By Okoi Obono-Obla
In politics, consistency is not merely a virtue — it is the bedrock of credibility. Yet how can we trust a leader who embodies inconsistency? A man who makes a volte-face, regurgitating what he once swallowed, only to spew it out again when convenient?
In 2022, driven by an unrelenting desire to cling to power even when his ambition clashed with the principles of inclusivity and power rotation within his party, this same man declared that fuel subsidy was a fraud. Today, with tongue in cheek, he blurs that stance, promising to restore subsidies if he wins in 2027. What a faux pas. Is he truly serious, or is he merely playing to the gallery, appealing to the gullibility of those who crave freebies?
This is not an isolated case of inconsistency but part of a long history of opportunism. In 2007, he abandoned the PDP for the Action Congress, contested the presidency, and performed woefully. By 2010, he resigned from the Action Congress and returned to the PDP, justifying his move on the grounds that it was the turn of Northern Nigeria to produce a president in line with the rotational principle enshrined in the PDP constitution. Yet he was rejected. Licking his wounds, he lurked opportunistically around the corridors of power, waiting for an easy catch.
Like a seasoned predator, he returned to the Action Congress, which had metamorphosed into the All Progressives Congress (APC) through deliberate political engineering and alignment, at a time when it appeared poised to win the 2015 general election. But once again, his arrogance and disregard for those who had invested fortunes, time, and energy in building the coalition led him to blindly contest its presidential ticket, only to be badly bruised and roundly defeated.
In 2018, he returned to the PDP, snatched its presidential ticket, and launched a blistering assault on President Muhammadu Buhari, deploying toxic rhetoric and even questioning Buhari’s educational qualifications despite his extensive military and administrative credentials. Yet, despite the smear campaign, he lost woefully. Still unrepentant, he re-emerged in 2023 with his born-to-rule mentality, contesting the PDP presidential ticket at a time when consensus favoured a Southern candidate to preserve Nigeria’s delicate balance of power. His stubbornness and disregard for the party’s rotational principle fractured the PDP, precipitating deadly rivalries and destabilizing the party into smithereens.
Eventually, as a political nomad of no mean repute, he hyped the formation of a coalition that turned out to be a mirage. True to character, he lacked the patience and vision to unite people around a shared philosophy. He then foraged into the little-known ADC, attempting to hijack it as a special-purpose vehicle. Predictably, his intrusion triggered chaos, splintering the party into factions and sparking legal battles that remain unsettled till date.
And now, how can such a predator — one who clearly lacks the will to carry out fundamental reforms in a country that has teetered on the brink of economic meltdown and bankruptcy due to decades of ill-conceived fuel subsidy regimes and currency controls — suddenly wake up to swallow back his vomit, cunningly endearing himself to voters? Even though he knows, in his heart of hearts, that such a policy reversal could drag the nation to its nadir, he persists in this charade.
Conclusion
This pattern of inconsistency, opportunism, and predation reveals not a reformer but a gallery player — appealing to gullibility while undermining the very stability and progress the nation desperately needs. Nigeria’s future cannot be entrusted to a man whose political compass points only toward self-preservation.
