Aare Amerijoye DOT.B
I want to tell you about a conversation I had with a brother whose intelligence I deeply respect.
He is educated.Politically aware. Emotionally invested in the fate of this country. When he shouted “Obi or nothing” in 2023, it was not noise. It was conviction. It was anger forged by disappointment. It was the voice of a generation tired of recycled failures.
But what I did not expect was his honesty.
I told him bluntly,without diplomacy or cushioning, that Peter Obi would struggle to reach even ten percent of the vote in Ekiti State in the 2027 primaries. He bristled. So I pressed him with a harder question:
What is truly driving this urgency?
He paused. Reflected. Then said something that cut through every layer of political pretence:
“Egbon, if Obi wins, I am closer to government and stand a chance of appointment. If Atiku wins, the queue is long , there are too many established politicians ahead.
I did not argue. I did not interrupt. I listened.
Because in that moment, he said what millions feel but are too careful to admit.
That statement was not ignorance. It was survival logic.
And therein lies the tragedy.
THE TRUTH WE AVOID: POLITICS HAS BECOME PERSONAL SURVIVAL
That brother represents a silent majority.
Citizens who have watched institutions collapse.Who have seen merit suffocated by patronage.Who have concluded, quietly, that the only way to survive Nigeria is to enter Nigeria.
Not to fix it.
But to benefit from it.
This is not cynicism. It is adaptation.
But it is also the very mechanism that keeps the country broken.
Because when millions vote not for competence, not for capacity, but for proximity to opportunity, the system cannot produce national results. It can only reproduce personal access.
THE FIRST ILLUSION: THE POLITICS OF THE SHORTER QUEUE
The idea of the “shorter queue” feels rational.
It promises faster access. Quicker rewards. Less competition.
But history is merciless: this logic has governed Nigerian politics for decades, and has delivered decades of decay.
Every generation has asked:What do I gain if this man wins?
Almost none have asked:What will this man do if he wins?
That is the question that builds nations.
The shorter queue may bring you closer to power.But it does not bring power closer to development.
THE SECOND ILLUSION: ETHNICITY AS PERFORMANCE GUARANTEE.
Across Nigeria, another illusion quietly shapes decisions.
That our own will naturally be good for us.
From the Yoruba voter seeking regional reassurance,to the Igbo voter seeking historical correction,to the Northern voter preserving fairness,the language differs, but the logic is identical:
Our turn. Our man. Our time.
Yet reality has been brutally consistent.
Ethnic alignment has never guaranteed economic performance.
A president does not govern from his village.He governs from the economy.
And the economy does not respond to tribe.It responds to competence.
We have mistaken representation for transformation.
They are not the same thing.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOPE AND HISTORY
This is where the conversation must become uncomfortable.
Because politics is not poetry. It is performance.
Atiku Abubakar is not an idea. He is a record.
Between 1999 and 2007, Nigeria experienced one of its most significant economic expansions. GDP rose dramatically, from roughly $58 billion to over $270 billion. Telecommunications liberalisation did not just modernise communication; it created millions of economic opportunities. Debt relief negotiations with the Paris Club repositioned Nigeria’s fiscal future.
These are not promises.
They are precedents.
And in governance, precedent is the closest thing to evidence.
THE REAL QUESTION OF 2027
So the question before Nigerians is not emotional.
It is not sentimental.
It is not tribal.
It is brutally simple:
Do you want proximity to power,or the restoration of a functioning system?
Because the two are not the same.
THE COUNTRY CALCULATION
Yes, the queue around Atiku is long.
Yes, he is not from every tribe.
But here is what matters:
A functional economy reduces the need for political access.
In a working country:
Opportunity is not rationed through connections.
Businesses thrive without political sponsorship.
Currency stability protects effort and enterprise.Citizens build wealth without waiting for appointments.
In a broken system, everyone fights to enter government.
In a working system, no one needs to.
THE FINAL TRUTH
The queue is long not because it is crowded.
The queue is long because it leads somewhere.
The tragedy of Nigeria is that too many are choosing the shorter queue,not because it leads to progress,
but because it offers quicker access to a broken system.
But a broken system, no matter how quickly accessed, remains broken.
THE ONLY QUEUE THAT MATTERS.
So I return to that brother.
Not to dismiss him.
But to challenge him.
And through him, to challenge millions.
You may be closer to power under one candidate.
But you will be closer to a country under another.
And in the end, it is not your distance from government that will define your life—
It is the condition of the country you live in.
That is the only queue worth joining.
Aare Amerijoye DOT.B
Director General
The Narrative Force
