Beyond Manufactured Narratives: Why Matthew Kolawole’s Record, Relevance, and Resilience Continue to Threaten the Comfort of Power
The attempt to reduce Matthew Kolawole’s political relevance to bitterness and denial is not only lazy but deliberately misleading.
It is a familiar tactic in Nigerian politics: when an opponent’s influence cannot be erased, his motives are questioned, his emotions exaggerated, and his persistence mocked. Yet history teaches that political resilience, not silence, defines enduring leadership.
Since the 2023 Kabba–Bunu Ijumu Federal Constituency election, Kolawole’s refusal to vanish quietly has been wrongly framed as obsession with defeat.
In truth, it reflects a democratic right to question processes, mobilize supporters, and remain engaged in public discourse. Democracies do not mature through blind acceptance alone; they grow through sustained participation, even by those who lose elections. To demand that Kolawole retreat into political oblivion simply because he contested and lost is to promote authoritarian comfort, not democratic health.
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The repeated mockery of the “stolen mandate” claim is particularly convenient. Electoral injustice in Nigeria has never depended on the comfort of elites or the approval of incumbents to exist.
History is filled with mandates questioned long after ballots were cast. That Kolawole’s concerns did not culminate in judicial reversal does not automatically invalidate the grievances of his supporters, many of whom still believe their will was subverted.
Popular sentiment does not evaporate simply because power has changed hands.
The attempt to portray Kolawole as politically weightless is another exaggeration that collapses under scrutiny.
A man without relevance would not inspire this level of sustained counter-narrative, coordinated ridicule, and anxiety from defenders of the incumbent. Political lightweights are ignored, not attacked. Kolawole remains a factor precisely because his name, record, and network continue to resonate across Kabba–Bunu Ijumu.
Equally flawed is the attempt to equate foreign travel with compassion and local engagement with irrelevance. National assignments are important, but they do not automatically translate to constituency impact.
Governance is ultimately judged by what the people feel, not where a representative is photographed.
Many constituents reasonably question whether international appearances have meaning when local challenges persist. Asking such questions is not mischief; it is accountability.
The constant reference to Kolawole’s tenure as Speaker, particularly the skill acquisition programme, also reflects selective memory. No administration, past or present, is free of incomplete projects, systemic constraints, or inherited challenges. To isolate one programme while ignoring years of legislative leadership, political stabilization, and constituency engagement is intellectually dishonest.
Moreover, the failure to acknowledge that many of today’s celebrated politicians once struggled with unfinished initiatives exposes the hypocrisy of this attack.
Perhaps the most revealing weakness of the original piece is its reliance on ridicule rather than reassurance.
If performance alone were sufficient, there would be no need to belittle an opponent’s ambitions or question his sanity.
The truth is simple: Kolawole’s continued presence unsettles those who fear competition.
His intention to contest again is not entitlement; it is confidence. Politics is not a one-term audition, and leadership is not reserved for those who win on their first attempt.
The electorate is wiser than both propaganda and intimidation.
They remember not only promises kept, but courage shown, voices raised, and battles fought. Kolawole’s persistence is not a sign of desperation; it is evidence of belief belief in his people, his vision, and his right to return stronger.
Power, indeed, belongs to God. But history shows that God often entrusts power to those who endure rejection, not those who mock it from positions of temporary comfort.
As 2027 approaches, the real contest will not be between bitterness and success, but between complacency and conviction.
And conviction, whether critics like it or not, is a space Matthew Kolawole still firmly occupies.
(Democracy Newsline Newspaper, December 31ST 2025)
