By Chuks Iloegbunam
If there is any truth in the trending story that Messrs Peter Obi and Rabiu Kwankwaso have teamed up to form the OK Movement in preparation for the 2027 presidential ballot, I have a humble opinion on the matter.
Without acrimony, the OK Movement should ditch the ADC platform and find anchor in another party, if the option is still feasible. Such a seismic shift would create an unprecedented youthquake once OK is armed with a presidential ticket.
The OK Movement would sear the country like molten lava to rid the political terrain of incorrigible opportunists, recidivists and, above all, the Leviathan. To dawdle in the ADC in anticipation of a primary ballot in which Atiku Abubakar would be a contestant can only amount to properly washing one’s hands to crack a palm kernel for an errant fowl to grab, snatch and flee with.
Victory in Nigerian primary elections is largely unconnected with track record, popularity, shimmering credentials, and a personality unencumbered by the deadweight of corruption. Otherwise, the 2022 primary election that imposed the current national affliction would have produced an entirely different outcome.
No. Primary elections mostly deal with the buyable, hungry and unprincipled. Besides, Arab dollars are heavily involved. Drug dollars are heavily involved.
Dollars to the tune of emptied national and state treasuries are heavily involved. Indiscriminate dollars from assorted other places are heavily involved.
Presidential elections are a different kettle of fish. A disreputable politician’s foot soldiers may distribute puny bags of rice by millions of tons. But the masses, seething with their alienation, would remain strong in unbuyable proportions.
The OK Movement has the capacity to put the palpable fear of many things in the consciousness of would-be election riggers and manipulators. It possesses the ability to warn the corrupt flank of the Judiciary that the time to dismount the gravy train of graft and injustice has come.
In the circumstance, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar may run for the presidency for the umpteenth time. But he is unlikely to register other than a dismal capitulation. Despite the Leviathan’s abysmal outing, Atiku is unlikely to trump him in a head-to-head in the South West. Despite the shenanigans of the City Folks, Peter Obi will hammer him in the South East. Serious people have not come up who truly believe that Atiku can trounce Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso in the far north.
Even if Atiku picks up a running mate from the South South, the gambit will scarcely make a spellbinding impression. As for the Middle Belt region, the auguries are in his disfavour. Atiku is obviously expecting to ride to electoral victory on the wings of the Obidient upheaval and the general pauperisation of the masses since 2023.
That explains his adamantine repudiation of all entreaties to play kingmaker rather than tarry with a yearning that long evaporated.
It is in Mr. Obi’s best interest to deny him the pleasure he seeks through the back door. Astonishingly, the respected politician’s ambition is not dissuaded by the reality of his anticipation’s illusory character.
At “best,” he will hand over by default a second term to the Cypher before whom looms an ignominious exit door.
The OK Movement should obviate this calamitous catastrophe by making hay while the sun shines.
