Why Obasanjo, Gowon, IBB, Jonathan, Buhari Should Form Party to Challenge Tinubu in 2027 – Lukman

Salihu Lukman, a former National Vice Chairman (North-West) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has urged former President Olusegun Obasanjo to join forces with other past leaders to form a new political party that can challenge President Bola Tinubu and the APC in the 2027 general election.

In an open letter, Lukman emphasized that Nigeria’s political leadership needs urgent intervention, calling on Obasanjo, alongside Generals Yakubu Gowon, Ibrahim Babangida, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Muhammadu Buhari, and former President Goodluck Jonathan, to play a pivotal role in rallying the opposition. He argued that this was necessary to end what he described as “Satanic leadership” in the country and pave the way for “Godly leaders.”

Lukman’s letter was in response to a recent interview where Obasanjo remarked that a leader “made by Satan is bound to fail, while God’s chosen one will thrive.” Reacting to the statement, Lukman insisted that lamenting about poor leadership without taking action would only strengthen Tinubu’s chances for a second term and prolong the nation’s challenges.

“It is not enough to lament about the fact of Satanic leadership in the country,” Lukman said. “So long as Your Excellency and other past leaders fail to assert their moral authority in ways that can lead to the emergence of Godly leaders, it is as good as working for the second term of President Tinubu and his team of failed leaders at all levels with all the problems they created.”

The former APC chieftain further argued that Nigeria’s leadership issues are rooted in the political system, which he said has been reduced to an “assemblage of cheerleaders,” enabling impunity to thrive. He warned that unless a new, functional political platform is created, any attempt at forming new parties would only replicate the APC and PDP models, resulting in more failed leadership.

“With such makeup, acts of impunity will continue to drive politics, and even if we produce new parties with different names, such parties will at best be PDP and APC cloned,” Lukman said. “That is exactly what destroyed APC with all the potentials it had in 2015.”

He stressed that time is ripe for political re-engineering to produce a truly effective opposition party that could serve as a vehicle for change. Lukman called on all opposition leaders to set aside their personal ambitions and unite under a single platform to provide Nigerians with a credible alternative in 2027.

“In fact, it has already commenced,” Lukman noted, referring to efforts to build opposition alliances. “However, there are risk factors that, if left on their own, can pollute the process and take us back to square one and end up with another cloned PDP/APC.”

Lukman urged Obasanjo and other former leaders to rise to the occasion and take the lead in ensuring the opposition is united and functional. He maintained that without their intervention, Nigeria risks continuing under what he described as a leadership system driven by “Satanic logic,” which would worsen the country’s challenges.

“The biggest risk factor is the failure to humble all opposition political leaders and get them to unite under one political platform,” he concluded.