ELECTION 2027: Options for Nigerians(1), by Obi Nwakanma

“…And if you do not have a sword, sell your cloth and buy one”— Luke 22-36

As we approach the 2027 elections, Nigerians must brace for two possibilities: one, a peaceful change of government by democratic means, or two, a resistance to dislodge a sit-tight regime insistent on the control of the levers of power. If we go by all indices, the Tinubu administration is a deeply unpopular administration. Just by a straw poll which the ‘Orbit’ conducted, 90% of Nigerians dislike, do not approve, and reject this administration and will, if the polls are conducted today, and are free and fair, vote against the return of Ahmed Bola Tinubu as president of Nigeria. 

Why is the Tinubu administration unpopular? First, Nigerians do not feel that they voted for Tinubu in the last election. They accuse Tinubu and the APC of stealing the elections, by corrupting and threatening election officials. On May 29, when Mr. Tinubu was inaugurated as president, Nigerians felt the outrage of being silenced. There was no celebration in Nigeria. Every place felt gloomy. Nigerians knew that their votes had been stolen, from that dramatic moment, when the Chair of INEC upturned the procedure, reported a glitch in the INEC computers, and began to declare fictitious results for Tinubu and the APC. 

Two specific and glaring examples of where Mr. Peter Obi, the Labour candidate won overwhelmingly, but where the votes were suddenly and openly crossed, manipulated, and disfigured, in Rivers State and in Lagos State, stand out as examples of the complicity of INEC officials and state officials in committing brazing poll heist. Yes indeed, the manipulation and distortion of national election results is treasonable felony. It is an act against the sanctity and security of the state. It is a high crime against the sovereign will of Nigeria. To steal elections is a coup d’etat. In Rivers State for instance, election materials were seized; election results were brazenly rewritten, and the numbers were changed in ballot sheets. Those who tried to stop these acts of election rigging were either ran out of town, attacked, and some killed. 

In Imo and Ebonyi states, an indolent and alienated population just watched with helpless disillusionment, as the APC led government  supervised the rewriting of the election results, just to ensure that Mr. Tinubu got the statutory votes he needed in those places in order to be elected. In Lagos particularly, Peter Obi had won the election, fair and square. Bola Tinubu and his APC supporters were surprised by the emerging results.They tried to rewrite election results, and contain the impact of the Obi victory. Because they could not fully steal or erase Labour party’s shocking victory in Lagos, they worked to reduce the actual vote count, and padded up numbers for the APC to ensure that the party remained viable. These were all reported in Nigerian news platforms in 2023. Tinubu was rigged into power on the principle of “Emilokan” and the “Agbado” buffet for starving Nigerians. He had no ideas. He expressed no commitments to state building. 

His campaign argued that evidence of Tinubu’s electability was some illusory “magic” he had performed in Lagos as governor. Critiques of that claim however pointed out that Tinubu did nothing new in Lagos, which had been a federal capital of Nigeria from 1914 to 1992. Lagos was already over-built and over-invested by federal resources, long before Tinubu was born. All he did was to collect tax as governor. Of course, Nigeria is a criminal state. Nothing legally happens to crimes committed against her by those who have  captured the state. 

Tinubu is the exact definition of actors who capture the state for the oligopoly. The first act of his presidency was to “float” the Nigerian currency, and reduce its worth.  If Tinubu was to rule and survive in power, Nigerians must be turned into peons and pulverized with extreme poverty. Poverty diminishes the individual’s ability to think, or act in their own self-interest. They beg for food just to survive. It is a strategy of power straight out of Machiavelli. This is what Tinubu, continuing with the wicked and egregious policies of the dullard of Daura, has done with Nigeria, and to Nigerians. 

His economic policies are wishy-washy and toxic. It is like the bat in blind flight. Very instinctual. His economic team is a joke. The weakest a Nigerian national administration has ever put together since 1957. Worse even than Buhari’s; and no one thought that Nigeria could go any lower!Tinubu’s domestic policies are determined by nepotism. 95% of all the appointments Tinubu has made to strategic federal positions since May 29, 2023 has been Yoruba. It is not actually surprising. Tinubu is possibly the most provincial president ever to sit in the seat first occupied by the great Zik. 

It is just a shock to see that Nigeria which began with a titan is now reduced by fate,by its own making, and criminal negligence by its strategic state institutions established ensure its national security, and the integrity of its national leadership, to be run by a lilliput. It is progressive decline writ large under Tinubu. That is why Nigerians  believe that Bola Ahmed Tinubu embodies that decline. Nigerians also suspect, and they discuss this openly in pubs and coffee houses, that Tinubu is an agent of France and key western interests. He spends more time in Paris than Abuja.He serves his masters more than he serves or cares about Nigeria, or Nigerians. 

Nigerians now seriously believe that the fate and direction – the tragedy of Nigeria – is not only determined internally by its on contradictions – but also from outside, by those who wish to contain Nigeria and ensure that it does not rise “beyond its breeches;” because the rise of Nigeria is dangerous to certain interests and businesses.  

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