HE HAS DONE THE JOB BEFORE: THE WAZIRI IS READY TO CARRY NIGERIA
By Aare Amerijoye DOT.B
In Part 9, we reminded the President of his own words: Nigeria needs Atiku. Over nine parts we have shown you nine wounds. In this final part we bring every answer together in one place, and show you why only one candidate on the ballot has both the record and the plan.
Nigerians are not being asked to gamble. They are being asked to remember.
THE RECORD THAT CANNOT BE ERASED
Before he held public office, Atiku Abubakar served 20 years in the Customs Service. He rose to Deputy Director, the second highest rank, and retired in 1989. He reformed the Apapa command. With his own money he built the American University of Nigeria in Yola, the first American style university in sub-Saharan Africa. It stayed open through the insurgency and fed displaced people in their hundreds of thousands.
As Vice President from 1999 to 2007, he chaired the National Economic Council under the Constitution and the National Council on Privatisation under the Public Enterprises Act. In those years:
The economy grew from 58 billion dollars to 270 billion dollars.
Reserves rose from about 3.7 billion dollars to about 45 billion dollars.
About 18 billion dollars of Paris Club debt was written off in 2005, and Nigeria walked out of the Paris Club in 2006.
GSM licences auctioned in 2001 put a phone in every hand.
Bank consolidation turned 89 fragile banks into 25 strong ones.
The Pension Reform Act of 2004 gave the Nigerian worker a pension he could own.
He is not a promise. He is a record.
THE PROOF OF CHARACTER
He has put the larger cause ahead of his own ambition three times. At Jos in 1993, he stepped down for Chief MKO Abiola. In 1999, he gave up the Adamawa governorship he had just won to serve as running mate. In 2003, he was pressed to run in his own right, and he campaigned as the deputy instead. In 33 years, he has never asked a stronger man to step aside for him. When he has lost, he has taken his grievance to the courts, never to the streets. And for 2027 he has pledged to serve only one term.
THE NINE WOUNDS AND THE ANSWERS
Now gather everything this series has shown you, and set each wound beside Atiku’s committed plan.
The hunger in the market. A subsidy that follows the barrel: refineries receive crude on discounted terms and sell cheaper fuel at home, and the subsidy is capped, budgeted and audited, to bring down transport and food costs. Farming communities secured, production costs lowered, and more finance for farmers. Land borders reopened to legitimate trade.
The rich nation on its knees. Restructuring of the Exclusive and Concurrent Legislative Lists to devolve power to the states. The eastern port corridor of Port Harcourt, Calabar and Warri revived, and the Uyo Deep Sea Port supported. Nigeria restored as a destination for serious investment, with growth anchored on jobs.
The young driven to japa. A 10 billion dollar startup and entrepreneurship financing programme. A review of NELFUND, including possible debt forgiveness. Free and compulsory primary and secondary education. Reform of healthcare, and action on the pay and welfare of medical staff. More young people and women in appointments.
The debt passed to our children. Fiscal discipline, stable macroeconomic management, a lean federal government through the Oronsaye Report, and every naira of the subsidy savings traced.
The war without a declaration. A pledge to confront insecurity within the first year. More recruits, better pay and modern equipment for the forces. Intelligence-led operations. State police for rural policing. A war on corruption inside the security services. Regional cooperation, including bringing Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso back into ECOWAS.
The politics of Emilokan. Local government autonomy implemented, with council funds paid directly to the councils. And a single-term pledge from a man who has given his turn away three times.
The tariffs the clerics condemned. A review of the electricity tariff classification to end discriminatory billing.
The fuel calendar. Not a discount with an expiry date, but a system that lasts: fuel refined at home, and a subsidy that follows the barrel.
Other candidates offer slogans. Atiku offers a 12-point plan and a 30-year record.
THE TICKET THAT DELIVERS
He does not come alone. His running mate is Rotimi Amaechi. As Governor, Amaechi built over 300 model schools and about 180 health centres across Rivers State. As Minister of Transportation, he completed and put into service about 700 kilometres of standard gauge railway. That included the Itakpe to Warri line, unfinished since 1987. And on his watch Nigeria passed the first anti-piracy law in West and Central Africa. He builds and he finishes. That is the ticket.
WHY ONLY ATIKU
Look at the ballot honestly. One candidate has had his turn, and the nation is bleeding. The others have never sat at the head of a national economy. Only one man has done all of these things:
Chaired the National Economic Council.
Sat at the table when Nigeria cleared its Paris Club debt.
Published a plan for every wound before the vote.
Promised to do it in a single term.
He is not learning on the job. He has done the job.
Nigeria cannot afford another four years of trial and error. It cannot afford a leader who needs three years to discover that the nation is bleeding. It needs a man who already knows where the levers are, because he has pulled them before.
AWALOKAN
Awalokan is the cry of the suffering Nigerian masses: the mother in the market, the farmer in his burnt village, the graduate with a certificate and no job, the pensioner whose pension buys nothing. It is the voice of a people saying they have carried this country long enough. Now let a leader carry them.
The Waziri is ready to carry them.
EVERY NIGERIAN HAS A ROLE
The market woman can tell every customer what she paid for rice three years ago and what she pays today. She may be Iya Risi in Ibadan, Mama Chioma in Onitsha or Hajiya Binta in Kano.
The okada rider in Sokoto, the keke rider in Owerri and the danfo driver in Lagos can carry the message to every passenger.
The student can share this series in every group chat.
The pastor and the imam can preach the card.
The Nigerian abroad can call home every Sunday until election day.
The farmer can tell his cooperative what it costs him to plant under the eyes of bandits.
The pensioner can tell his grandchildren what Nigeria looked like when it walked out of the Paris Club.
Nobody is too small for this campaign. Every voice carries, and every vote counts.
Now the question belongs to you. Collect your card this week. Bring five people with you. Go out early on 16 January 2027. Stay until the result is counted and posted. Guard your vote with your eyes, not your fists, because a peaceful people in their millions cannot be rigged out of their own country.
They said Emilokan. Nigeria answers: Awalokan.
This concludes WHY TINUBU HAS TO GO, a ten part series by The Narrative Force. Share all ten parts. Read them aloud in your market, your motor park, your church and your mosque. Then vote.
#Awalokan #Atiku2027 #TheNarrativeForce
Aare Amerijoye DOT.B
Director General,
The Narrative Force
thenarrativeforce.org
12 October 2026
