Aare Amerijoye DOT.B
The 2027 presidential election is fast approaching, and many will be tempted to reduce it to a contest between the African Democratic Congress and the All Progressives Congress, or between Atiku Abubakar and Bola Tinubu, or between North and South. On the surface it may appear so. In truth it is none of these. It is a reckoning between the Nigerian people and a governing party that has answered years of promises with hardship, anguish and insecurity.
The battle line is drawn, and the Nigerian people, as voters, stand ready. The clearest sign hovering over the ruling party is not its boast of controlling most of the states, a tally assembled through a season of defections. It is found in the markets, the filling stations and the homes where families now measure survival by the day. The people are disillusioned, and that disillusionment is the true weather of this election.
Nigerians have concluded that the All Progressives Congress remains long on slogans and cruelly short on delivery, and they no longer trust it. Their confidence is turning to Atiku Abubakar, whose singular purpose in seeking to lead is to offer lasting solutions to the nation’s problems. The distress in which the economy now flounders is, to them, a fair measure of the party’s stewardship, and they see in Atiku the answer this moment demands.
Parties do not win elections. The will of a suffering, determined people wins them.
The yearning today is not nostalgia for any single party. It is a yearning for competence that Nigerians have seen before. In the years Atiku served as Vice President, the economy he helped steer grew from 58 billion dollars in 1999 to 270 billion dollars by 2007. Nigerians remember that record, and they see in its author a man who understands the challenges before the nation and possesses the means to repair the structural defects behind poverty, hunger, poor health and a falling quality of life.
A careful reading of his policy record and his plans shows a leader equipped to alter the structure of production and consumption, to diversify the economic base, to reduce the nation’s dependence on crude oil and imports, and to place the economy on a path of self-sustaining, non-inflationary growth that creates wealth and jobs and lifts our people out of poverty.
His reform agenda rests on unity, peace, security, development and the human rights of every citizen. He holds these to be the true prerequisites for sustainable growth, and for a country in which the burden of national renewal is shared and shouldered by all Nigerians.
Nigerians are living through unprecedented times. The hardship of these past years has left families traumatised. What our people endure today is written plainly on their faces, and they do not need to speak of it. They surely did not bargain for this when the All Progressives Congress first took power, nor when the reins passed to Bola Tinubu, and they will not be persuaded to mistake endurance for progress.
But the people are resolved. They will not be made to repeat a costly mistake. Across the North and the South, Nigerians are turning to Atiku Abubakar, for in him they see industry, experience, competence and a proven record in enterprise and in government. And so, with God, with their determination, and with that determination translated into votes, Atiku Abubakar will be the next President of Nigeria.
Aare Amerijoye DOT.B
Director General
The Narrative Force
thenarrativeforce.org
24 August 2026
