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Let us begin with a song, not for entertainment, but as a primary text for our analysis.
Dem con turn us to sufferhead (original sufferhead)
This time for jefa-head (original jefa-head)
Me I say eh, sufferhead must go (original sufferhead)
Jefa-head must come (original jefa-head)
Fellow citizens of this great but deeply embattled republic, permit me to commence this discourse by invoking the immortal words of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, that prophetic madman of our national conscience, who sang this song decades ago with a clarity that only a truth-teller possessed, and I use the term “madman” in the same sense that Socrates was called mad, that Jesus was called mad, that every truth-teller in a society of comfortable lies has been called mad.
For those who have forgotten our local vernacular, or for those who have been fortunate enough to ignore it, let us refresh the national lexicon.
“Sufferhead”, as Fela deployed it, describes a structural condition rather than a temporary misfortune. It refers to the citizen whose material deprivation is not accidental but systemic, the product of policy choices, institutional failures, and governance models that extract rather than serve. The Sufferhead experiences inflation not as a statistic but as the shrinking of a meal; experiences infrastructure decay not as an abstract policy failure but as darkness that swallows a child’s homework; experiences insecurity not as a news headline but as a phone call that demands a ransom the family does not have.
Most importantly, Fela’s medical diagnosis was that suffering is not our natural state but was manufactured. “Dem come turn-us”, meaning that someone, some system, or some arrangement of power turned citizens into sufferers, and the opposite is not just the absence of suffering.
The antonym Fela offers is “Jefa-head”, a Yoruba term that most commonly signifies the enjoyment of good fortune. The term resists direct translation but connotes the citizen who regards good fortune as a normal condition rather than an exceptional blessing.
As we approach the Nigeria 2027 elections, three phrases are forming in the national consciousness. Each represents a completely different diagnosis of our condition and a different prescription for our future. They are:
“Sufferhead Must Go”
“Sufferhead Stays”
“Jefa-head Must Come”
The question before us is not merely which slogan we chant. It is which future we choose to build.
Option One: “Sufferhead Must Go”
“SUFFERHEAD MUST GO” is the rallying cry of the fed-up. It is the language of the Nigerian who has looked at the balance sheet of governance and concluded that the current administration, and indeed the entire political arrangement that produced it, is a liability that must be liquidated, and the primary objective of 2027 is to evict them.
This is the song of the father in Katsina who sold his last cow to pay ransom for his kidnapped son, only to have his daughter taken a month later or the song of the young graduate in Lagos who has submitted five hundred job applications and received five hundred rejections, who watches his friends board planes to Canada and the UK while he stays behind, wondering if his degree was a waste of time.
Option Two: “Sufferhead Stays”
This is the hardest slogan to understand because it sounds like giving up, like a traitor to his country. But we must try to understand it. This position comes from experience. The person who says this has seen change come with great promise and then turn into the same old problems with a different face. He has been disappointed so many times that he no longer believes things can be different. He has decided that the devil he knows is better or more predictable than the angel he does not know.
There are others too; these are people who benefit from the current system, even if the system is bad for the country as a whole. They are not interested in change because change would threaten their personal advantages. While others have simply given up. After decades of broken promises, they have retreated into survival mode as politics is a luxury they cannot afford.
Option Three: “Jefa-head Must Come”
This is the most structurally demanding framework because it shifts the focus from what is being rejected to what is being constructed.
The ‘Jefa-head’ is what the ordinary citizen becomes when the state performs its most basic functions. The Jefa-head does not celebrate electricity because electricity is expected. The Jefa-head does not give thanks for a road because roads are what governments build. The Jefa-head does not regard security as a favour because safety is the first duty of the state. The Jefa-head experiences good fortune not as a blessing but as a normal condition.
This is not a naive call for utopia. It is a demand for governance that delivers outcomes within the range of what comparable functional states have demonstrated is achievable. It is the insistence that Nigeria, with all its resources and human capital, should not be an outlier in failure.
But Fela, who gave us this vocabulary, also gave us a crucial caveat. “Before we all are to jefa-head,” he sang, “we must be ready to fight for am now.”
The Choice Before Nigeria
The question before us as we approach 2027 is not merely which slogan we chant. It is whether the Sufferhead votes with their stomach or with their tribe. With their desperation or with their hope. Will they finally break the cycle of identity politics and demand the Jefa-Head condition? Will they recognise that ethnicity is a false god when hunger is the real religion? Will they recognise that religion is a distraction when insecurity is the real problem?
There is a writer named Prince Charles Dickson who said something that has stayed with me. He said that sometimes “the finger that fingers Nigeria is not only in Aso Rock, party headquarters, government houses, or campaign convoys. Sometimes it is our own finger, trembling over the ballot, still choosing fear over future.”
I submit to you, distinguished citizens, that 2027 is not just an election. It is an examination. It will test whether we have learned anything from our history. It will test whether we can distinguish between change and changing of the guard. It will test whether we can distinguish between real transformation and recycled Sufferhead. It will test whether we can demand Jefa-head or whether we will continue to tolerate Sufferhead.
