I was going to begin a new series called ATIKU: NOW IS THE TIME TO PUT COUNTRYFIRST before the new wave of defections over the weekend from the African Democratic Congress ADC to the National Democratic Congress NDC compelled this detour. My concern is not so much about partisanship, nor about anybody’s place in the politricks of 2027, it is more about the lot of the Nigerian people. Sadly, to the All Progressive Congress APC and the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Presidency the masses do not matter… I truly hope we matter to the leaders of the opposition. I pray we matter MORE than the individual ambitions of the Gladiators.

The colossal failure of the present watch evident in the ravaging hunger and poverty that pervade the nation; manifest in the terrifying insecurity across the land; lucid in the unstable business climate with lack of power forcing SMEs to close shop; visible in the unnervingly high cost of alternative power like fuel, diesel and Aviation fuel with the cost of transportation endangering enterprise; what about the hazards of an underfunded healthcare sector; and the challenges within the Educational sector, with the Non-Academic Staff Union Of Educational and Associated Institutions NASU and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities SSANU presently on strike; need I talk about the Rogue contracting regime where billions of US Dollars are paid to Foreign Contactors on Contracts awarded without due process whereas Local Contractors are dying without payment for jobs completed; and what about the sectorial decay and matchless corruption that define the present watch? Folks, the humongous failure of an administration that has turned Nigeria into a huge crime scene, into a Rogue Enterprise and a ‘Gangster Paradise’ leaves one with no choice but to pray, to urge and to nudge the opposition to unite, to coalesce and to work together to sack this underwhelming and underperforming APC government from Aso Rock come 2027. But clearly a divided opposition; an opposition that nurses disparate interests; an opposition that fails to understand the urgency of now; an opposition that is very protective of individual ambitions, egos and ids; an opposition that is unwilling to put COUNTRYFIRST; and an opposition that is more emotive and emotional than strategic is almost certainly going to allow the coronation of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as a Second Term President come 2027. Merely saying ‘God forbid’ will not stop it, only the unalterable commitment of the leaders of the opposition to subsume individual ambitions, egos, ids and aspirations at the altar of the collective, for the common good, and to build a great Nigeria that works for all, can stop BAT in 2027.

An Obi/Kwankwaso Ticket without the buy-ins of the broader spectrum of the opposition will amount only to THE TALE OF AN…. FULL OF SOUND AND FURY SIGNIFYING NOTHING. An Atiku/Makinde Ticket without the buy-ins of the broader spectrum of the opposition will not fly. An Amaechi/Bala Mohammed Ticket without the buy-ins of the broader spectrum of the opposition will only make a second term for BAT in 2027 a walk in the park. In fact the multiplicity of Opposition Presidencial Tickets no matter how formidable they appear to their followers will spell doom for PROJECT RESCUE NIGERIA FROM BAT AND THE APC.

I know that the average Nigerian Politician is beholden to sycophancy and court-jesting, they surround themselves with praise-singers, and are often delusional and deluded, they avoid those who disagree with them, they avoid those who tell them the truth, and they enjoy the sweet words of sycophants albeit to their own chagrin ultimately, they downplay strategy and celebrate praise-singing, and such is the reason every potential Presidential Candidate in the opposition is unwilling to sacrifice his/her ambition for the greater good, forgetting that the greater good is to have a nation that works, and that sacking the uneventful BAT Presidency at the Polls come 2027 is immediately the only logical minimum. I hope they learn, I pray they THINK, and I pray the Universe compels some of them to walk the path of SACRIFICE for nation.

When I listen to the rhetoric of the opposition leaders and their supporters I wonder when the urgency of now shall become lucid. Take it or leave it, if the opposition does not coalesce behind one formidable ticket we shall be gifting BAT an easy reelection. I’m not a pessimist, I am the one who dares to be different, I’m dispassionately frank and ruggedly patriotic. I have chosen Nigeria above political correctness and populism, and I am writing because I truly do not want to say I WARNED, I am writing because I want our leaders to think, I am writing because I want a united opposition. And I am writing because I know that only a UNITED OPPOSITION can stop BAT on the 16th of January, 2027.

God Bless Nigeria.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Chris Mustapha Nwaokobia Jnr.
Convener COUNTRYFIRST MOVEMENT. A Good Governance Advocacy Group.

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