The race to Aso Rock in 2023 was decidedly against change. It was programmed by experts in state capture to be a circus show.
The earliest indication of this came through the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Before the presidential primaries of the political parties, the PDP was believed to be the party to beat in the 2023 presidential election. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had messed up the country in all ramifications. It was therefore not expected to stand strong in the coming election. The projection was that the opposition PDP would have no difficulty in edging the APC out of power.
But the PDP lost the momentum early enough. The outcome of its presidential primary rejected power shift to the south. The owners of the party ensured that Atiku Abubakar, an accustomed political player, clinched the ticket of the party. It worked. But the choice carried a lot of baggage. It was taken to mean that the party had shortchanged the south just to ensure that Atiku fulfills his ambition of becoming Nigeria’s president. Atiku was therefore not an exciting choice among southerners.
The APC did not fare any better in the choice of its own candidate. It had planned to retain power in the north. But Mr Bola Tinubu, the old war horse, delivered an upper cut. But then, no one was impressed by his emergence as the candidate of the APC. He was not the change anybody was looking for.
For many Nigerians, both Atiku and Tinubu had enormous drawbacks. Their candidature did not excite. This, naturally, made the emergence of a third force attractive.
When therefore Peter Obi stepped forward through the Labour Party to challenge the old order, he was welcomed with deafening excitement by Nigerians who had been yearning for a new order. His entry into and participation in the race was a factor like no other. It was an unusual mix that changed the tone and timbre of presidential contests in Nigeria. The fact of the matter was that the Peter Obi phenomenon was not anticipated by anyone. Nigerians were looking towards a two-horse race between the two dominant political parties. That has always been the pattern of Nigeria’s electoral contests since the advent of the Fourth Republic. But the emergence of a Peter Obi from a fringe political party changed all that. The catch here was not the party. It was the man behind the party.
Peter came with a unique selling point. His message was uncommon. He gave Nigerians a reason to believe that their country can be salvaged. With Obi and his message, Nigerians began to envision a new Nigeria under a leadership that puts the people first. The prospect of this new Nigeria inspired hope. It held a lot of promise. Nigerians had been yearning for it over time, but it remained elusive. Peter appeared to be its realization. It was something of a dream come true.
The possibility of a Peter Obi seizing the day forced the conspirators to devise a new strategy. They had to find a way around the unexpected hurricane.
They began to plot against the Peter Obi challenge. To succeed, they had to ensure that an imposition took place. The excitement of Nigerians must not be allowed to translate into concrete action. That was why they gave Nigerians a thwarted electoral outcome.
As the frontline opposition candidate who many believed won the election, Obi did not permit the roguery that took place. He challenged the outcome of the election dutifully. Even though the courts frustrated his efforts, he stands tall as that man who went into a presidential race and made all the difference. In fact, if there was anything that gave a lie to the claim that Tinubu won the election, it was the Peter Obi challenge. He remains a nightmare even to the magicians who gave Nigerians the worst election in the history of the country.
The conspirators, no doubt, have had their way. They have to cruise along given the fact that the people are a docile lot. They merely howl. Even the institutions of state are not any better. Following the manipulation of the electoral outcome by the Independent National Electoral Commission, the judiciary was being looked up to to right the wrongs of the election. But that has ended up as a pipe dream. Our courts are no longer temples of justice. They have become an arena for electoral merchandising. Yet, their Lordships are not embarrassed by the reckless verdicts that they are churning out. They believe that the death of outrage in Nigeria will sustain their miscarriage of justice.
To demonstrate that the rot in the judiciary is total, it is aiding and abetting the predatory politics of the ruling order. Having messed up the litigations brought before it over the presidential election, our courts have turned their attention to the states. They are voiding the election of governors and legislators with reckless abandon. They are not doing so on the basis of the law. Rather, they have been sucked into a scheme that wants to rewrite the electoral history of Nigeria.
Now that the country has been handed over to vile forces, Nigerians should expect a free fall. If anybody ever dreamt of a new order, that dream should be consigned to the realm of a fairy tale. The reality is that the country is now firmly in the hands of hawkish elements who do not care a hoot about nation-building.
In fact, the situation in the country at moment has complicated the possibility of change. Those who have captured the state will put Nigeria on a reverse gear. They will ensure that the new order which the people missed out on in 2023 remains a mirage. That will be their new battle cry. They will ensure, in the coming years, that the momentum of a virile opposition is deflated.
The quest for a new order in Nigeria is made more cumbersome by the fact that those who are looked upon as moral authorities always fail to hold their ground.
A case in point is the failure of most Christian leaders in the controversy that trailed the same faith ticket of the current Nigeria presidency. The Christian leaders who were expected to express outrage buckled under. Even some of them stepped forward to tell us that the arrangement that relegated their religion to the background was sanctioned by God. That is how nations fail. When a country is on a free fall, both the institutions of state and moral authorities become spineless. They pander to the forces they are supposed to challenge with a corrective impulse.