By Bolaji Akinyemi
There comes a time in the history if a country that silence becomes betrayal – betrayal of truth, of history, and of future generations. Nigeria stands again on the edge of that historic fault line, and we must speak boldly. The message is simple but urgent: President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must not seek re-election for a second term of office as president of Nigeria.
Way before the opposition parties colluded to become agent to the Nigeria masses to serve President Bola Ahmed Tinubu notice of the expiration of his tenancy at the Villa. I had, in my article titled; Political Tombstone of Bola Ahmed Tinubu offered Mr President my unsolicited advice to see the urgent need to save the country
This is not a matter of politics. It is a matter of posterity. Nigeria cannot survive another presidency beholden to re-election fever, paralysed by ethnic arithmetic, or shackled by power-preservation instincts. If we are to survive as a nation — not just exist — this must be a one-term presidency with a singular national assignment: restructuring the foundation of the Nigerian state. The President stands the risk of ending like all politicians or like a statesman in the model of Nelson Mandela. My article; “A Tinubu Paradigm Shift: from a politician to a statesman” was written to consolidate the need for a one term president to save the nation.
The Rot We Refuse to fix
We deceive ourselves when we think elections alone will fix Nigeria. It is not who becomes president that matters most — it is what the structure of the polity permits the president to do. Nigeria is sick not just because of bad leaders, but because of a bad political system that rewards mediocrity and punishes merit.
That system has been held in place by a series of military decrees from Decree 1 of 1966 to Decree24 of 1999, a whooping period of 33 years. It is an illegitimate military imposition masquerading fraudulently as the constitution of “We the Peoples” of the federal republic of Nigeria. Under the weight of such decrees, we pretend to be a federation while running a suffocating unitary government. We centralize power and expect development. We suppress states and demand security. We insult reason and expect results.
A Familiar Circle of Betrayal
We have seen this cycle before. In 2015, the North paraded their agenda as a national project to oust President Goodluck Jonathan. The intensity of that campaign nearly ignited civil war. But Jonathan, to his eternal credit, took the unpopular path of peace. His concession didn’t just save lives; it preserved the fragile threads of our national unity.
Today, however, the hypocrisy has returned. The same North that engineered Jonathan’s removal now fears losing its grip on power under Tinubu. Meanwhile, the South, once hopeful, is now disillusioned. A deepening sense of betrayal hangs in the air. Ethnic mistrust is once again boiling beneath the surface and the polity is embroiled in a structural trap. The trap is better explained by the political concept of overbearing Ethnic Balance of Power (eBoP). The features of eBoP are everywhere suffocating the polity in the form of weak consensus about governance by the elites, legitimacy questions that afflict governance and endemic recursion in policy pursuits. The insidiousness of eBoP renders governance to a Sisyphean task, no matter who is at the helm.
Even former President Olusegun Obasanjo, never one to mince words, warned that it may take “a war” to remove Tinubu. Whether hyperbole or not, it reveals the national anxiety that surrounds this administration. In my article, the slippery ground to 2027, I made a case for a one term Presidency for Tinubu.
The Case for a One-Term Legacy
President Tinubu must rise above this fearsome tide of history. His choice is clear: to be remembered as a transformational leader, in the mould of Lee Kwan Yeu or even Paul Kagame, who restructured Nigeria, or go down as another career politician who chose power over principle.
Only a president not seeking a second term can push the politically costly but necessary reforms Nigeria needs. The entrenched interests will fight. The tribes that dominate governance in Nigeria will resist. The party elite will threaten. But a leader free from the chains of re-election can withstand it all.
Let Tinubu become that leader. Let him:
Enact constitutional reforms to return Nigeria to a truly federal system. And all the attendant features of eBoP will dissipate and Nigeria will be restored to political stability, economic prosperity and social justice. As a corollary, electoral laws will be institutionalized to guarantee credible and inclusive elections; our broken security architecture will be redefined and decentralised; end the impunity of tenure elongation and restore integrity to civil service appointments.
The Clock is Ticking
Time is not on our side. The president has less than two years left. But history has shown us that bold actions can take root in even shorter windows. If he spends the remainder of his term confronting Nigeria’s structural cancer, his name will outlive any title he holds.
If he, however, allows 2027 ambitions to hijack the urgent task of national transformation, then his presidency may go the way of others — another tombstone in the political graveyard of missed opportunities.
A Final Word
President Tinubu must not allow the politics of succession to derail the politics of salvation. A second term is not the prize; a saved Nigeria is. He can be the statesman that ended the lie and laid the foundation of a new republic — or he can remain just another powerful man surrounded by loyal deceivers.
Nigeria is waiting. History is watching. The clock is ticking.
Dr. Bolaji O. Akinyemi is President Voice of His Word Ministries and Convener Apostolic Round Table.
