Atiku, Obi And El Rufai Coalition Talk, A Moribund Divide And Rule Strategy That Is Dead On Arrival.

Atiku, Obi And El Rufai Coalition Talk, A Moribund Divide And Rule Strategy That Is Dead On Arrival.
Thursday (Eke)29-05-2025.

Clarity of intention of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Mr Peter Obi, Mallam Nasir el Rufai, and some others, has brought to the fore an overt desperation to form a coalition, which only objective is to take power away from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, whose first second anniversary as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is today, Thursday (Nkwo) 29-05-2025.

In a Constitutional democracy, like in Nigeria, there is no doubt every qualified citizen is at liberty to vye for the highest political position in the country. It can not be said to be unconstitutional.

One indisputable historical fact about Nigeria is that the British Colonial Government that created it did it by amalgamation of two distinct Protectorates, Northern Protectorate, and Southern Protectorate.

Any person or group that does any permutation in Nigeria without taking cognizance of these two divides must be seen as being blinded by sheer parochialism and jingoism. Nigeria is an amalgamation of two different protectorates, each of which was big and viable enough to have even stood as a country of its own. Besides, Nigeria is entirely heterogeneous. It is both multi-ethnic and multi-regious.

If properly managed, the country’s diversity should be its strength and, of course, pride. But some persons, out of greed and unbridled ethnic consciousness believe they can ride rough shots on Nigerians and get away with them. They feel they can get at whatever they want from Nigeria, not minding natural sensibilities that revolve around the North and South reality. For many years their inconsiderate nature prevailed because Southern leaders made themselves susceptible to divide and rule tactics.

But the election of Most Distinguished Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2023, even beginning with the Presidential Primary Election of the All Progressives Congress, APC, showed that with determination, strength and capacity, the politics of divide and rule has become or could become obsolete.

There was no obstacle that was not put on the path to the Presidency of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Strategically boldly, he was able to surmount those obstructions, including reneging on likely previous understandings, open betrayals and, even, abrupt change of the country’s currency, just to make sure Tinubu would not have an enabling political cum economic environment, that was to say there was no level playing field for him to run in the election, even when he had convincingly emerged as the Presidential Candidate of his Party, a Political Party that he initiated its origin.

In only two years of President Tinubu’s Administration, many giant developments; economic, social and political, can easily be pointed at. On his first day as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Tinubu courageously, in an unprecedented show of statesmanship, announced removal of Fuel Subsidy.

It was an open secret that Fuel Subsidy in Nigeria was a devastating corrupt regime. Few privileged individuals exploitatively presided over the economic fortune of the country in the name of Fuel Subsidy, to the detriment of the Nigerian masses.

With the removal of Fuel Subsidy, the President meticulously plugged hundreds of Billions of Naira into Federal Government, State Government, and Local Governments’ allocations. This is why in less than two years of the Tinubu/APC Administration, a State like Abia is reported to have received well over Four Hundred Billion Naira. Under the previous Administration, the highest the Administration could have received would be Seventy-two Billion Naira, making a difference of Three Hundred and Twenty-Eight Billion Naira.
The same proportional difference accrues to the Seventeen Local Government Councils in Abia State, even though there is virtually nothing to show for it in the State.

The President Tinubu/APC Government, apart from making sure that Education is topnotch in the country, is vigorously putting in measures that will revitalise Vocational Education in the country. It has also provided adequately for Students’ non-interest loans. No Nigerian University Student can discontinue from the pursuit of education on the grounds of poverty. So far, within his first two years, there has neither been any case of Industrial Action by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, nor any strike action by Nigerian University Students, under the aegis of National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS.

Even broad-minded members of the opposition in Nigeria will acknowledge that President Tinubu’s Infrastructural approach is quite revolutionary. The ongoing construction of Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road will comfortably reduce the time it takes to travel from Lagos to Calabar from Seven Hours to less than Four Hours. Sokoto to Badagary highway being constructed by the Tinubu/APC Administration is a project many would have thought was inconceivable. But it is going on. The South-East is not left out.

The President, being touched by the way the South-East was inexplicably excluded from Railway modernisation programme of the immediate-past Federal Government, having Rivers State-born Chibuike Amaechi as Federal Minister of Transport, has promised to rewrite the wrong by including South-East in the programme.

The President has, within his first two years in office, repaid all loans the country borrowed from the International Monetary Fund, making Nigeria debt-free from that perspective.

From every indication, President Tinubu appreciates the overriding necessity for regionalism. That he has created Regional Development Agencies is quite an indication of his conviction in that area. Kudos must be given to the Member representing Bende Federal Constituency, and the Deputy Speaker of the 10th House of Representatives, Rt Hon Benjamin Okezie Kalu, CON, for initiating the legislative Bill that translated to South-East Development Commission, SEDC, as an Act of Parliament.

On security, the Government of President Tinubu has improved the combat-readiness of the country’s Security Agencies. To give more impetus to his fight against all manner of insecurity, the President has signed into Law a Bill for the establishment of Forest Guards.

Other sectors of the Economy, such as Health, Transportation that is beginning to be driven by Compressed Natural Gas, Industrialization with huge amount of funds available to Manufacturers, and enormous potentials for Foreign Direct Investments are distinct features of the Tinubu Administration.

In the face of monumental achievements of President Tinubu, as encapsulated in his Renewed Hope Agenda, it is unfortunate that a former Vice President of Nigeria, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who was, sometimes ago, alleged to be a citizen of Cameroon, is going about with the hope of forming a coalition that can unseat President Tinubu in 2027.

To start with, Atiku Abubakar, whether he is really a Nigerian or not, should respect the sensibilities of Nigerians. He has to appreciate that Nigeria is made up of two Protectorates, North and South. General Muhammadu Buhari ruled Nigeria for eight consecutive years, 2015-2023. A Southerner has to rule for another eight years, 2023-2031. This principle of rotation is what can guarantee peace, resultant of equity and justice in Nigeria. Anything short of this equitable understanding could be a pathway to anarchy and instability.

From recent pictures and videos on both televisions and Social Media, it appears the former Governor of Anambra State and Presidential Candidate of Labour Party in 2023 general election, Mr Peter Obi, is being wooed into a coalition with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Mr Chibuike Amaechi, Mallam Nasir el Rufai, and co. The proposed coalition is merely an expression of desperation. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar was in power, as Vice President of Nigeria under President Olusegun Obasanjo for eight years, 1999-2007, he did not recover any child from Adamawa that he claims as his State from the disgusting penurious classification as an Almajiri, that is a horribly unfortunate homeless street beggar, with no hope of the future. Yet, he provided and, may be, still provides good education for his own children. He likes seeing the Almajiri begging on the streets in the scorching sun of Yola or in the dangerously stormy rains of the North but prefers sending his children to Ranking or Ivy League Universities in America or Europe.

Thousands of indigenous Nigerians, Hausa, People from the Middle-Belt, Igbo, and Yoruba, were brutally murdered by his Fulani terrorist kinsmen when Gen Muhammadu Buhari was President, 2015-2023. It is on record that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar never, even for one day, condemn those heinous atrocities against humanity by his kinsmen.

As for Mallam Nasir el Rufai, he kept unconcerned while the harmless defenceless People of Southern Kaduna were being decapitated and decimated by his Fulani terrorist kinsmen. He rather boasted that his Fulani kinsmen were so vindictive that they were capable of a revenge even if the incident had lasted for a very long time.

About February 2019, Nasir el Rufai had threatened that foreign election observers that would come to monitor elections in Nigeria would be flown home in body bags. Both Atiku and el Rufai are thousands of kilometres away from Mr Peter Obi. They are on a parallel line that can never meet.

Mr Peter Obi should not allow himself to be a victim of divide and rule in the hands of some inordinate Fulani cabal. No Southerner was desperate to remove Buhari as President, even though he was the most tribalistic and incompetent President Nigeria had ever recorded. Why must the Fulani, not the North, be desperate to remove President Tinubu?

The poverty in the North of Nigeria is caused by irresponsible leadership of their leaders. Despite having more number of States, Local Government Councils, and Electoral Wards, the poverty in the North is not something one can wish one’s worst enemy. It is as a result of recklessness in leadership.

That Atiku Abubakar allegedly pledges to do only one tenure of four years if he could be elected as President of Cameroon, sorry, Nigeria in 2027, and would hand over to Mr Peter Obi is a daylight deceit. Mr Peter Obi should be above such deceitful manipulation. He should not forget that it was not unlikely former Governor of Rivers State, Mr Chibuike Amaechi, must have been given such a promise by Buhari but when the chips were down, Buhari did not hide his hatred against the People of the South by openly supporting Senator Ahmad Ibrahim Lawan who was trounced by Tinubu.

The so-called coalition will not work. It is a dream evolving out of desperation. Neither Atiku nor el Rufai has what it takes to guarantee equitable governance because both of them are fulani irredentists. The best Mr Peter Obi should do is to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR. The coalition is dead on arrival.

EQUITY GLOBAL REPORTERS LTD.