By MONDY SELLE GOLD

It will be exceedingly difficult for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to secure a second mandate in 2027. At the summit of leadership, longevity is never the ultimate measure. What endures are strategic coherence, moral credibility, and outcomes that tangibly transform the lives of ordinary citizens. On these defining pillars, the present administration appears perilously unanchored, adrift in a storm of unmet promises.

Nigeria’s security crisis has metastasized like an untreated wound, seeping across regions and generations, yet there remains no clearly articulated, coherent, and time-bound national strategy capable of restoring public trust or decisively dismantling the machinery of terror. Millions of internally displaced citizens linger in suspended limbo, caught between loss and neglect, waiting not for sympathy, but for a humane, actionable blueprint to rebuild communities and restore dignity. Equally alarming is the absence of a doctrine committed to the complete eradication of terrorist networks, rather than their cyclical containment. In the realm of sovereign stewardship, uncertainty in security is not prudence, it is an invitation to chaos.

Here arises a question that cannot be ignored: Can a nation endure when its leadership’s vision is blind to suffering? History, relentless and unyielding, demonstrates that Nigeria’s stability is inseparable from global equilibrium. As Africa’s most populous nation and a keystone of the global South, its leadership choices send ripples far beyond its borders. International partners attentive to democratic integrity, regional security, and economic predictability cannot ignore prolonged drift. Influence may rarely be theatrical, but its expectations are unmistakable: competence, legitimacy, and results. When these are absent, confidence quietly withdraws, leaving the nation exposed to scrutiny and doubt.

Ironically, the very strategies employed by President Tinubu to fracture the opposition have produced the opposite effect. In attempting to keep His Excellency Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi apart, the administration underestimated the binding power of shared national suffering. Economic hardship, democratic erosion, and institutional fatigue have narrowed ideological distance while widening common purpose. What political manoeuvring could not accomplish, lived experience has achieved.

In seeking to weaken the opposition, the presidency has instead consolidated it. Tinubu now confronts the most formidable alignment of his political life, not merely a coalition of personalities, but a convergence of public memory, collective grievance, and rising international skepticism. Across the Nigerian Diaspora, particularly in the United States, dissatisfaction has hardened into conviction, signalling that the global community is watching with heightened vigilance.

Politics is fluid and often unpredictable, yet numbers carry their own moral gravity. In 2023, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi together commanded over thirteen million votes, a figure far from electoral residue. It is a clarion signal, a warning, and a rehearsal for the reckoning to come. This leads to another urgent question: Will the international community, including partners who have historically acted decisively elsewhere, remain passive as terror and neglect metastasize across Nigeria?

True leadership, as recognized by nations that command respect, does not linger in the shadow of a retired army captain masquerading as a cleric. Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, with his empty sermons of influence, is a destabilizing mirage, a persistent irritant on the nation’s pulse. America long ago discerned the face of terror; Nigeria’s indulgence of this self-styled sage is both tragic and farcical. His presence is a theatre of chaos, a carnival of ineptitude, tolerated at the expense of national coherence and the quiet dignity of governance. Vision becomes mockery when authority flirts with folly, and the state trembles under the weight of absurdity.

True leadership demands foresight that listens and authority that acts. What passes for President Tinubu’s vision for Nigeria is laughable, an embarrassing display of incompetence and self-interest. The so-called plan he advances serves only a tiny cadre hell-bent on mismanaging scarce resources, a reckless misdirection that cannot and should not be condoned. Vision without execution is cruel illusion; power without performance is a hollow farce, dissipating when tested against reality.

As 2027 approaches, the central question before Nigeria and the watching world is no longer about political tactics, but about national trajectory. The electorate, bruised but vigilant, appears less swayed by rhetoric and more resolute in demanding results. The Nigerian Diaspora, particularly in the United States, has already demonstrated its capacity to shape outcomes, and global engagement is no longer optional. The environment is shifting; its consequences will be severe if corrective action is delayed. And so, we must ask a third and piercing question: Can those with influence, those who have demonstrated the courage to confront injustice elsewhere, remain idle, or is this the moment to act decisively to prevent further calamity?

The window for corrective action remains open, but it is narrowing. What is required now is not defiance, but discernment; not delay, but decisive, courageous action. The world is watching. President Donald Trump is Watching. History will not forget.

*Professor Mondy Selle Gold, PhDs, CFP, FICLG, FEBS, is an American-based scholar, the Deputy Pro-Chancellor of Edsea Business School and HIBC School of Divinity, and the authorized biographer of Major Isaac Adaka Boro. He is a distinguished recipient of the United States President’s Lifetime Achievement Award and serves as Co-Chairman of the African Policy and Research Consortium. Formerly the Chairman of NADECO BOT, he currently chairs the Board of Trustees of the African Democratic Congress USA, serves as National Academic Adviser for AcadPass, and is Patron of Democrats for Genuine Change. He has also been recognized with the African Community Service Award as well as the African Eagles Global Financial and Academic Icon Award.

An inductee of the Nigerian Hall of Fame and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Governance and Leadership, Professor Gold writes extensively on governance, human rights, global diplomacy, and the intersection of religion and public life, contributing thought leadership that bridges scholarship and practical impact.

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