Only a Stupid Nigerian Will Mock a Governor’s Grammar — What Counts Is Development, Not Colonial Certificates -By Professor John Egbeazien Oshodi

Nigerians, stop mocking yourselves

Let us speak plainly. When you laugh at a governor’s grammar or spread rumors about whether he “finished school,” you are not mocking him — you are mocking yourselves. You are reinforcing the very elite nonsense that has kept Nigeria stagnant since independence. You are bowing to a false idol, a colonial god: English grammar and foreign certificates.

Think about it carefully. Has polished English ever given you steady electricity that does not blink on and off? Has a string of degrees in government offices ever paved the road from your village to your city? Has “Queen’s English” ever stopped armed robbers, kidnappers, or cultists from terrorizing communities? Has grammar ever reduced the price of rice in the market or garri in your kitchen?

The reality is simple: English grammar will not bring you water to drink, it will not light your home, it will not build the hospital where you rush your sick child, it will not put money in your pocket. Mocking leaders for their accents is not cleverness — it is popular stupidity, and it harms the very people who indulge in it. It keeps you distracted from asking the only question that matters: are your leaders delivering results?

The colonial disease of paper worship

This is not about defending one man. It is about exposing a disease of the Nigerian mind. For decades, Nigerians have equated certificates with competence and grammar with intelligence. We have treated English fluency as proof of vision and degrees as proof of destiny. That is why we keep electing smooth talkers who know how to impress a microphone but cannot deliver water, light, or jobs. We clap for their polished English while our hospitals collapse, our schools decay, and our young people flee the country.

We inherited this disease from colonialism. The British trained us to believe that to govern is to sound like them, not to solve the people’s problems. Instead of breaking free, we embraced the deception and now use it against ourselves. The obsession with certificates and grammar has become a social poison.

But global history has already proven this narrative false.

• Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Dell, Larry Ellison — titans of technology, dropouts who built companies bigger than the entire budgets of African nations.

• Richard Branson, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Amancio Ortega, John D. Rockefeller — giants of commerce, many with little or no formal schooling, who reshaped industries and created millions of jobs.

• Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, Golda Meir — political leaders who defined nations, won wars, and made history with grit, vision, and courage, not with degrees.

Their lives prove a timeless fact: intelligence is intrinsic, not institutional. Wisdom is not trapped inside a diploma. So why do Nigerians cling to this colonial deception that only certificates prove competence?

Results are the only certificate

If you want to test a leader, stop listening to their tongue and start looking at their track record. Leadership is not about how perfectly English flows in a speech, it is about how effectively policies translate into daily improvements in the people’s lives.

In just a few months, Governor Okpebholo has shown that action speaks louder than grammar.

• Security: He fought cultism and kidnapping with stronger laws and by empowering local security networks. Fear is a silent killer of society, while safety revives confidence, commerce, and community life.

• Cultural diplomacy: He restored the statutory rights of the Oba of Benin, healing a political and cultural wound. That decision showed respect for tradition, wisdom in conflict resolution, and the ability to stabilize fragile relationships.

• Infrastructure: He launched the Ramat Park flyover and other visible projects. Nigerians do not need more long grammar or endless policy documents — they need bridges that carry vehicles, roads that connect villages, and jobs that sustain families.

These are results that people can see, touch, and use. These are the real “certificates” of leadership. A leader’s report card should be written in infrastructure, security, health, and food, not in polished English.

Speak the people’s language

The irony is bitter. Nigerians mock leaders for “broken English,” yet our presidents themselves often speak to their people in their native tongues.

The late President Muhammadu Buhari frequently addressed northerners in Hausa, his natural language. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu freely uses Yoruba in his speeches, especially when among familiar audiences in the West. This is not weakness; it is strategic connection. It shows an understanding that real leadership is not about impressing outsiders but about speaking directly to your people.

Edo State is one of the most linguistically diverse states in Nigeria, with Esan, Bini, Afemai, Owan, and many other dialects. Governor Okpebholo cannot possibly speak to every group in their mother tongue. But he can speak Nigerian Pidgin — the real national bridge language that unites taxi drivers, market women, traders, artisans, and students across the country.

Even the BBC, a global institution, recognized this reality when it launched BBC News Pidgin to reach Nigerians in the language they actually use. If international broadcasters can adapt to the people’s voice, why must Nigerian leaders cling to “Queen’s English,” a tongue that excludes most citizens and creates distance between rulers and the ruled?

We are not Americans, French, Germans, or Italians. They govern in the languages their people actually use. Why then are Nigerians deceiving themselves, pretending English grammar is the golden standard of governance? The truth is plain: governance is not theatre, it is delivery.

The real stupidity

The real stupidity is not in a governor’s broken English. It is in citizens who cheer grammar while living in darkness, fetching water from broken boreholes, traveling on roads that kill them, and eating food that empties their pockets.

If you are laughing at a governor’s accent while your own child has no job or your street has no light, then you are the one trapped in stupidity.

A new measure for leadership

We must stop this colonial madness and test leaders by practical questions:

• Are we safer this year than last year?

• Do we have new infrastructure that works?

• Are cultural and political tensions reduced?

• Do ordinary people understand government policy in the language they actually speak?

If the answers are yes, leadership is working. If the answers are no, all the grammar in the world is useless.

Final word to Nigerians

So let me end as clearly as possible: Only a stupid Nigerian will mock a governor’s grammar. Because when you do, you are not exposing his weakness—you are exposing your own blindness. You are choosing laughter over logic, gossip over governance, distraction over development.

You are ridiculing accents while living in darkness. You are spreading rumors about certificates while walking on broken roads. You are joking about grammar while your children sit jobless at home. You clap when leaders “speak fine English” but cry at the market when food prices rise. This is not just foolishness—it is self-destruction.

What counts is not how a man twists his tongue in English, but whether he can twist broken systems back into working order. What matters is not the size of his certificate, but the size of his results. The ground you walk on, the water you drink, the light in your house, the safety on your street—these are the true exams of leadership. Potholes do not care about grammar. Hunger does not bow to certificates. Insecurity is not impressed by big English. Development is a practical language spoken only through action.

Nigerians, stop measuring leaders by accents and paper. Start measuring them by action, courage, and delivery. Look at the roads, the schools, the hospitals, the jobs, the markets. These are the real report cards. If you continue this obsession with “Queen’s English,” you will keep electing smooth talkers who fail you, while mocking practical men who can actually fix your lives.

And let us talk about language itself. The late President Buhari spoke Hausa to his own people. President Tinubu uses Yoruba when addressing his base. Governors across Nigeria use their local tongues to connect. Why then should Nigerian Pidgin—the true national bridge—be treated as inferior? It is time for leaders to speak in the voice of the people, not in the borrowed tongue of colonial masters. Pidgin na the real parliament wey everybody understand.

Governor fit yarn for Pidgin. President fit yarn for Pidgin too. Na action go bring water, light, road, food, and small change for pocket—no be grammar. Na result be certificate. And if you still dey laugh at that truth, then na you be the real illiterate of progress. Because the biggest ignorance in Nigeria today is not lack of English—it is lack of sense to demand results.

I do not know Governor Monday Okpebholo personally, politically, or otherwise. My goal is justice, reality, governance, and African progress.

About the Author

Prof. John Egbeazien Oshodi is an American psychologist, educator, and public affairs analyst specializing in forensic, legal, clinical, and cross-cultural psychology. Born in Uromi, Edo State, Nigeria, and son of a 37-year veteran of the Nigeria Police Force, he has dedicated his career to linking psychology with justice, education, and governance. In 2011, he introduced advanced forensic psychology to Nigeria through the National Universities Commission and Nasarawa State University, where he served as Associate Professor of Psychology.

He is currently contributing faculty in the Doctorate in Clinical and School Psychology at Nova Southeastern University; PhD Clinical Psychology, BS Psychology, and BS Tempo Criminal Justice programs at Walden University; Professor of Leadership Studies/Management and Social Sciences (Virtual Faculty) at ISCOM University, Benin Republic; and virtual faculty at Weldios University. He also serves as President and Chief Psychologist at the Oshodi Foundation, Center for Psychological and Forensic Services, United States.

Prof. Oshodi is a Black Republican with interests in individual responsibility, community self-reliance, and institutional democracy. He is the founder of Psychoafricalysis (Psychoafricalytic Psychology), a culturally grounded framework centering African sociocultural realities, historical memory, and future-oriented identity. He has authored over 500 articles, multiple books, and numerous peer-reviewed journal articles spanning Africentric psychological theory, higher education reform, forensic and correctional psychology, African democracy, and decolonized therapeutic models.