Nowthat the major political parties in Nigeria have officially chosen their presidential candidates, the picture of how the electorates will vote in 2027 General Elections is becoming clearer.

I therefore begin henceforth a private interrogation I hope will reveal the right candidate Nigerians should vote for to lead Nigeria at a time like this.

As I said in an earlier contribution in this my column, all things being equal, Nigerian electorates are more likely to vote for candidates in the forthcoming elections than for political parties. I still believe this is what will happen. So, any candidate, even aside Presidential candidates that hopes to hide under a political party to get the people’s votes is making a grievous mistake.

Nigerians have become and are being made to become more aware of their political rights by some patriots who have volunteered to save Nigeria and Nigerians by providing the right information.

In other words, many volunteers are making so much sacrifices to enlighten our electorates so much so that they will only vote for candidates that will bring the best quality on the table.

This is another way of saying that if the 2027 Election results are not manipulated or changed, we are going to see situations where a popular candidate will be voted for, even if his platform is not particularly popular or widely accepted in the district.

This will happen partly because before the next Election Day, more Nigerians would have come to realize the foolishness of wasting their precious votes on misfits beautifully packaged as “our own,” by political parties’ selfish leaders who hoodwink unsuspecting electorates to trust their judgements.

Thanks to the pains and tears occasioned by poor and wicked leadership, more and more Nigerians have come to learn that the old catch phrases, “our tribesman,” or “our religious brother or sister,” which parties used in the past to get the votes of the unsuspecting electorates have not put food on the common man’s table.

Yes, these dividing phrases have also not been able to tackle the daily torments and primitive killings of innocents perpetrated against Nigerians by bandits, kidnappers and all other forms of terrorists.

Given this realisation, Nigerians are eagerly looking for leaders that can save them from this national disgrace.

As a result of this reality, during the forthcoming elections, electorates, from Maiduguri to Lagos; from Kano to Uyo and from Kaduna or Abuja to Aba are left with the option of voting for the candidate they believe, inside their hearts, can do the Herculean job of saving and liberating Nigeria and Nigerians.

In concrete terms, every voter that enters a polling booth during this forthcoming presidential election, must first ask himself or herself the basic question: between President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Mr Peter Obi or Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, etc, who is likely to fight and win the raging battles in Nigeria against hunger, against unemployment, against insecurity and against disunity?

The genuine answer each voter gets from his or her heart should determine who he or she should vote for to lead this country in the next four years.

Unlike before, when some presidential candidates largely depended on the popularity of their political parties or on ethnic, religious or other considerations, other than competence, to get votes, the situation today is or is expected to be different.

The situation now is that the electorates will in 2027 Presidential Election vote for the candidate they sincerely believe can do the job of saving Nigeria and Nigerians, not the one their Pastors or Imams told them to vote for; not the one their traditional rulers or Emirs told them to vote for; not even the one their so-called political leaders told them to vote for.

Yes, the major task of Nigerian electorates today is to liberate themselves by ignoring all intimidations, all persuasions and all attempts to buy their conscience by voting only for the one they know will do the job.

The electorates will not stop at voting for the person they individually believe to be the best. They will go further to ensure the candidate that is declared President in 2027 is the one majority of Nigerians truly and freely voted for.

I trust Nigerian electorates will do all these, this time around. I say so because I believe we are all tired of the ravaging hunger, of the terror of bandits and other killers and of political empowerment of parasites who shamelessly manipulate the system each Election Year when they come to our humble abodes with their armoured jeeps loaded with packaged salts or sugar to greet us.

In the process, they use our ignorance as their hiding sanctuary to officially but fraudulently authenticate their stolen leadership positions.

It is unfortunate that over the years, this same shameful tactics has worked. The over fed parasites have always succeeded just before a fresh election to find time to visit our remote homes in order to lay claim to being our friends or even parts of our families.

More Nigerians have seen through these lies and deceit and so I believe, this time around, they will take the extra care to know who to cast their votes for.

Interestingly, the presidential candidates presented by the major political parties for the forthcoming 2027 Presidential Election in Nigeria are not unknown politicians. They are, in fact, well known people whose capacities and lifestyles, many Nigerians have appreciable knowledge of.

From President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to Mr Peter Obi, then to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, even to former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, who still needs to prove that his platform is not fake, we Nigerians know these men to a reasonable extent.

Before the Election Day therefore, we, the electorates, have ample time to interrogate the personalities that are being presented to us by the so-called leading political parties and the other parties.

From today’s piece, I have therefore resolved to offer some insights I believe will help us all in this great national assignment of choosing the right Leader for today’s Nigeria.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu:

Let’s start our interrogation with the incumbent President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is being presented for re-election in 2027 by the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Tinubu, a former Governor of Lagos State, is the incumbent President and the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. He has so served since 2023.

Under him, Nigerians are complaining that they are afflicted with hunger and suffering as never before in the oil rich Nigeria, but his officials say his harsh economic policies, which they admit are partly responsible for the sufferings, are necessary to save the country, Nigeria from “bankruptcy.”

On insecurity, which has also risen to painful heights, Tinubu said “it is unfortunate” because his administration “is doing so much to tackle bandits, Boko Haram and other killers and terrorists.”

As the Election Day draws nearer, both Tinubu’s men and his critics should do Nigerian electorates well to openly proffer more tangible information on what he has truly done and what he has failed to do in the last three years so as to save helpless Nigerians from hunger, insecurity and violent deaths.

It is these tangible pieces of information that we, the electorates, will use to correctly assess President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and make our choices concerning him on the Election Day.

We know he has won or persuaded most of the state governors to be on his side, but if he will listen to the Voices of the people, it will pay him better to pay more attention to the need to provide to Nigerian electorates true and tangible information on his achievements.

This will yield more results than the usual political tricks, intimidation or unholy rigging plans some of his crude friends and associates may bring to his table as the right way to go in order to win in 2027.

*Mr Peter Obi*

Mr Peter Obi, a former Governor of Anambra State and a popular candidate in the 2023 Presidential Election, then on the platform of the Labour Party, is today, the Presidential Candidate of Nigerian Democratic Congress, NDC, for the 2027 Elections.

Obi has continued to strengthen his political status by promoting issue-based politics more than any other leading Nigerian politician today.

This has helped to make him one of the most talked about politician, notwithstanding that he is not currently holding any plum government office.

He is, as a result, probably the most popular candidate so long as Nigerian youths and adults interested in politics of ideas are concerned.

But this was also the case in 2023 Elections when the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s result finally placed Obi at a distant third, even when his passionate supporters swore and still swear that he actually won the election.

His opponents had argued then that in Nigerian politics, winning on social media and in the streets is not the same thing as INEC declaring the candidate the winner of the election.

Whatever that argument means, the question one may ask today is whether Obi is preparing differently or if he has discovered how to bridge the mysterious gap between winning elections “online” and winning it in “INEC’s result sheets?”

This, I believe, will go a long way in determining if Obi will win 2027 Elections and even if he wins, if he would be declared winner and be sworn-in as the Executive President of Nigeria.

So, as the Election Day draws near, we, the electorates, will watch keenly to see what Obi and his equally popular running mate (partner) Rabiu Kwankwaso are doing in this critical direction.

*Alhaji Atiku Abubakar*

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice President of Nigeria, and multiple Presidential Candidate in many past elections in Nigeria, is currently the Presidential Candidate of African Democratic Congress, ADC.

Atiku, who INEC declared second during the 2023 Elections when he contested on the platform of People’s Democratic Party, PDP, is widely seen as highly experienced in the game of politics in Nigeria.

It is also believed that he has wide connections and very deep pocket.

But these were also the same situations in 2023 Elections when INEC named him second.

As the Election Day draws nearer, one is curious to know if there is any tangible thing Atiku has done differently to suggest that he may get a better result?

Recall that in 2023 Elections, some insiders in PDP said the feeling was that the ticket should go to the South, considering that Muhammadu Buhari from the North was just going to conclude an eight years tenure.

Ignoring the argument, Atiku, a northerner, contested and picked the PDP ticket.

Today, the situation seems to be the same in ADC. Some people argued that because Tinubu, a southerner, has only ruled for four years, the South should be allowed another four years tenure.

On the basis of this argument, they had tried hard to persuade Atiku not to contest for the ADC Presidential ticket.

He ignored them, contested and picked the ticket.

While one may not conclusively say Atiku did not win the 2023 Elections or that even if he won, as he also claimed, that his refusal to obey the zoning policy he had promoted publicly was responsible, for his ultimate failure then, it remains to be seen how far his current decision on zoning, amongst others, will affect his election in 2027.

*Dr Goodluck Jonathan*

Former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is one politician many of his passionate supporters, especially commoners, did not know or expect he would contest the 2027 Presidential Election.

My personal understanding of the reason for his supporters’ prayer that he avoids a return to the political field is nothing but the need to preserve the reputation he enjoys today.

His genuine fans are afraid that if he returns to the field to contest, bitter opponents who failed in their bid to reduce him even as a serving Executive President of Nigeria will gain an opportunity to tell the world that he is not a political master he left Aso Rock as but a mere political butterfly who thought himself a bird.

Of course, only a true political contest will prove how true their fears are.

But if you ask me, the signs are troubling, Your Excellency.

The showdown in Abuja, at the weekend, between the Abuja Landlord, Nyesom Wike, who is the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and the political interest group seemingly desperate to field former President Goodluck Jonathan in the forthcoming 2027 Presidential Election, looks like the first scene of an unfolding tragicomic drama.

But from the short scene, there are already so many lessons Jonathan and his true supporters and fans should learn from the outing.

Number one, Wike, through his utterances and actions that day, has succeeded in stamping it on the consciousness of Nigerians and in putting it in the news that the political group that gave Jonathan it’s Presidential ticket in absentia is not the one recognised by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Whether that impression is true or not is not as important as the message our former President and his handlers should learn from it

They must know that this is just the preliminary battle Wike so tactfully put before the ex-president. The man we all know as the FCT Minister will certainly not stop there.

Also, by using security agents to successfully harass and ridicule former President Jonathan’s political party, scaring His Excellency away from what should have been his moment of glorious return, Wike has sent disturbing messages Jonathan all those that love him should not wait for anyone to decode for them.

This fear that makes Jonathan’s genuine supporters to stop him from contesting is born, not because anyone thinks Jonathan does not have the right to contest. No! The fear is simply because, even many who understand Nigerian politics agree with his concerned fans that Jonathan’s return to the field will, among other things, provide his haters the opportunity to trifle with the global honour which he wears since after demonstrating that it was possible for an African, a Nigerian President, to freely accept defeat in a presidential election.

Even Dr Jonathan himself must know that since

that heroic act, his reputation has been so high and unapproachable that those who hate or envy him must have been looking for an opportunity of bringing him back to the turbulent Nigerian political theatre in order to expose his weaknesses and to ultimately reduce image as an icon of true democracy and a respected statesman in Nigeria.

Even I, yours truly, am afraid if Dr Jonathan can actually get the number of votes across Nigeria to defend the kind of respectable image he enjoys today.

Is it not already humbling that Wike, who served in Jonathan’s government as a junior Minister, is already using his newly acquired powers to frustrate or ridicule Jonathan and his Dr. Kabiru Turaki-led faction of the People’s Democratic Party,?

Part of the messages from the drama could be that though Jonathan served as the country’s President in Abuja just a few years ago, he no longer has enough influence to stop an FCT Minister from humiliating him in Abuja, the federal seat of power.

Could this be why Wike warned earlier that even the serving President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, calls him (Wike) the ‘Abuja Landlord.’

The point could also be that if Jonathan’s influence has dwindled so much that it could not withstand Wike’s fury in Abuja, what will be Jonathan’s fate when he finally contests against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Peter Obi, Atiku Abubakar and others in 2027?

As a keen observer, may I say here that I personally felt alarmed when the Turaki-led faction of the PDP went ahead to name Jonathan it’s Presidential candidate in absentia.

I may not perfectly predict how the intrigues will finally pan out, but let me just state here that I am alarmed at how Dr Jonathan seems ready to allow some political interest groups to gamble with his stature as a respected statesman of global repute.

Before that tragi-comic enactment flagged open at the weekend, many Nigerians have tried privately and in public to advice Dr Jonathan never to allow anyone to deceive him into joining the 2027 Presidential Race or any electoral contest again.

All along, he has tried to speak in riddles to dodge the topic.

But now that he has been named a Presidential candidate of a faction of PDP, his first task will be to ensure his faction convinces INEC and Nigerians that it is not the fake PDP.

As long as he is not able to do this, his Presidential ambition will remain a joke, a joke Tinubu, Wike and many others like will continue to pop red wine over.

• Samuel Hezekiah Egburonu Esq, lawyer, veteran journalist and literary scholar, is a current affairs analyst.