2027: Presidency, the 10th Senate, and the Politics of the Halal Economy
By Bolaji O. Akinyemi
History rarely announces itself with trumpets.
More often, it arrives quietly—encoded in policy language, legitimised by legislative endorsements, and softened by economic slogans that appear harmless until examined against the backdrop of power, ambition, and constitutional order.
That is how nations drift—not by rebellion, but by omission.
My first intervention on the subject matter, “Halal: Tomorrow’s Celebration May Plant Tomorrow’s Crisis,” was in 2025 and never intended as provocation. It was a citizen’s advisory—written from constitutional caution and national sensitivity. Unexpectedly, that article travelled farther than anticipated. It drew the attention of a Financial Adviser to a European entity, who formally reached out, requesting that I facilitate a dialogue on the subject.
My response was simple and honest:
“I am not an economist or a financial technocrat. I am a watchman on the wall—one graced and skilled to discern approaching danger and warn those on the ground.”
History teaches us that even watchmen, like prophets are rarely celebrated at home. That truth was reinforced at a recent gathering of leaders and stakeholders, where I was invited to speak on the state of the Nation.
What I shared there was not economics.
It was pattern recognition.
The State of the Nation: A Biblical Pattern
I framed Nigeria’s present crisis through the story of Gideon.
The Midianite bondage was not merely military oppression. It was economic warfare—an insecurity agenda designed to destroy output, productivity and wealth creation, impoverish the people, and establish political domination.
Israel was not conquered by direct rule.
She was starved into submission.
This is why insecurity is never random. It is strategic. It exists to make certain policies appear reasonable—inevitable even.
In that context, deception becomes a weapon of war.
Where I come from, it is called Taqiya—the tactical masking of nebulous intent of hostility in hospitable environments.
Interestingly, deception (taqiya) was also the “might” in Gideon that drew divine commendation.
*“… and Gideon* threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.” (Judges 6:11, KJV)
Wheat belongs on the threshing floor.
Winepresses are for grapes.
In modern terms, Gideon relocated economic activity into a concealed spiritual space for survival. From that act of strategic concealment came the declaration:
“Thou mighty man of valour… Go in this thy might.”
Later came the promise:
“Thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.”
The ’one-man principle’ is a recurring biblical warfare pattern. It was God’s approach to human creation and development. From the One Man, Adam, came the multitudes thronging the earth today. It was God’s strategy against the host of Philistines for which he raised Samson. Moses was God’s One Man prophetic squad against the Pharoah the global power of his days. The concept, God, didn’t limit to a gender, it powered the rise of Esther and the intervention of Deborah. Though, it was first officially proposed by Goliath but, it has been God’s strategic way of dealing from ages past. Fulfilled ultimately at Golgotha: one man confronting an entire system on behalf of a people. It culminated the final battle; Christ wrought victory for his Church, and the gate of hell shall no longer prevail, if the church will live in the understanding of her reality and not the theology of her logic.
Nigeria does not need crowds without clarity.
She needs a man backed by truth and moral authority.
This is not about APC or the current administration. In fact, I am convinced many within government do not fully grasp how their policies are being weaponised by deeper vested interests.
Solutioneering:
Immediate, Medium, Long Term
On the immediate: the trumpet must be blown.
Democracy is a game of numbers. If 11 million is the claim of membership of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, and the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria is estimated to be 65 million, Nigeria’s Christian population should be between 125 and 150 million. The relevant question here is not faith—it is civic consciousness. What have we done to put this strength on record?
Do we know our strength? Are we willing to show it?
However, number is useless in politics if there is no strategy to deploy them. This more than anything else is the problem of CAN and its affiliates.
That civic awakening, once created should be followed by a formal demand for dialogue with the President on the Halal economy—not as a market concept, but as a constitutional and political signal.
In the medium term, engagement with the National Assembly is unavoidable. Constitutional reform—anchored on the spirit and framework of the 1963 Constitution—must become a precondition for meaningful participation in the 2027 elections.
Let us speak plainly:
No individual—Tinubu, Obi, Atiku or otherwise—can rescue Nigeria within the prison of the 1999 Constitution. That document is the chain of our collective bondage. Without breaking it, the status quo will regenerate endlessly.
This is why no constituency serious about Nigeria’s future should mortgage its hope to personalities or parties.
In the long term, the future of faith must be preserved through education. Church and Mission History should be institutionalised as extracurricular studies in mission schools. Israel was commanded to teach her children the acts of God—not sentimentally, but deliberately. That historical consciousness is a debt we owe both heaven and unborn generations.
From Suspension to Celebration: What Changed?
Following my article cited above on halal, there was a brief pause—a moment of reflection—on the framing of the Halal economy as a national economic pathway. That pause suggested discernment.
What followed, however, was celebration.
The Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria—under the leadership of Senate President Godswill Akpabio—chose applause over inquiry. No constitutional clarification. No legislative guardrails. No acknowledgement of national trauma.
Instead, Nigerians were dazzled with figures—access to a $7.7 trillion global Halal market—as though Nigeria’s fundamental crisis was a lack of ideas and market access.
Nigeria has never lacked ideas on access.
She lacks structural coherence.
The Senate and the Collapse of Legislative Balance
I make no apology for my preference of a suitable senate president. Events have vindicated that position.
A responsible Senate in a multi-faith, constitutionally secular state does not canonise executive policy—especially one laden with religious symbolism—without asking difficult questions.
Where was this enthusiasm when ₦17.5 trillion was reportedly paid for pipeline security without appropriation? Where was the courage when citizens demanded oversight, not applause?
Where is the senate zeal to duty on the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) allegations of missing funds amounting to N22.3 billion, $49.7 million, £14.3 million, and €5.2 million, according to the 2022 audited report by the Auditor-General of the Federation. These allegations led to a lawsuit filed by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) against NNPCL, seeking accountability and transparency in the management of the country’s oil revenues. Could the detour to the Judiciary be as a result of lost trust in the Senate and by extension the National Assembly?
Additionally, there are concerns about a larger missing amount of N210 trillion, which NNPCL attributes to cash calls requested by joint venture partners and settlement to the JVs. However, this has raised further suspicions and calls for a thorough investigation. Which institution is more qualified than the national assembly to help unravelled the trillion swallowing snake at the NNPCL?
A legislature that evades fiscal accountability cannot preach inclusive prosperity.
What we are witnessing is not statesmanship.
It is elite self-preservation.
Halal Economy as Political Currency for 2027
Let us discard pretence.
The endorsement of the Halal economy is not primarily about exports. It is about coalition management ahead of 2027.
The Senate did not debate Halal to raise legislation. It debated Halal to signal alignment—particularly to ideological constituencies that equate economic policy with religious advance.
The administration is attempting to eat the cake of constitutional neutrality while retaining the icing of religious symbolism.
In Nigeria’s history, such balancing acts end badly.
Consider the context:
A Muslim–Muslim presidency
Widespread Christian insecurity and unresolved gangster killings
A fragile Middle Belt
A constitution that forbids the adoption of religion as state policy
In such a climate, symbolism is never neutral.
Economy Is Not Nigeria’s Core Problem
Nigeria’s primary ailment is not economic.
It is constitutional contradiction.
We operate a dual order: a constitution that proclaims secularism while enabling religiously coded state practises. Until this contradiction is resolved, no trillion-dollar market will save us.
This is why I have said—publicly and without apology—that Tinubu lacks the capacity to fix Nigeria, Obi lacks the qualification to do so and Atiku is confined to that class in context of our constitutional complexity and structural complications. Citizens action alone to our rescue, whenever we are ready. Global experience and local events have not refuted this. They have confirmed it.
Halal is not arithmetic. It is a pregnant policy—capable of delivering whatever its custodians intend.
Islamic banking, Sukuk, Takkafu and Halal form part of what my school of thought recognises as islamist economic jihadism. You may dispute the term, but history demands interrogation.
Who declared the first islamist jihad in this territory 221 years ago?
How did he die—and where?
Why does unresolved Middle Belt violence echo that history?
Most critically: Who is qualified to declare an islamist jihad?
Only a Caliph over a Caliphate.
Every informed Muslim knows this. So why the propaganda labels? Why the refusal to confront historical continuity?
From Jihad came the streams of political jihadism that would have stop a South West Muslim career without pairing with a Northern Muslim. We can deny the reality for all we can but the truth remains what it is. The slavish mentality of Northern Christians, enduring what should not be in hope of being in the good book of their ‘conquerors’ may have hidden their persecution encounters in the civil service for so long. But it’s day dawn! Our Government may be uncomfortable with the word “Genocide” and may make investments in millions of dollars to have it denied in conformity with civility. Truth is, it is just a modern symentics of the same agenda that has lasted 221 years. Christian Genocide is the proof of 221 years of our living with Jihad agenda.
The Silence of Alternatives
What is most tragic is not government policy.
It is the poverty of imagination among alternatives.
No leading contender is addressing:
Structural federalism
Constitutional incoherence
Military-civilian hybridity
Elite capture of the state
Instead, we are offered market jargon and global comparisons.
A bleeding nation is being handed trade catalogues as bandages.
The Church and the Days Ahead
If the Senate will not exercise restraint, the Church must prepare—not through hatred or violence, but through clarity and civic responsibility.
This debate is all about state power.
Faith becomes endangered when it is conscripted into political ambition.
Final Word: History Is Watching
Appeasing oligarchies has never brought peace. It merely postpones confrontation.
The politics of the Halal economy will unravel itself.
Contradictions always do.
And when it does, citizens will remember who chose applause over accountability.
Nigeria will not be saved by slogans.
She will be saved by truth, courage, and honest constitutional democracy.
May her citizens awaken to their responsibility.
Citizen Bolaji O. Akinyemi
Founding President, PVC-Naija
Chairman, Board of Trustees
Apostle & Nation Builder
Dr. Bolaji O. Akinyemi is an Apostle and Nation Builder. He’s also President Voice of His Word Ministries and Convener Apostolic Round Table. BoT Chairman, Project Victory Call Initiative, AKA PVC Naija. He is a strategic Communicator and the C.E.O, Masterbuilder Communications.
Email:bolajiakinyemi66@gmail.com
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