The Charlatans’ Chorus and the audacity of amnesia: Why Nigeria’s opposition faltered

By Peters Osawaru Omoragbon:

This is a Critical Look at the Pedigree of Desperation Versus the Patience of Reform

It is a peculiar sickness that has befallen our body politic—a nausea induced not by the bitter pills of economic reform, but by the sheer hypocrisy of those who prescribe them. We are witnessing a concerted, almost comical, effort by an association of political desperadoes and charlatans to demarket the labour of an administration barely three years into a four-year mandate. They have weaponized the genuine pain of subsidy removal and currency floatation, not out of empathy for the masses, but as a ladder to climb back to the feeding trough they were recently chased from.

Let me state my position with clarity: I carry no card for the All-Progressives Congress (APC). I will not insult the intelligence of Nigerians by claiming corruption has vanished from the current government—it is a hydra-headed monster that has plagued every administration since 1999. However, we must engage in a basic exercise in chronology and context. We are being gaslit by the very architects of our national decay, men who now cry “wolf” after having spent the better part of two decades leading the sheep to slaughter.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took the helm of a system that was not merely sick but comatose. He inherited an economy addicted to a fraudulent subsidy regime and a security apparatus on its knees. Yet, the cacophony of criticism suggests that in three years, he should have undone the combined wreckage of 16 years of PDP brigandage (the Obasanjo/Yar’Adua/Jonathan years of institutionalised leakages), 8 years of Buhari’s opaque paternalism, and the preceding 5 years of Jonathan’s drift. Tinubu is, by all accounts, gradually plugging the drainage holes through which our commonwealth haemorrhaged for two decades. And what is the response of the “messiahs”? A street protest of wounded egos.

The Carousel of Convenience: A Roster of Fickle “Messiahs”

Let us examine the slate of alternative redeemers being presented to us. Anyone who lacks the ideological discipline to remain in one political vehicle for more than an election cycle is not a leader; he is a political harlot, constantly changing corners for the highest bidder.

Peter Obi and the “Adoption” Mentality

Obi’s acolytes, loud as they are online, suffer from a severe case of historical myopia. He was Governor of Anambra State contemporaneously with Tinubu’s tenure in Lagos. Can any honest analyst compare the economic blueprint and infrastructural permanence of Lagos (1999-2007) with the lean legacy of Anambra in that period? The answer is a resounding silence.

His political journey reads like a desperate quest for a vehicle rather than a drive to build one. He started in APGA, swearing undying loyalty, only to defect to the PDP when his relationship with his successor soured. Denied the presidential ticket and unwilling to play second fiddle to Atiku in 2023, he jumped ship to the Labour Party—controversially securing a spot on a roster already submitted to INEC. In a truly lawful and structured democracy, that late substitution alone would have disqualified him. Instead of staying to build Labour into a formidable force for 2027, he fled at the first sign of internal dissent. He played no role in the midwifing of the African Democratic Congress (ADC). The food was prepared, the table set, and Obi simply waltzed in, washed his hands, and demanded to sit at the head of the table to dish for himself and others. This is not statesmanship; it is entitlement. Now, the subtle blackmail has begun—if Obi isn’t handed the ADC ticket, his followers will scream “rigging” before a single vote is cast .

Rotimi Amaechi and the Unfinished Bypass

Here is a man who was Speaker for 8 years and Governor of Rivers State for another 8 under the PDP, before being handed the Ministry of Works under Buhari. That is 16+ years at the very apex of power and resource allocation. Yet, the Eastern Bypass Road—the critical artery meant to connect Rivers State to the rest of the South-East and beyond—remained an elusive promise. He and his cohort of G5 governors did not just leave the PDP; they dynamited its foundations to settle personal scores in 2015, and today they have the audacity to blame Tinubu for the PDP’s disintegration. You cannot burn down a house and then blame the firefighter for the smoke.

David Mark and the Ghost of June 12

The case of Senator David Mark—now Chairman of the ADC, a party presenting itself as the moral compass—is perhaps the most egregious insult to our collective memory. In 1993, Chief MKO Abiola won the freest and fairest election in African history. On the eve of the declaration, the military stopped it. Why? Because General Ibrahim Babangida was confronted by a cabal of officers threatening chaos if Abiola was sworn in. David Mark, by numerous historical accounts and media reports over the decades, was a principal actor in that junta, allegedly threatening to shoot Abiola if he was declared winner. This is the same man who later became Senate President under the very democracy he sought to abort. And we are expected to take him seriously as the Chairman of a “New” Nigeria project? The ADC is not a new dawn; it is a museum of recycled, unrepentant political relics.

Atiku Abubakar: The Perennial Nomad

Atiku’s political trajectory is the gold standard of inconsistency. He has been a member of nearly every major party that has existed in the last 25 years—PDP, ACN, APC, back to PDP, and now ADC. He was the Vice President for 8 years when the foundation of our current rot was laid. In 2015, when Jonathan refused to step aside after one term, Atiku instigated the defection of five PDP governors to support Buhari. That singular act of pique is why the PDP lost the centre and, arguably, why we had eight years of the Buhari inertia. He plants the seeds of discord and then feigns surprise when the harvest is bitter.

Aregbesola and Kwankwaso: The Ungrateful and the Abandoned

Rauf Aregbesola was a creation of the Tinubu political machinery—Commissioner in Lagos, then Governor of Osun for two terms via Tinubu’s backing. His tenure as Minister of Interior under Buhari is now a footnote of jailbreaks and passport nightmares. For him to stand at the ADC convention and call the “Renewed Hope” agenda a scam is a staggering display of ingratitude and revisionism.

Similarly, Rabiu Kwankwaso’s NNPP has crumbled in Kano not because of Tinubu but because his own godson, Governor Abba Yusuf, defected with the entire state assembly to the APC—a repeat of the Ganduje betrayal. Tinubu is the fall guy for every crack in their self-created political empires .

The Verdict: Consistency Over Chaos

Nigerians are too gullible for their own good sometimes. The ADC is not a political party; it is a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for a few aggrieved elites to negotiate relevance ahead of 2027. Their pedigree is one of zero-sum ambition.

Take it or leave it, but one man among this cacophonous lot has remained consistent, ideological, and disciplined over two decades. Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not perfect; no leader is. But when we contrast the antecedents—the ability to build structures that outlast personal tenure (Lagos), the political patience to assist Obasanjo and Atiku win the South-West in 2003 when it served a broader purpose, and the willingness to make unpopular but necessary economic decisions today—Tinubu remains, by a country mile, the best shot we have at genuine reform.

We cannot entrust the future of 200 million people to men who cannot even manage the loyalty of their own political godchildren. The charlatans should save their tears for themselves.

*Pastor Peters Osawaru Omoragbon writes from United Kingdom, he is the Executive President Nurses Across the Borders Humanitarian Initiative, First Nigerian to be a Designated Contact Person to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), General Secretary, Nigerians in Diaspora Organisation UK Chapter, among other caps.