By Rayyanu Bala

After my earlier piece, Nasarawa 2027: The Fallacy of the Lafia Project, I came across several rejoinders. One, in particular, stood out not because it raised new arguments, but because of the language used. It was written by my elder brother, Alhaji Abubakar Usman Sandaji, who chose to describe me with words that were more insulting than enlightening.

Honestly, I laughed when I read it. Not because it was clever, but because it was disappointing. When an elder abandons substance for name-calling, it says more about that elder and it also says more about the weakness of the argument than the target of the insult. Out of respect for age and family, I won’t descend into that gutter. I would rather return to the real issue, the “Lafia Project.”

After the observations I made in my write up, there were loud and coordinated effort by supporters of the former IGP to repackage his 2027 ambition as a “Nasarawa State Project.” instead of what they used to call ” Lafia Project” On the surface, their efforts looks noble and inclusive. But scratch beneath the surface and the entire narrative collapses under the weight of its own contradiction.
You cannot, in one breath, shout “this is not a Lafia project,” and in the next breath quietly sell the same ambition to Lafia people as their project. You cannot publicly denounce zoning and privately rely on those same sentiments to build support. That kind of politics is not strategy; it is double-speak.

The uncomfortable truth which many people already know, even if some prefer to deny it, is that the very actors now attacking me for telling the truth are the same ones going from meeting to meeting in Lafia, marketing this ambition as “our own.” Behind closed doors, it becomes a story of identity, origin, and local pride contrary to how they suddenly transforms into a grand “state project.” following my write up. That inconsistency is not accidental; it is deliberate.

If this ambition is truly about Nasarawa State, then it should be sold on clear ideas: capacity, competence, vision, and genuine statewide acceptance.

It should not depend on whispering “our son” in Lafia and shouting “everyone’s project” outside Lafia, depending on your political convenience.

Let’s also be clear about one thing: Lafia people are not fools. Neither are the voters across Nasarawa State. People can see when they are being emotionally courted in private and politically corrected in public. People know when a message changes depending on the audience. And they can also understand when politics lacks consistency.

This is not just about Lafia. It is about democratic honesty. You don’t defeat parochial politics by practicing it in secret. You don’t build a genuine state-wide movement by disguising a local project as something bigger. And you certainly don’t earn trust by saying one thing today and its opposite tomorrow.

What makes this even more troubling is the selective outrage. They attacked me not because their arguments are flawed, but because those arguments expose an inconvenient truth. Instead of addressing the contradiction, they prefer insults, denial, and moral posturing. But all their actions cannot erase facts.

So let’s be honest with ourselves. If those pushing this Lafia project truly believe it is a Nasarawa State Project, then they should stop selling it as a Lafia Project to Lafia people.

Let the message be consistent everywhere. Let the same argument used in Lafia be used in Akwanga, Keffi, Nasarawa, and Toto. Anything short of that is simply damage control.
Until then, every denial of my observations will sound hollow, and every refutation will look defensive. Politics may tolerate spin, but it does not forgive hypocrisy. And the people are watching.