Whenever I think about 2015, I remember two births. One was the birth of my son. The other was the birth of a political promise called Change.
My son’s full name is Onweihekarichukwu — there is none greater than God. We simply call him Kari.
He came into my life at a time when despondency had almost overwhelmed me. His birth represented hope, renewal and the reassurance that God could still write a different ending. Kari was my own personal promise that tomorrow could be better than today.
By coincidence, he was born in the same season that the All Progressives Congress was making a similar promise to Nigeria.
APC told Nigerians that change had come. It promised a stronger economy, greater security, jobs, prosperity and a better country.
Kari is eleven now. And that coincidence has made his life an almost perfect measure of the APC years.
While Kari has grown into a taller and stronger boy, Nigeria’s economy has become weaker. The naira he was born into buys a fraction of what it did in 2015. Electricity has become more expensive and, for many Nigerians, no more reliable. Petrol has moved from an everyday commodity to a major household expense. Food, transportation and basic necessities increasingly consume incomes that have lost much of their real value.
The child of hope has grown up watching the promise of “Change” become the reality of diminishing possibilities.
Of the 11 years, President Bola Tinubu’s three years plus has been the most destructive. Indeed, he will be remembered as the undertaker. His administration has aggravated rather than reversed many of the failures inherited from the APC government before it. Nigerians are paying more for almost everything while receiving less value from their government.
That is why 2027 must be about more than changing personalities. Nigeria needs a change of direction.
The Atiku Abubakar–Rotimi Amaechi ticket of the African Democratic Congress offers that alternative.
Its production-based fuel intervention is an important part of that proposition, but it is not a one-policy agenda.
Atiku’s broader energy vision recognises that affordable energy is the foundation of a productive economy. Nigeria cannot continue with a system in which families and businesses pay heavily for petrol, diesel and electricity and still have to provide much of their own power.
The objective is to reform the electricity sector, encourage decentralised generation and expand Nigeria’s energy mix through gas, hydro, solar and other viable sources. Transmission and distribution must improve, private investment must be encouraged, and states and other sub-national entities must be empowered to develop power solutions suited to their economies.
Nigeria should be producing rather than merely consuming. Our oil and gas resources should support domestic refining, manufacturing, transportation, agriculture and job creation. Energy policy must ultimately be judged by whether it lowers the cost of production and improves the lives of citizens.
Security is another pillar. No economy can thrive where farmers abandon their fields, businesses fear moving goods across the country and families live under the shadow of kidnapping, terrorism and violent crime.
An Atiku administration proposes stronger and better-equipped security institutions, improved recruitment and training, better welfare for personnel, modern intelligence gathering, greater coordination among security agencies and clear accountability for results. Security must once again become the first responsibility of government, not an endless cycle of condolences after preventable tragedies.
Education is equally fundamental. The future Kari and millions of Nigerian children inherit will depend on the quality of education available to them today. Nigeria cannot aspire to compete in a technology-driven global economy while millions of children remain outside school and many of those inside classrooms are learning under conditions unfit for the twenty-first century.
The Atiku agenda places emphasis on free and compulsory basic education, improved infrastructure, better teacher welfare and greater investment in technology, innovation, vocational training, entrepreneurship and skills that connect education to employment and productivity.
These policies reinforce one another. There can be no serious industrialisation without electricity. There can be no sustained investment without security. There can be no competitive economy without education and skills. And there can be no meaningful prosperity when energy costs swallow household incomes and destroy businesses.
That is the difference between a campaign slogan and a governing programme.
Kari will be twelve in 2027. He will still be too young to vote, but the future that election determines belongs more to him and his generation than to those of us who will cast the ballots.
In 2015, Nigerians were asked to believe in Change. Eleven years later, we are entitled to ask what became of that promise.
For me, the comparison is unavoidable. One of the two births I remember from 2015 has fulfilled its promise. Kari has grown, flourished into a promising football talent and given me reasons for gratitude.
The other has not. Nigeria now has another opportunity to write a different ending.
The Atiku–Amaechi ticket offers a pathway towards affordable energy, reliable electricity, improved security, functional education, productive jobs and an economy in which hard work can once again provide a decent life.
Kari’s generation cannot afford another four years watching Nigeria’s promise recede before their eyes.
In 2027, those of us old enough to vote owe them something better. That’s the only way to assure their tomorrow.
Paul Ibe, Media Adviser to Atiku Abubakar, writes from Abuja.
