2027 Elections: Fantasies and Realities of the City Boys Movement
By Paschal OluchukwuThe realities, intrigues and fantasies of the 2027 general elections proposed for about the next 12 calendar months appear to have been heightened by the formal launching of the City Boys Movement- a brain-child of the son of President Bola Tinubu ostensibly as a counterpoise to the Obi-dient movement of the 2023 polls. Although many, especially within the ruling All Progressives Congress fold may argue that such a move could be strategic particularly as they are now being spearheaded and championed by some Lagos-based purportedly rich, affluent and influential businessmen of Igbo extraction.
Perhaps, hailers of the City Boys Movement may need to be reminded of the historical pasts of similar political movements and how they eventually ended and crumbled like a pack of cards even before the actual elections, purposes or political seasons for which they were formed. In 1993, a group known as Association for a Better Nigeria, ABN had been formed and led by Arthur Nzeribe, Brigadier Haliru Akilu and Abimbola Davies. The goal of the group which was described then by the New York Times as “a lobbying group of wealthy businessmen, politicians and military officers” was to lead a highly visible campaign urging General Babangida to remain in office for at least four more years. As a matter of fact, the ABN through its activities was anti the Nigerian masses as it used its connections to the powers that be and huge access to State resources to influence the annulment of the June 12 elections adjudged to have been won by Chief M.K. O Abiola and celebrated as the freest, fairest and most credible election in our history.
The group however eventually outlived its nuisance value or ‘usefulness’ following the appointment of Ernest Shonekan by the Ibrahim Babangida administration on August, 26th 1993. Similarly, when General Sani Abacha came under intense pressure from both domestic and the international communities to return Nigeria to the path of democracy after he ousted Shonekan from office in a bloodless coup, he succumbed and preparations were intensified for a democratic transition. A political melodrama, again strangely emerged just as political parties began desperate search for their Presidential candidates. A group known as Movement for the Actualisation of Abacha’s Presidency, (MAAP) emerged. Founded by a certain Daniel Kanu- a youthful Igbo ‘influencer’ as he can be christened in our present era. In further search for relevance and loudness, it decentralized into YEAA- Youths Earnestly Ask for Abacha with a deep-fake pretentiousness to be a highly organic movement making claims of holding a One Million Man Match across the federation for a coupist and a maximum dictator like Abacha.
Of course as expected, their chief benefactor, Abacha doled out State resources in its quantum to fund the jamboree that styled itself as a movement to enthrone him as a democratic President. Anticipatedly, Kanu and other leaders in MAAP-YEAA became stupendously enriched by State resources that money became an ‘ocean’, not even water as being noised by the Obi Cubanas and his acolyte, Cubana Chief Priest flaunting today’s City Boys Movement. Unfortunately, while the pranced through the nooks and crannies of Nigeria desperately trying to baptize dictator Abacha who had become a nightmare to Nigeria’s very nascent democracy into a democrat, death came like a thief in the night and stole Abacha. As expected, the movement and its purveyors scampered for safety and it died a natural death.
For those who are therefore attuned to history, what Tinubu is doing with his son, Seyi Tinubu today as ‘City Boys Movement’ was dusted off from the archives of history – no strategy, no creativity, just an assemblage of so-called bourgeoisie with an economic survivalist mentality having little or no influence over their people’s electoral choices and mandates. In their idealistic fantasies, the movement’s leaders are largely isolated from the daily sufferings of the poor masses who are at the receiving end of Tinubu’s misgovernance and the hell that Nigeria has become to live, thrive and survive in.
It is even more instructive to assert that the common Nigerian masses, especially my Igbo brothers know and understand that the movement is merely a cashout platform for the so-called big boys and influencers and therefore won’t organically metamorphose and transit into any real electoral value or impact. This is why the emergence of the ‘Village Boys Movement’ self-launched by individuals across the country to serve as a counter to the City Boys Movement is even generating more interests and enthusiasm among the angry Nigerian youths who seem very determined to see true democratic change through the ballots of the 2027 general elections.
The rumours in the air that scores of billions of naira from State’s purse may have been released to the coffers of the movement’s leadership to organize early campaigns and mobilizations for Tinubu could be evidenced in the rally held last weekend in Owerri by Cubana Chief Priest wherein he promised the youths “empowerment”. But for selfish and self-preservation reasons, the desperate money-na-water ‘influencers’ parading as today’s City Boys Movement ought to have known that the Nigerian youths now seem wiser as even evident in their wider push for electoral reforms that would make real-time transmission of elections results possible in the 2027 polls.
The reality is that when push comes to a shove, the City Boys would even be limited to cities they operate in as urban Gorillas while the village boys would take charge of their localities where the actual votes come from. Nigerian youths should not be deceived by the noise from the city boys. It will eventually fade away like those before it. They must galvanize their energy towards ensuring that they vote out Tinubu and the evil party- APC that has held its progress back for over a decade and yet counting. After all, the President Tinubu himself that had told Nigerians in the 2023 election campaigns not to vote for him for a second term if he fails to provide them with constant electricity in his first term in office is currently planning to exit the national grid due to incessant collapses, thereby leaving the fate of the over 250 million Nigerians and their businesses to hang in a precarious balance.
Moreso is the fact that Tinubu and his APC goons are still very jittery about the 2027 elections despite luring at the last count 31 out of the 36 State Governors in the country to their fold with the Federal Capital Territory also being under their ‘firm’ control. The fear of the ruling party is so thick that one can literally cut through it with a knife. The Nigerian youths appear awoken to the very consciousness that like revered author and literary genius, Chinua Achebe succinctly identifed; the problem with Nigeria is fairly and squarely that of leadership. They therefore seem determined to get it right and ensure that square pegs no longer occupy round holes across the nation’s polity.
Above all, the 2027 general elections with all the intrigues, drama and theatrics already playing out at the moment promises to be interesting! It is a make or mar for a nation that has made electoral fraud a norm by every known antecedents and past historical records. The youths should be wise, make their votes truly count and decide their future no matter how much the forces of evil try to prevail.
- Paschal Oluchukwu , a Political and Social Affairs Commentator wrote from Abuja, Nigeria.