A warning for 2027
– Hon Kamen Chuks Ogbonna
If care is not taken, the mistake of 2015 presidential elections may repeat itself again in 2027.
In the months leading to the 2015 presidential polls, a very vociferous mob descended on the Jonathan administration. They were told that President Jonathan was a wicked president because he wanted to remove fuel subsidies. They were NOT informed that removing the oil subsidy was the first critical step towards removing the stranglehold dragging our country towards becoming another war torn Somalia with hungry and angry citizens.
The power hunters said president Jonathan was a drunk with a queer wife that controls him. Having become adequately fired up, the headless mob insisted that even a NEPA certificate bearer was good enough to replace President Jonathan. The mob went for a former military dictator with a terrible human rights record. They willingly and angrily handed power to a vicious senile mischievous old man.
A man who bore a king-sized grudge against our country for unceremoniously removing him from power when he held sway like a colossus and was using decree 101 to kill people by firing squad. During his former reign,human beings were tied to stakes and used for shooting practice. Some of us who foresaw what was coming and tried to warn the mob got branded ‘saboteurs’ and ‘crumb eaters’. It is quite unfortunate that Investigative journalism has become almost a thing of the past in our climes.
If this administration is pressured to make public the state of the nation as was handed over to them in 2023. People will be shocked to learn just how dire our situation in the country was when this administration assumed the reins of power. The Buhari administration drove this country practically into a ditch.
Today the very actors that played key roles in wrecking the country have gathered together with PDP and the labour party to form a coalition. Rather than call it what it is , a coalition to seize power back. They said it is for the masses.
Actors like the following, are the new breed politicians that want to bring change to Nigeria:
• Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was vice president from 1999 to 2007.
He was also the head of Obasanjo’s privatisation programme, where he sold a national asset, ALSCON, built for $3.3bn, to a Russian friend for a paltry $250m. He is 78 years old.
• Senator David Mark retired as a Brigadier General in the Nigerian Army.
He stood firmly against the restoration of the June 12 mandate to the winner, Bashorun Moshood Abiola.
He was the military governor of Niger state from 1984 to 1986.
He was a senator for twenty years between 1999 and 2019.
He was the longest-serving Senate President, serving eight years between 2007 and 2015. He is 77 years old.
• Arc Tom Ikimi was the Nigerian foreign affairs minister from 1995 to 1998 after he betrayed the June 12 struggle.
He was the national chairman of the National Republican Congress before his appointment as minister, after Abacha put a nail in the coffin of the aborted third republic. A perennial political liability, Ikimi often struggles to win his polling unit in his native Igueben, let alone Esanland or Edo State for PDP, even though he prides himself on being a “national leader.”
In fact, in Edo State, a common joke refers to Ikimi as “An old Chevrolet car that guzzles 10 litres of petrol to cover only one kilometre journey”. Ikimi collects a fortune but only delivers a few votes in his home base. When he lost out in his bid to become APC national chairman in 2014, Ikimi wailed like a little kid denied a lollipop: The new breed Edo-born politician is 81, three years older than Atiku.
• Mr Rotimi Amaechi was the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly from 1999 to 2007.
He was the governor of Rivers State from 2007 to 2015. He was minister of transport (which included today’s blue marine ministry) between 2015 and 2022 when he reluctantly resigned to contest for the APC presidential ticket, which he lost despite running around a stadium in what was supposed to be a thanksgiving service. Before 1999, he worked as a clerk at PAMO Clinic, owned by Dr Peter Odili, his political mentor
Since 1999, he has not done anything outside politics and public office. If democracy has failed Nigeria since 1999, as he claims, he shares in the blame. He says Nigerians are hungry but he celebrated his 60th birthday anniversary in a hall rented with millions of naira.
• Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola was the commissioner of works in Lagos State from 1999 to 2007, the governor of Osun State from 2010 to 2018, and the minister of public holidays and prison breaks between 2019 and 2023, but he was originally appointed the minister of interior. He is 68 years old.
• Mallam Nasir El-Rufai was appointed Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises in 1999.
In 2003, he was appointed minister of the federal capital territory. He was elected governor of Kaduna state in 2015 and got re-elected in 2019.
As Kaduna Governor, he was notorious as a divisive element who set Muslim against Christian minorities in Kaduna. Southern Kaduna dripped of blood throughout his tenure as ethno-religious crises engulfed the state. Since he left Kaduna Government House, peace has miraculously returned to the entire Kaduna. No prize for guessing who was fanning the members of the division in Kaduna between 2015 and 2023. This new breed of politician is just 65 years old.
As we can see, they have never played any role in the destiny of our country and this is why they want to bring a change in 2027. Note that both the PDP and the labour party are battling a crisis and their leaders who want to solve Nigeria’s problems cannot find a solution to the internal crisis of the two political parties.
Mark this!
The vociferous Obidients will later succumb and trump up reasons why Mr Peter Obi can go ahead and accept becoming the deputy presidential candidate of the ADC and still take charge of the economy if elected into office.
Because as happened in 2015, they have now been adequately angered and emotionally prepped, the mob will not be smart enough to realise that the first official act by Atiku or any Northern president, they hand the ticket to, will be to neutralise the threat posed by Mr Peter Obi by either removing him from office or rendering him as redundant as can be.
He can even be impeached and replaced with Rotimi Amechi and life goes on. However, unlike in 2015 when it was against Jonathan.
The man in power this time around is as ruthless and decisive as it gets. The ease with which he took the party ticket from them during the 2023 presidential primaries and flogged them 24 lashes in the process is a feat that needs to be studied in universities. Despite the former president reneging on their agreement to hand over power to him. He grabbed it.
How these set of Internally displaced politicians pretending to speak for the masses can succeed in getting their acts together to take power from him is a thriller that no one can afford to miss. My own is to watch with arms akimbo as the drama unfolds. My gut feelings tell me that we will all come back to this post immediately after the 2027 polls.
I may then use that opportunity to start my own ministry as a prophet and become a content creator like Odumeje.
