SAS. Your Monday column piece in Daily Trust of 11 August, 2025, ATIKU, OBI AND THE COALITION, was a bold and blunt statement of facts. The way I see Peter Obi in the build up to the 2027 presidential election is akin to a desperate 'presidential candidate' without a clear platform. You cannot be a serious presidential contender without any defined party; hobnobbing with LP and ADC, while still precariously contemplating a return to the crisis-ridden PDP. But despite his infamous records of decamping from one party to another, the more experienced former Vice President Atiku Abubakar was quite clear; he secured an early seat in the ADC party bus and announced formal exit from his former party, the PDP.
Peter Obi is still haunted by the ghost of his 2023 presidential contest with its sentimental regional, tribal and religious crowd, which gave him a deceptive larger than life political image. How can Peter Obi cut the image of a political heavy weight while APGA has consistently defeated his PDP and lately, the LP in gubernatorial elections in his native Anambra State?
Charity, they say, begins at home. There is this desperate political decision attributed to Obi that he would only serve for a single term of four years if elected in 2027. He recently declared in Bauchi his support for a five-year single term presidential tenure, all pursuant to his desperate narrow agenda. If old man former President Obasanjo would complete his eight-year constitutional mandate and still allegedly tried to amend the law to allow him a tenure elongation, who can guarantee that a younger Obi will honour a single term pledge?
Even the largely cool-headed former President Jonathan impliedly attempted three terms because after completing the late President Yar'adua's mandate (courtesy of the so-called doctrine of necessity), he stood and won another slot in 2011, and then failed in his attempt to technically get a 'third' term in 2015 when he lost to the APC candidate, the late President Buhari. Getting the platform to contest and securing a ticket are enough hard nuts to crack for Peter Obi today, not to talk of winning the presidential election itself.
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There are those lazy politicians capitalising on unconstitutional zoning of the presidential ticket to get undeserved easy ride. Under a full-blown democracy, there is no short cut to power; the presidency in particular. Any genuine politician wishing to become the president of Nigeria must learn to build bridges across our divides, learn to give and take, build a pan-Nigeria structure, learn the art of lobbying and to respect, tolerate and manage our diversity.
A potential president of Nigeria must be bold and courageous to call off the bluff of divisive elements undermining the nation's corporate existence even if from his own backyard. For instance, most northern politicians like the late President Muhammadu Buhari, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and even the current VP Kashim Shettima (incidentally a former Governor of Borno State) boldly opposed and condemned the Boko Haram insurgency. But the same cannot be said of Peter Obi when it comes to IPOB of Nnamdi Kanu and its military wing, the Eastern Security Network (ESN). A presidential material must assure Nigerians of all regions, religions and tribes that all its component parts are safe, secure and equitable under his or her care.
Atiku Abubakar on the other hand, has some political weaknesses which partly caused the failure of his presidential bids over the years. In fairness to him though, the natural mass appeal of the late former President Buhari among the mainly northern electorate affected Atiku significantly. His ditching the ruling party the PDP while serving as VP under President Obasanjo around 2003 was the first political mishap. He could have stayed on to finish the brave job of tackling his former principal after helping defeat the tenure elongation bid and many successful legal battles against his then estranged boss.
Atiku must, therefore, move rapidly to purge himself of the image of a captain who always abandon ship at its most hour of need. His somewhat opportunistic image of moving to another party when a 'soft' opportunity of clinching its presidential ticket beacons, must rapidly be ditched given his age and experience in politics. One can vividly recall the former Vice President Atiku declaring the then coalition formed APC sometimes around 2014, as his "last political bus stop". But as they say, the rest is now history.
But the bottom line is, with the President Tinubu apparently having woefully failed the nation and for most of his teeming 2023 supporters, the overwhelming mood is for a change from this mass suffering and betrayal. Although one can describe the ADC as a mixed bag of the good, the bad and the ugly, yet it is a coalition of necessity to get rid of a common existential problem.
For someone like Atiku Abubakar, this may be the destined moment to repair his cumulative political undoings and succeed at last. As the saying goes, it is better late than never. It is worth repeating here that given his largely self-afflicted political woes, President Tinubu will struggle to retain power in 2027, In fact, he may even lose it outrightly. Our ardent prayer though, is for the 'chained' giant of Africa, Nigeria, to remain solidly standing in spite of all internal and externally motivated squabbles and machinations, by the greatest power of God.
Garba Isa, Dutse, Jigawa State
0802 916 9551
Re: Atiku, Obi and the Coalition.
The write up today is interesting and annoying from the angle of the political class because they are taking Nigerians for a ride. The corrupt political class doesn't think good of the country. Obi as Governor of his state was elected for two terms and I think he was good. Now, because he is desperately in need of being the president, he is now saying he will go for only one term! Is he trying to give us a new constitution? Who does he want to impress? The governance of turn by turn will never make Nigeria grow.
Coalition group is not a political group; hence, they have turned the group into a hate group. Most of them when they were in power, they didn't see anything wrong at the time in Zombie type of government. The majority of the Coalition members are not in the lower class of Nigeria, so who are they deceiving? Their gang-up will not work. The gang-up is even against the North East because if Tinubu scaled through, the possibility of Shettima becoming president will be high.
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Atiku, there are some people in the North that don't like him, that is why the challenges get tougher for him. As a former Vice President, he would have been the best candidate to challenge President Tinubu. Regional and ethnic politics have creeped in now, which is a dangerous thing that will put Nigeria into a tight rope. Politics of religion should be wiped away in Nigeria, if not, 2027 will be regional and sectional elections. May the Third Eye never get tired of seeing and talking. Nigeria will stand strong by the grace of God without the criminals in our midst.
Dr Machu Abraham Gankon, Garki Abuja, 0805 996 5168
Re: Atiku, Obi and the Coalition. I completely agree with Suleiman's analysis. Politics, especially at the presidential level, is about building strong, strategic alliances, not standing alone on sentiment. Obi's best chance lies in joining forces within a formidable coalition like the ADC, even if it means playing second fiddle to Atiku for now. Without such an alliance, his influence in 2027 will likely diminish compared to 2023, while the real contest will remain between Tinubu and Atiku. Suleiman is right, the writing is already on the wall.
