Three years ago, Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, laid a visionary foundation, one shaped by discipline, service, and strategic investment. He promised a homeland that would evolve into the African Dubai-Taiwan-Silicon Valley. 

Today, that promise has transformed into palpable progress. But the Soludo story is not stopping or resting on its oars. It is shifting from gear to gear, powering transformational development and growth 

As the first lap concludes, a new phase begins, a phase of bold acceleration, deeper transformation, and the crystallisation of Anambra’s destiny.

Governor Soludo’s next chapter is built around scale and sustainability. Three new smart cities, namely Awka 2.0, Next Onitsha, and the Anambra Mixed-Use Industrial City (AMIC), are poised to redefine urban living in Nigeria.

Awka 2.0 is envisioned as Africa’s first truly smart and green city, where AI, renewable energy, and clean mobility meet seamless governance.  

Next Onitsha will emerge as a commercial, logistics, and retail powerhouse, complete with Africa’s largest shopping mall, revitalising the region’s historical trade legacy.  

AMIC, already underway, will fast-track the state’s journey into an export-oriented, manufacturing-led economy.

This urban trilogy is the architectural signature of a state in turbo-mode, expanding beyond today’s limits into tomorrow’s potential.

Governor Soludo’s next phase includes a comprehensive Oncology Centre, Anambra’s answer to Nigeria’s growing cancer burden. This will complement the telemedicine backbone already in place, ensuring that quality healthcare reaches not just cities but the most remote wards.

Every resident, no matter where they live, will have real-time digital access to medical consultations. Health emergencies will meet smart responses. Rural births will receive world-class care. Governor Soludo’s health vision is radical in its simplicity: every life must count.

The Solution Innovation District (SID) will scale its operations with the One Million Digital Tribe Initiative, a plan to equip one million Ndi Anambra, especially youth, with the tools, training, and opportunities to thrive in a global tech economy. 

The state is deploying over 2,000 km of fiber-optic cable, opening up high-speed internet access to every LGA. Startups will flourish, creators will innovate, and jobs will be created not by government handouts but by tech-enabled ingenuity.

Add to this is the coming Anambra Smart Education Ecosystem, including a new University of Education, a Smart College of Nursing, and leadership finishing schools, and you begin to see the complete human capital pipeline Governor Soludo is engineering, from classroom to a productive career, from village to virtual. No one is left behind 

The next frontier is connected, mobile, and efficient. The Anambra Transport Masterplan will deliver a state rail network, linking major commercial centres, dualisation of more Trunk A highways across the state, a modern mass transit system, combining BRTs, water transport, and digital ticketing. This is all about productivity, ease, and environmental responsibility.

Also, Governor Soludo is set to unlock Anambra’s untapped tourism goldmines, projects that will merge heritage with hospitality. This means that Ogbunike Caves, Owerre-Ezukala Waterfalls, and Agulu Lake will be developed into world-class eco-tourism destinations with supporting infrastructure, security, and luxury accommodations. 

The Marriott Hotel in Awka, with the groundwork on-going, will anchor a new era of business and leisure tourism in the state. Culture, once an afterthought, will become commerce. The way of life of the people will be projected respectfully and sustainably.

Governor Soludo’s next chapter further focuses on food security and climate-smart agriculture. The vision includes Smart farms across zones, using tech to monitor yield, irrigation, and soil health; A central Agro-Processing and Export Hub, linked to the AMIC; Scaling of the coconut and oil palm revolution, targeting economic self-reliance at the household level; and A reactivated Ifite-Ogwari irrigation infrastructure enabling 2-3 rice cycles annually, potentially turning Anambra into a regional rice powerhouse.

To ensure that no student is left behind, a comprehensive Anambra Students’ Bursary Scheme will be launched. Targeted at indigent but brilliant students, this programme will remove financial barriers to higher education, complementing the ongoing free basic and secondary education policy of the government. This is Governor Soludo’s philosophy in action: equal opportunity, not equal outcome, empowering merit and enabling dreams.

So far, Governor Soludo’s three-year track record has silenced doubters and inspired believers. But what is coming next is even more compelling. It is a future where digital connectivity meets social equity, where health is accessible, roads are navigable, cities are livable, and the environment is breathable. It is a future where transformation is not measured by applause, but by impact; and where Anambra, once a departure lounge, becomes the dream destination. Acceleration mode is now activated.

I have taken liberties to somewhat adapt the title of the prophetic poem, Come Thunder, written by Christopher Okigbo, one of Nigeria’s most talented first generation poets, as title of this piece. Okigbo, a contemporary of the Chinua Achebes, Wole Soyinkas, John Pepper Bekederemo-Clarks, wrote the highly prophetic poem at the time, which was concretely validated by latter day developments. Okigbo’s piece of art, undertook a dispassionate view of Nigeria’s sociopolitical turmoil at the time and predicted a rancourous denouement. Lightning and thunder, two fearsome, natural phenomena famous for leaving trails of blood, death and destruction, Okigbo predicted, would characterise the coming Tsunami. Okigbo had barely dropped his pen after writing Come Thunder, than Nigeria degenerated into fractious civil war. This was triggered by the resolve of the country’s contemporary South East and adjoining territories, to secede from the country. The larger Nigeria would also not subscribe to such a move. The secessionists had indeed christened the territory they desired to appropriate, as the Republic of Biafra. That strife validated Okigbo’s clairvoyance to the very letter. A zealous Okigbo enlisted to fight on the side of Biafra wherein lay his birthplace and homeland. Sadly, he died in battle in the same 1967 when he wrote Come Thunder.

No election, since I became a politically conscious Nigerian adult, has been as frenzied and talked about as the forthcoming 2027 presidential election. Yes it is almost two years away but the “flag-off,” that is bringing it to the front burner of fervid public conversation, was instantiated just months into the life of the Bola Tinubu presidency. A thanksgiving service held in honour of Barry Mpigi, Senator representing Rivers South East in February 2024, nine months into the administration of President Bola Tinubu, was the forum where the subject was first broached. Armed with a job and an address as reward for undermining his bona-fide political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), in the 2023 presidential election, Nyesom Wike the truculent overseer of the Federal Capital Territory Administration, (FCTA), blew the bugle at the event. Those who know Wike very well, know that he suffers the “microphone disease.” It is an affliction manifested in the inability of microphone-wielders to simply be pointed and laconic. They over-reach themselves and veer off the course of the subject of immediate concern.

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio who was also at the thanksgiving used the opportunity to canvas for the election of an Ogoni governor in the 2027 polls. This, he observed, is necessary to acknowledge the place of the Ogoni nationality in the nation’s socioeconomic life. Once he got a grip of the microphone, however, Wike alluded to his privileged position as a member of the PDP serving in a government led by the All Progressives Congress, (APC), as availing him the opportunity to get both sides to return Tinubu in 2027. “See as we are today,” Wike blurted. “If we all come together, who can defeat us in 2027? Nobody,” he answered himself. A video clip which trended on the social media last year, showed Wike singing and marching to the now famous Tinubu anthem, “On Your Mandate We Shall Stand,” in the office of the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila. Ever since, the talk of Tinubu’s reelection in 2027, has dominated national discourse.

Major APC bigwigs notably the party’s national chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF), George Akume, have intoned at various fora, that “there’s no vacancy in Aso Villa, come 2027.” Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Umo Eno, declared at the flag-off of the segment of the Lagos- Calabar super highway, that he and his constituents would support “Baba,” in reference to Tinubu, for a second term. Days after, Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, his predecessor, Ifeanyi Arthur Okowa, and the entire PDP pyramid in the state, defected to the APC, all in a calculated move to back Tinubu’s second term. Such is the fever-pitch craze to determine the 2027 presidential election, two clear years before the expiration of his subsisting tenancy in the State House.

Nigeria, meanwhile, has transmogrified into a sprawling landmass of ungoverned spaces, a testament to the near absence of conscientious administration. Whereas the Boko Haram scourge which has festered in the nation’s North East was the deadliest security scourge, new terrorist groups have taken position in other parts of the country. The Lakurawa, an armed group reportedly affiliated with extremist organisations operating in the Sahel region, especially in Mali and Niger, have made incursions into the North West, notably in Sokoto and Kebbi states. A previously little-known Mahmuda group is digging in in Nigeria’s North Central, notably in Niger and Kwara states. Borgu local government area in Niger, and Kaiama and Baruten local government areas in Kwara, have been the worst afflicted in recent weeks. About two dozen people were recently killed by members of the sect, around the Kainji Lake National Park area in Kwara State.

Plateau and Benue states, also in Nigeria’s North Central, have lost no less than 350 people in recent attacks by marauding herdsmen and cold-blooded criminals. Benue alone is estimated to have lost at least 250 people. The calibre of weapons and ammunitions deployed in these attacks transcend familiar armaments as deciphered from the profiles of expended shells found at various theatres of ruination. Whole communities have been sacked in instances by these terrorists, their lives and affairs disrupted. The populations seeking refuge in inconvenient camps for internally displaced persons, (IDPs), in Benue for instance, continue to swell. The hitherto recessed and serene Bunu district in Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu federal constituency has been at the receiving end of the antics of criminal voyeurs who abduct, attack and maim innocent rural folk. Pressures by well-meaning constituents of the area has gingered the Nigerian Army’s recent approval of a Forward Operating Base, (FOB), to be stationed in the area to secure lives and property.

A far-sighted Sunday Karimi, the Senator representing Kogi West zone had last October, delivered a fully built and kitted FOB in Egbe, Yagba West local government area, to the military to help deploy in the containment of insecurity in that part of the state. A recent report by The Sun newspapers suggests that almost 600 people have been massacred by herdsmen, bandits and free-style killers within the last six months. The report indeed captures figures of casualties in Nasarawa, which is put at over 100, and Kogi states, where about 60 lives have been wasted. Both states complete the six in the the North Central which effectively surmises that the whole of the zone is at the mercy of criminal bloodhounds.

Sadly, in several instances, the nation’s military, intelligence and security forces have been blamed for their laissez-faire attitude in nipping internal security threats in the bud. The military high command has indeed been fingered in instances, for the unnecessary politicisation of personnel deployment at the various theatres of operation. One often cited example is the recall, years ago, of Anthony Mayowa Atolagbe, a highly professional Major General who was erstwhile Field Commander of the Joint Task Force, (CJTF), overseeing the Operation Safe Haven. Atolagbe, a veteran of international military operations, very ably led an uncanny amalgam of land, maritime and air forces, as well as police, civil defence and prison personnel on the frontlines of Plateau, Kaduna and Niger states. Atolagbe’s ruthless efficiency was said to have angered certain interests who subtly canvassed his recall and redeployment. This was at a time he was on the verge of total clearance of troubled territories under his command.

Notable figures in Nigeria’s military and intelligence ecosystem have repeatedly admonished Nigerians to rise up to defend themselves. Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, a former Chief of Army Staff, (COAS) and Defence Minister respectively, speaking at the convocation ceremony of the Taraba State University in Jalingo in 2018, advised his kinsmen to rise up in self defence. The Nigerian state, he warned, is incapable of guaranteeing the security of its citizens. Days ago at an event in Takum his hometown also in Taraba State, Danjuma re-echoed his advisory of seven years ago. Nigeria’s longest-serving President of the Senate thus far who is also a retired Army General, David Alechenu Mark, recently challenged Nigerians to rise up to be counted in the fight against banditry, kidnapping and killings. He was reacting to recent incidents of unprovoked attacks of his constituents by faceless gunmen. Mark, by the way was a military governor and minister respectively, under Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, an Army General, during Nigeria’s years of military rulership.

Minority Leader of the Senate and successor to Mark, Patrick Abba Moro equally opined recently, that locals in places may be compelled to recourse to self-help in the face of government’s powerlessness in protecting lives and property. Adeola Oluwatosin Ajayi, Director-General of the Department of State Services, (DSS), said as much at a recent lecture hosted by the Institute for Security Studies, (ISS), Abuja. He alluded to his entreaties to his kinsmen back home in Ogun State, to do their bit in self-protection and not to be wholly dependent on government. Such is the despairing reality of the security situation across the country. All of these are happening when Nigeria’s leaders at various levels of the governance pyramid, have appropriated sizeable proportions of security personnel to themselves for their personal protection, the mass of the people abandoned to their whims.

One cannot but feel nostalgic about those years when governance was serious business, even in a multiparty democracy. President Olusegun Obasanjo never discussed his desire to run for a second term until three years into his first term. Indeed, as many political appointees as desired to vie for elective office, Obasanjo approved of their prompt disengagement from their briefs. He forbade the impairment of governance by the political distractions among his aides. That prototype of administrative discipline has since been lost to the overarching selfishness, vandalistic consumptiveness, voluptuous avarice and competitive nepotism of the contemporary political class. Politics has effectively been professionalised in Nigeria. Nyesom Wike, would in 2027, for instance, have grossed 28 years of active “political service” at the expense of taxpayer’s monies, starting from his days as chairman of Obio-Akpor local government area in Rivers State at the onset of the Fourth Republic in 1999.

Left to a Wike, the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), should by now have written, signed and presented the Certificate of Return, (C-of-R) for the 2027 presidential election to his Principal. He is that obsessed, restless and impatient, bothering on delirium, about this subject. Let’s hope 2027 doesn’t come with cataclysmic accompaniments like Okigbo’s Come Thunder, with the way that all-important year is being courted and beckoned upon by preemptive agents of state. They seem totally oblivious of the fact that they are unwittingly stoking the flames and fires of future mammoth conflagration, courtesy of their actions and inactions today. They play God by their boastful arrogance and haughty utterances. Please come quick, 2027.

Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), teaches Creative Writing at the University of Abuja

Two events in the past two weeks refreshed Nigeria’s national question and the extent of it’s geo – political implications. These occurrences relate to the selective character of past and current system engagement. By assuming the weight of trends rather than mere incidents, the developments signpost the deep contradictions of our federation project.

With specific reference to the southeast, the gaps between the present federal government’s rhetoric and action reveal an unwillingness to pursue an inclusive framework.

Nigerians recently woke to the alarm that youths from the five southeast states were abandoning the opportunity to enlist into the army. The widely publicised concern was raised by authorities of the Nigerian army in the course of the 2025 recruitment exercise. The disinterest is said to have assumed a worsening trend in recent years. According to Daily Trust’s report (April 14, 2025), leader of the 2025 Army Recruitment Enlightenment Team, Chima Ekeator, a brigadier-general, observed that in the last few years, youths from the zone have kept shunning their slots.

“Kaduna State recorded over 3,000 applications in the ongoing 2025 recruitment exercise while Enugu State was still struggling to get 100 applicants. Enugu State was given about 200 slots, but the people who made it were never up to 100 due to poor application. This has also become a recurring decimal in other states in the South East.” Lending credence to the observation, Enugu State Commissioner for Youths and Sports Development, Barr. Lloyd Ekweremadu, “regretted that the problem had persisted despite the collective efforts to reverse the trend and called for a review of modes of advertising the opportunities and the need to provide more details about the benefits of serving in the army.”

Nigerian Tribune of April 10, 2025 reported that while in Abia State, the enlistment team spokesman lamented that ‘the region is losing out during recruitment exercises, citing an example from last year when Abia State was allocated nearly 200 slots, but only 53 were taken up. He added that similar situations were observed in other Southeastern states.’

The unfolding scenario is definitely worrisome. Alienation of any part in an organisation inevitably leads to dysfunction. It’s effect on a State’s security architecture, as the saying goes, should be better imagined than experienced. We commend the army for being sensitive to the situation. It’s to the credit of Nigerian army leadership that it is according this potential flashpoint serious attention. Assurances of complementing ongoing sensitisation with other remedial measures are welcome. Since the situation appears to be peculiar to the southeast, the army will do well to feel the pulse in the region as it seeks solutions. The enquiry should go beyond the stereotype that disinterest in military service is as a result of IPOB’s counter campaign. There are other ideas associated with the growing boycott which either predate the IPOB or have been shaped by specific experiences.

A southeast affirmation policy was naturally expected in the aftermath of the civil war. The depletion of Igbo ranks in the military rather than spur an adjustment plan, propelled a dismissive approach to the zone. In this put – down strategy, the southeast was almost totally ignored in the siting of military – industrial complexes. Officers from the region bore the brunt of erosion of professionalism and military discipline. Whereas a Shehu Musa Yardua could receive double promotion from lieutenant colonel to brigadier to fit in as chief of general staff, supreme headquarters, an Ebitu Ukiwe, did not deserve a slight push from naval commodore to rear admiral, to shut off those breathing down his neck as chief of general staff. I know three retired military officers from the southeast who were of NDA,1983, 35th regular course. One was retired as army captain; another as lieutenant colonel and the third as navy captain. Their premature disengagement was attributed to their not having godfathers. Then, relate the treatment to the feeling that a greater disproportion of soldiers of southeast origin are tasked with anti terrorism operations in the north. But the big morale killer is the perception that before long, captured insurgents are declared repentant and set free.

Yet, the army’s initiative to regain acceptance in this part of the country is laudable. But to bear fruit, the initiative must look at the broad picture. Preliminary findings point to systemic, rather than compartmentalized problem. As an institution, the army cannot be the only agency of government grappling with social alienation. The difference seems to be that while the army admits of it’s challenges, other spheres tend to ignore the system defect.
And this leads us to the second contrary event mentioned in the opening paragraph. The media reported the shocking story of inauguration of presidential committee on census and housing on April 17, 2025, without representation from the southeast and southsouth zones. Of the seven man committee, five members are from the southwest and one each from the northwest and north central. The outrage following this divisive step is suitably captured in the statement by Otu Oka – Iwu, the apex body of Igbo lawyers. From The Punch edition, (April 22, 2025) the lawyers declared: “This is not just an omission. This is a clear and calculated act of marginalisation, one that reinforces the entrenched and widening pattern of exclusion and systemic discrimination against the Igbo people and our neighbours in the south south region.” For the avoidance of doubt, the release tackles the diversionary defence of technocracy. “A national census is not a technical exercise, it is political, economic, social and cultural. It determines representation in government, allocation of resources…It defines who counts and who is counted.” And beyond a few murmurs about the composition’s link to portfolios held, the federal government has maintained embarrassing silence on the subject. In any case, the plea of office – determined selection is not exonerating. The concentration of sectoral offices in one or two zones is deplorable.

Denial of due measures to the Igbo constituency had been on the ascent since 1970. But while the injustices of the past cannot be shifted to the present government, she is to be held to account for the inequitable treatment of groups since it’s assumption of power. On at least two occasions now, functionaries of the government have come forth with what was certified as distribution of appointments by the administration. The purpose behind the authentication was to disprove the impression that the southwest was dominating positions in government. First of the records, released in November 2024 was restricted to military/ paramilitary appointments while the schedule unveiled March 2025 extended to other political appointments. The revelation from the fact – checks was indicting nevertheless. While the lists did not catapult the southwest to overall first position, they showed brazen favouritism by the lopsided allocations to the region. What stopped the southwest from dethroning the northwest were the inherited fixtures from Buhari’s provincialism. But even as this provided a cover for current self indulgence, it did not hide the demotion of the southeast and southsouth. Out of 20 security positions, the northwest had 8; southwest took 5 and the two inconsequential zones of the south got 1 each. In the expanded list of appointments, the southwest had 29 slots; northwest 36; southsouth 22; and southeast 16! The ferocity and consistency of the discrimination against the southeast is such that will affect the psyche of the people in the region. This is the reality the army must contend with as it tries to engage the population on military service. It will be rewarding if the army and indeed other agencies of government will reorientate towards inclusivity and fairness. That will be a win – win for Nigeria and the zone. To fail in this task will translate to public relations for enemies of a united Nigeria.

It is no more news that in a scathing revelation that raises serious concerns about the future of Nigeria’s democracy that former presidential adviser and ex-lawmaker Dr. Usman Bugaje has accused the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) of using financial inducements to lure key figures from the PDP. Speaking on Arise TV, Bugaje warned that the blatant monetization of politics poses a grave threat to democratic values in the country. If his claims are true, Nigeria’s democracy may be on a dangerous path.

Without a doubt, if Dr. Usman Bugaje’s allegation is anything to go by, and there is every reason not to dismiss it as a mere political rant, then what the APC is doing is no less than striking at the very heart of Nigeria’s democracy. The former House of Representatives member and ex-presidential adviser did not mince words when he said that the APC is buying off members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with money. If this is the truth, then democracy as we know it in Nigeria is fast becoming an expensive joke, a dark comedy directed by the highest bidder.

Let us start by acknowledging that Dr. Bugaje is not a political lightweight. His decades of experience and closeness to the corridors of power lend his statements significant credibility. So when he claims that defectors from PDP to APC are being enticed not by ideology, policy alignment, or a sudden epiphany about APC’s competence, but simply by raw cash and threats of prosecution, Nigerians must sit up and ask themselves: What exactly are we operating, democracy or dollar-cracy?

The latest defection from PDP to APC, this time involving Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori and his predecessor, Ifeanyi Okowa, along with an entire army of political appointees, has left many Nigerians wondering if our democracy is now nothing more than a bazaar. One by one, opposition members are crossing over to the ruling party like traders switching shops for better sales, and the reason, according to Bugaje, is simple: money.

In any true democracy, party affiliation is ideally based on shared ideology and vision for the country. But in Nigeria, we have thrown ideology to the wind. What we are seeing is a dangerous culture where political loyalty is dictated by who can dangle the fattest envelope. This is no longer politics; it is political merchandising, and APC seems to be perfecting it.

Bugaje hints at a disturbing possibility that deserves deeper scrutiny: that some defections might be coerced through the threat of EFCC prosecution. If this is true, then the ruling party is not only weaponizing state institutions to suppress dissent, but also undermining the fight against corruption by turning it into a tool for political gain.

It would mean that instead of prosecuting offenders regardless of party affiliation, the EFCC is being selectively deployed to haunt opposition members, until they “see the light” and defect. Once they do, their sins are forgiven, and they suddenly become “born again” politicians in the APC fold. This political baptism by defection is a disgrace to the fight against corruption, and a betrayal of the very Nigerians whose votes are being manipulated by this unholy alliance of power and impunity.

Bugaje also touched on another bitter truth, there is effectively no opposition in Nigeria today. The PDP has lost its voice, its spine, and its soul. From the moment it allowed Minister Nyesom Wike to play the party like a chessboard and eventually align with the APC while still claiming PDP membership, the writing was on the wall.

The absence of a strong, vibrant, and courageous opposition is a grave threat to democracy. In democratic systems across the world, opposition parties are not just a formality; they are the lifeblood of accountability. They scrutinize policies, challenge excesses, and keep the government on its toes. In Nigeria, the opposition seems to have been pocketed, and the pockets are lined with currency notes.

What is most shocking is the silence of institutions and civil society in the face of these allegations. If indeed money is being used to buy political loyalty and EFCC is being weaponized, where are the voices of reason? Where are the legal luminaries, the electoral watchdogs, the international observers, and most importantly, the Nigerian people?

We cannot afford to normalize the abnormal. The dangerous precedent being set here is that elections and mandates mean nothing. What matters is who can spend more and threaten harder. That is not democracy, it is tyranny in the guise of electoral legitimacy.

For the APC, the short-term gains of swelling its ranks through defections may seem like a smart political strategy. But it is a ticking time bomb. A party built on political scavenging rather than ideological unity will eventually implode. The very people being bought today will jump ship tomorrow when a higher bidder comes knocking. It is a political Ponzi scheme.

Moreover, the consequences for national cohesion and trust in democratic processes are devastating. Voters will eventually realize that their votes mean nothing. That elections are a mere ritual, a show to keep up appearances while real power is negotiated in backrooms with cash and blackmail.

Usman Bugaje is right to raise the alarm. We should not wait until democracy collapses entirely before we start holding those in power accountable. Nigerians must demand transparency in political funding. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must be empowered and required to monitor party financing and political transactions beyond elections. EFCC must be audited independently to ensure it is not a puppet of the executive.

More importantly, Nigerians must stop being complacent. The price of democracy is eternal vigilance, and right now, we are all sleeping on duty.

If money continues to be the currency of political loyalty and if parties like APC continue this brazen attempt to cannibalize the opposition through bribery and blackmail, then the country is on a dangerous path. A nation where no ideology is sacred and no vote is safe is a nation courting disaster.

To quote Bugaje, “for as long as money is going to be the determining factor, then that is the end of democracy.” And make no mistake about it, he is not crying wolf. He is ringing the alarm.

APC may think it is building an empire. What it is actually doing is hammering the final nails into the coffin of Nigeria’s already fragile democracy. The question now is: will Nigerians rise to resuscitate it, or will we watch it rot beyond repair?