Kogi: Outside the president's electoral calculations. Ododo to do his thing. 23. Kwara: Not a battleground worth visiting. Will happily submit votes 24. Lagos: 9 January 2027. 25. Nasarawa: No need to campaign; the numbers will speak. 26. Niger: The campaign mathematics does not favour a visit. 27. Ogun: Your votes are welcome; a visit is unnecessary. 28. Ondo: Presidential visit unnecessary. Votes still welcome. 29. Osun: Not among the politically profitable destinations. 30. Oyo: 21 November 2026. 31. Plateau: 14 November 2026. 32. Rivers: 7 November 2026. 33. Sokoto: 4 December 2026. 34. Taraba: Not electorally significant enough to warrant a visit. 35. Yobe: Your votes count, but your state doesn't 36. Zamfara: No need to visit; electoral calculations are complete. 37. FCT (Abuja): Presidential attention reserved for more strategic states. Wike to manage