OBLONG MEDIA GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE.
Nigeria is bleeding. From Benue to Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Zamfara, Katsina, Niger, Enugu, Imo, Ebonyi and other parts of the federation, communities have endured killings, kidnappings, farm invasions, land seizures, displacement and the collapse of rural life. The national wound is not imaginary. It is documented in graves, abandoned farms, IDP camps, widows, orphans and ruined villages.
This is why the ambition of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar must be interrogated beyond party politics. The issue is not simply that he is Fulani. Nigeria’s constitution does not disqualify any ethnic group from power. The issue is whether any man seeking to lead Nigeria at this dangerous moment has demonstrated the moral courage to confront the criminal elements associated, rightly or wrongly, with his own ethnic stock.
Under Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria witnessed what many citizens interpreted as official indifference toward murderous herder bandit violence. Communities cried. Clergymen cried. Farmers cried. Yet the presidency often sounded slower, softer and more defensive when the perpetrators were suspected armed herders than when other groups were accused. That perception destroyed national trust.
Atiku now carries a similar burden of perception. Has he spoken? Yes, he has condemned killings in general terms. But has he confronted the Fulani question directly, consistently and courageously? Has he publicly challenged Miyetti Allah, armed pastoralist networks, cross-border criminal herders, cattle militias, bandit sponsors and elite enablers with the same force he uses against political opponents? That is the question.
Nigeria cannot afford another president whose body language will be interpreted as ethnic protection. We cannot afford another leader whose silence emboldens killers. We cannot afford another presidency where victims are lectured about tolerance while their ancestral lands are occupied, their farms destroyed, their women violated, their children abducted and their villages renamed by force.
The South East must be especially awake. Igbo land today is nearly encircled by insecurity: forests infiltrated, highways unsafe, farms abandoned, communities intimidated, and politicians pretending all is well because elections are approaching. The same political class that cannot defend its people is now asking citizens to suspend memory and embrace ambition without accountability.
Atiku is also no longer a fresh political option. Age, health, energy, clarity, urgency and emotional connection matter in a country on fire. Nigeria does not need another ceremonial president managed by handlers, consultants, cabals and ethnic pressure groups. Nigeria needs a physically alert, morally courageous, mentally sharp and nationally trusted leader who can confront insecurity without fear or favour.
Therefore, the 2027 question is not whether a Fulani man is constitutionally allowed to be president. He is. The real question is whether Nigeria, after the Buhari experience, can again trust a Fulani elite politician who has not convincingly confronted the atrocities committed by armed men widely identified with Fulani pastoralist networks.
If Atiku wants to be president of the whole Nigeria, he must speak to the whole Nigeria. He must tell Benue, Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Enugu, Imo, Ebonyi, Taraba, Niger, Zamfara and Katsina exactly where he stands. He must denounce armed herder violence by name. He must reject land-grabbing. He must support ranching, border control, disarmament, prosecution of sponsors, compensation for victims and restoration of displaced communities.
Until then, Nigerians are entitled to ask: is his silence caution, complicity, fear, calculation, or ethnic solidarity?
Nigeria must never again reward ambiguity with the presidency.
By Hon. Chima “Oblong”Nnadi-Oforgu
Duruebube Uzii na Abosi
For Oblong Media Global Intelligence.
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