Obi/Kwankwaso Ticket: The game changer for Nigeria

A new movement is gathering momentum in Nigeria. It is the Obi/Kwankwaso Movement. The aim is to correct the mistake of 2023 when some political behemoths grabbed power to lord it over all of us. Corollary to this was the gathering of some prominent opposition figures and 14 opposition political parties in Ibadan at the weekend. Part of the Ibadan Declaration is to field one consensus presidential candidate for the 2027 elections to rescue Nigeria and her long-suffering masses from the stranglehold of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Obviously, this is the only way the opposition can overcome the plots against it and win the 2027 general election. Without mincing words, that consensus candidate should be Mr. Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State and presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election. If he is paired with a former governor of Kano State, Musa Kwankwaso, it will be difficult for the ruling party to escape a crushing defeat in 2027.

But there are many ambitious politicians in the African Democratic Congress (ADC), a coalition of opposition parties. And that is what will be its undoing. Former Vice-President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, is still in contention. He believes he has the magic wand to defeat President Bola Tinubu. But that is false. If the contest is between him and Tinubu, the President will floor him. In the zoning arrangement in place, it is still the turn of the South to be in the presidential villa until 2031. The best option for Atiku is to bow out honourably and support Obi.

A former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, is also wasting his time eyeing the presidency this time. He too should support Obi if the ADC hopes to make any meaningful impact in 2027. That many Nigerians are still hopeful about the redemption of the country is because of Obi. He has a cult following in many parts of the country. And if, for any reason, he fails to appear on the ballot paper in the next election, the voter apathy that will trail that poll may be the worst in the history of Nigeria.

Unsurprisingly, the ruling party and its agents are losing sleep over 2027.  They will be happy to frustrate Obi out of the contest. He was forced to migrate to the ADC when every spanner was thrown in the works to cripple the Labour Party.

Now that he is in the ADC, the same scenario is playing out. Last February, Obi and some chieftains of the ADC were attacked in Benin, the Edo State capital, by suspected political thugs. It was after a ceremony to receive the 2024 governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Olumide Apata, into the ADC.

In Lagos, Kebbi, Kaduna, Cross River, Edo, Rivers, among other states, thugs suspected to be loyal to the APC have also attacked the gathering of the ADC. There are some other surreptitious moves to engineer crisis in the party and block its ambition to oust the present government in power.

Sadly, Nigeria is gradually sliding into a one-party dictatorship. Many citizens are dejected. Yet, they fear to speak their minds on the happenings in the country. This manifested fully on Thursday, April 23, 2026, at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) Lagos. Some of the prominent speakers at the 2026 Annual Lecture of the TheNiche, an online publication, hesitated to open up fully on the state of the economy. Some particularly said they wouldn’t want to be picked up after the programme. The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, was always reminding journalists not to quote him on the economy because he would not say anything on it.

Ironically, in his response to a question from a member of the audience, Sanusi, inadvertently perhaps, delved into the economy he initially didn’t want to comment on. According to him, the removal of fuel subsidy injected a lot of funds into the treasury. It is, therefore, a surprise that the same government that has access to these funds has continued to borrow.

Sanusi was later quoted to have told the News Central TV: “You cannot remove wastages and continue borrowing. I have said this before. You need to see the benefits. If you are not paying the subsidy and you have got the money, why are we still borrowing and borrowing? What are we borrowing for?” The FG has reportedly increased its 2026 borrowing plan by N11.31 trillion. This has pushed the total projected borrowing to N29.20 trillion. Meanwhile, over 141 million Nigerians suffer from multidimensional poverty.

The Tinubu government has many other flaws. Inability to tackle the rising spate of insecurity in the country is one of them. From Plateau to Benue, and from Borno to Katsina, the killings and abductions of innocent Nigerians have worsened. The most worrisome part of it is that army generals and some other top officers who we look up to for protection are also being killed. In the past few years, at least, four Brigadier Generals have been killed. They include, Brigadier General Musa Uba, killed in Borno State in 2025 by ISWAP terrorists; and Brigadier General Oseni Braimah, also killed in Borno State early April this year. Braimah was the Brigade Commander of the 29 Task Force Brigade, Benisheikh, in Kaga Local Government Area of Borno State. He was killed by suspected Boko Haram insurgents.

The other day, the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) came up with a laughable threat to the broadcast media. According to the commission, some presenters and anchors bully or intimidate guests, express personal opinions as facts and commit a breach of the Nigeria Broadcasting Code. It threatened to sanction any broadcast media involved in a breach of the provisions of the broadcasting code.

This is despite the ruling of Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja that restrained the commission from imposing fines on broadcast stations in 2023. The court said it had no such power to impose sanctions on broadcast stations as it’s not a court of law. NBC’s appeal against this judgment was dismissed on April 2, 2026. One wonders how journalists can hold government accountable if they have to kowtow to a government agency bent on pleasing its masters. What is this present government really afraid of? If you cannot endure heat, why come close to the kitchen?

The irony of this race to 2027 is that the ruling party boasts of having 31 of the 36 state governors in its kitty. It also has the majority in the National Assembly. But it is still afraid of what the 2027 election portends.

Africa appears to be cursed. I won’t be surprised if Nigeria descends as low as some African countries which manipulated the constitutions of their countries to elongate the tenure of their presidents. It happened in Cameroon. Paul Biya, 92, engineered the abrogation of presidential term limit in 2008 to remain as president. Now, he is in his eighth term in office.

Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, 81, did the same thing. He started his seventh term in office last January after changing the constitution twice to remove age and term limits. In Ivory Coast, Alassane Outarra, 83, also did the same thing.

Djibouti had a presidential election on April 10, 2026. The main opposition parties boycotted the poll because it was not free and fair. Besides, government allegedly represses political opponents, activists and journalists. The incumbent President, Ismail Guelleh, claimed victory with 97.8 per cent of the vote. This is his sixth term in office. The 78-year-old man has been in power since 1999. Like Biya and Museveni, he engineered the abolition of term limits in 2010 and the removal of the previous constitutional age limit of 75 in 2025 so he could continue as president.

Zimbabwe is planning to follow the same route. The country’s parliament, dominated by the ruling ZANU-PF party, seeks to amend the constitution to extend 83-year-old President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s term of office to 2030. His current second term in office expires in 2028. But a bill known as the Constitution of Zimbabwe (NO.3) Amendment Bill, also called CAB3, proposes changing presidential and legislative terms of office from five years to two terms of seven years each.

Members of the parliament will also have the power to elect the president. This is in contrast to the current direct elections where the president is chosen through a popular vote and can only serve for two terms. There were reported arrests and abductions of many activists opposed to the bill.

For Nigeria, no one knows what will happen after the 2027 election. If the current occupants of the presidential villa should come back, we should brace up for more surprises. Nothing is beyond this government. It does things with impunity.

The only way we can bring sanity back to the country is to vote this government out. Certainly, if Kwankwaso should agree to pay up with Obi, then there is hope. Of course, this depends on the disposition of the electoral umpire, security agents and the courts. The Federal Government has proposed N135.22 billion for 2027 post-election litigation in the 2026 budget. This is a sharp rise from the costs of litigation and legal defence in 2023, estimated at N3.08 billion.

This appears to suggest that the election will not be credible and transparent. No one actually knows the mind of someone pounding yam with a bag hung on his shoulders. Whatever be the case, Nigerians should brace up for the worst.