Atiku Abubakar and Mr. Peter Obi at American University Yola for the 16th founder’s day and 20th anniversary celebrations.
By Dozie Ezennia
Let me digress
The new US President-elect Donald J. Trump had a landslide victory 3 weeks ago.
Trump won both the Electoral College and the popular vote; in fact, Trump this year became only the second Republican to win the popular vote since 1988.
The vast majority of counties saw their margins shift in Trump’s direction, both in places where Republicans historically do well and places where Democrats generally have an edge.
However, Donald Trump did not do this alone; this decisive victory was possible because he formed a broad coalition with other kingmakers like Elon Musk. Vivek Ramaswamy, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard.
A lot of Americans did not like Trump; the image of January 6 is still raw in their minds, but because they saw him with Elon Musk, whom they like, for instance, this affiliation helped to convince them to go to the polls and vote for Trump.
A lot of Americans who voted for Democrats in the past election voted for a Republican candidate who happens to be Donald Trump for the first time in their lives because they saw Robert Kennedy and Tulsi Gabbard, two former Democrats in Trump’s camp.
This is the power of alliances and coalitions in politics.
But beyond this, Elon Musk worked his socks off to see that Trump won his election.
Aside from donating $170 million of his personal money to the Trump campaign, he helped deliver states like Pennsylvania and Michigan to Trump by funding the campaign foot soldiers in those battleground states and knocking at doors himself, just to turn out votes.
Imagine being an American voter and you are a fan of Elon Musk, only to open your door on a fine Monday morning, only to see a man you love so much at the door, asking you to vote for Donald Trump.
Even if you hate Trump, because Elon has appealed to you, you close your eyes and hold your nose by voting for a man you don’t like.
This is what alliances and coalitions do in politics; that is why Trump defeated an incumbent and a sitting vice president by winning his election with a landslide, and politics as we know is the same everywhere, Nigeria included.
We are in a dire strait as a people. Even with the dire straits, Peter Obi or Atiku Abubakar can’t defeat this terrible government alone.
It did not work in 2023 and won’t work in 2027.
Drawing a lesson from Donald Trump’s decisive victory, a united opposition can only defeat a disastrous ruling class; a divided opposition helps the ruling class in power to stay longer, even their bad performance, so the two men need to come together before the end of this year to form a coalition.
They need to get another dye—in the wood, politicians line Kwankwanso and El Rufai to join them.
Even with the current imperfect election structure, these men will defeat APC and Bola Ahmed Tinubu on 12:00 am Election Day.
This is true, and it is a hill I’m ready to die on.
The future of our republic is in the hands of these 2 men.
They are the only politicians that have the appeal and the clout to collect our country back from the barbarians at the gate holding all of us ransom.
The time to forge this coalition is today; tomorrow might be too late.
