OP-ED :The Salvation of Nigeria Is Not in This Coalition: A People-Powered Future

I am a man in my mid-50s. Life has taught me that some truths remain elusive, but others have become as clear to me as the lines on my palm. One of those is this: no nation is saved by waiting for external forces or political coalitions built on ambition and recycled influence. A nation is saved when its people, home and abroad, rise in consciousness, strategy, and unity to reclaim their collective destiny.

The salvation of Nigeria will not come from a coalition of politicians who, in previous dispensations, were given the opportunity to serve and failed to shift the national trajectory. These are not new messiahs. They are familiar names, figures with long-standing ambitions and tainted legacies. Some have sought the presidency more times than records can count. Their history is not one of sacrifice for the people but of political gymnastics and opportunism.

Let me be clear: I am not on the side of the current regime, nor am I intoxicated by the coalition positioning itself as an alternative. I am on the side of the people, the struggling masses who have, for too long, borne the brunt of elite failure.

Across the world, we are seeing a return to nationalism and protectionism. In the United States, the uncertainties surrounding Birthright Citizenship and the far-reaching implications of the new “Big Beautiful Act” signed into law on July 4, 2025, are reshaping immigration realities. In Burkina Faso and Mali, we are witnessing the stirrings of grassroots power. These are signs, if we dare to read them.

If we refuse to build our nations and continent, we risk becoming stateless. The world is sending two clear messages: First, no one is coming to save us but ourselves. Second, there is no place like home. As Scripture says, “He determined our appointed times and the boundaries of our habitation.”

I have listened carefully to the leading voices in this new coalition, and what I hear is not a people-driven vision, but personal ambition weaponized by the current socio-economic anguish of Nigerians. It is eerily reminiscent of the hope many placed in the Buhari-led coalition, which rode to power on the back of popular frustration with the PDP’s 16-year reign. That same coalition, now called the APC, delivered one of the most crushing disappointments in our democratic history.

Today’s coalition bears the same fingerprints: familiar actors like Abubakar Atiku returning with new packaging, recycled scripts, and the same desperation for power. It seems the political class has mastered the playbook, emerge during national distress, promise salvation, ride the wave to power, and leave the people stranded.

Listen to their talking points. Though they claim to speak for the people, they ignore the people’s true demands: electoral reform, restructuring, security, education, and justice. Instead, what we see is an orchestra of ambition, individuals who once demonized each other now united by nothing more than mutual convenience.

This is not a movement. It is a merger of motives, not of mandate.

True transformation cannot come from those who are unwilling to build from the grassroots. And let us be honest: a one-party state is not defined by how many parties exist on paper, but by whether any of them truly represent the people’s interest. In Nigeria, our parties often function as senior and junior arms of the same elite club. There is only one coalition in Nigeria, the coalition of the political elites! 

Even figures like Peter Obi, admired by many for his candor and competence, must reconsider the weight of the company he now keeps. It is doubtful he will emerge as the coalition’s presidential candidate. And even if he does, can fresh wine truly be poured into old wineskins?

My conclusion is clear and firm: Nigeria’s salvation is not in this coalition. It is in the hands of Nigerians themselves.

We must look beyond 2027. We must organize, intelligently, peacefully, and persistently. We must build long-term political movements rooted in the people, not in personalities. We must plant seeds that may not bear fruit immediately, but will, in time, yield the Nigeria we dream of.

Let us not be seduced by familiar faces with unfamiliar integrity.

The future is not in their hands.

It is in ours.

Written by Taiwo Akinlami