By Gideon Inyom
In 2019, I supported Atiku Abubakar.
In 2023, I backed Mr. Peter Obi, leaving PDP out of conviction that the presidency should return to the South East, respecting Nigeria’s long-held principle of zonal rotation.
But as I journeyed deeper into the 2023 election, I saw something unsettling.
Despite a 1,453-member campaign council in the Labour Party, Obi ran a one-man campaign, driven more by charisma than coordination. No team-building. No post-election engagement. No institutional consolidation. It became clear: Obi, like the rest, was driven more by ambition than by a national vision.
And now? Movements once filled with energy are splintering. “Obidient Peoples Party” and similar names are popping up among 110 new associations seeking registration with INEC. What does that tell us?
That we are still running in circles around the same mountain, ambition without direction.
Nigeria Needs Visionaries, Not Recycled Dreamers.
Recently, someone said to me, “Gideon, you sound too utopian.”
Maybe I do. But I’ve led teams, and I’ve seen what teams and a clear vision can do, even on a modest scale. Dont get it twisted, team is the means not an end in itself.
Lee Kuan Yew turned Singapore from slum to skyscraper, with no natural resources.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum turned Dubai from desert to global destination.
I’ve walked through cities built from nothing, slums reborn into smart cities, dry places turned into hubs of innovation.
But what about Nigeria? Instead of transformation, we’ve had deterioration.
Buhari’s Presidency Was a National Setback.
In my honest view, one of our greatest political mishaps was the Buhari presidency.
It didn’t just plunge us into economic distress, it fractured our nationhood.
• It emboldened criminal enterprises in the name of ethnic impunity.
• Banditry, terrorism, herdsmen killings, kidnappings exploded under his watch.
• Corruption, what he claimed he would fight, became normalized and unchecked.
We lost more than just years of development, we lost trust, unity, and the little peace we had left. Nigeria hasn’t just been delayed; it’s been bruised, infact, its beeb fractured.
To the fair, Tinubu inherited a fractured country, instead of healing, he broke the spirit of the nation, Nigerians going through
excruciating pains since the inception of this Tinubu regime.
2027 Can’t Be Business as Usual. If our 2027 choices are Atiku, Obi, and Tinubu, we must admit that we are stuck in a replay of tired ambitions.
Let’s be real: You can’t solve 21st-century problems with ambitions stuck in 20th-century thinking. We don’t just need change. We need reinvention. We don’t just need elections. We need leaders with vision.
Vision is the architectural drawing carried in the mind long before a single foundation is laid. It is the mental blueprint of what must exist, though unseen by others. Just as a master architect sees a skyscraper in his imagination before the first brick is touched, true leaders carry in their minds a nation reborn, long before others believe it’s possible.
We must ask every aspirant in 2027, “Do you carry a national vision equal to the pain and potential of Nigeria?” If the answer is no, let them rest.
We don’t need another politician, we need a builder, a reformer, a visionary.
A new Nigeria won’t come from the loudest voice or the oldest ambition.
It will come from the boldest vision.
