Power without performance: The 2027 reckoning the world must heed

Professor Mondy Selle Gold

It will be exceedingly difficult for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to secure a second mandate in 2027. At the summit of leadership, longevity is never the ultimate measure of success. What endures are strategic coherence, moral credibility and outcomes that tangibly improve the lives of ordinary citizens. On these defining pillars, the current administration appears dangerously unmoored, drifting amid a storm of unmet promises and deepening public discontent.

Nigeria’s security crisis has metastasised like an untreated wound, spreading across regions and generations. Yet there is still no clearly articulated, coherent and time-bound national strategy capable of restoring public confidence or decisively dismantling the machinery of terror.

Millions of internally displaced persons remain trapped in limbo—caught between loss and neglect—awaiting not sympathy, but a humane, actionable blueprint to rebuild their communities and restore dignity. Equally troubling is the absence of a doctrine committed to the total eradication of terrorist networks, rather than their cyclical containment. In matters of sovereign responsibility, uncertainty is not prudence; it is an invitation to chaos.

This raises a question that can no longer be ignored: can a nation endure when its leadership appears blind to widespread suffering? History, relentless and unforgiving, shows that Nigeria’s stability is inseparable from global equilibrium. As Africa’s most populous country and a keystone of the Global South, Nigeria’s leadership choices send ripples far beyond its borders.

International partners invested in democratic integrity, regional security and economic predictability cannot indefinitely overlook prolonged drift. Influence may rarely be theatrical, but its expectations are unmistakable—competence, legitimacy and results. When these are absent, confidence quietly withdraws, leaving a nation exposed to scrutiny and doubt.

Ironically, the political strategies deployed by President Tinubu to fragment the opposition have produced the opposite outcome. In attempting to keep Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi apart, the administration underestimated the unifying power of shared national hardship. Economic distress, democratic erosion and institutional fatigue have narrowed ideological distances while broadening common purpose. What political manoeuvring failed to achieve, lived experience has accomplished.

In seeking to weaken the opposition, the presidency has instead consolidated it. President Tinubu now faces the most formidable alignment of his political career—not merely a coalition of personalities, but a convergence of public memory, collective grievance and rising international scepticism. Across the Nigerian diaspora, particularly in the United States, dissatisfaction has hardened into conviction, signalling that the global community is watching with heightened vigilance.

Politics is fluid and often unpredictable, but numbers carry their own moral gravity. In 2023, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi together garnered more than 13 million votes. This was no electoral residue; it was a clarion signal—a warning and a rehearsal for the reckoning ahead.

This leads to another urgent question: will the international community, including partners who have acted decisively elsewhere, remain passive as terror and neglect continue to spread across Nigeria?

True leadership, as recognised by nations that command respect, does not linger in the shadow of a retired army captain masquerading as a cleric. Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, with his hollow sermons of influence, has become a destabilising mirage—an irritant on the nation’s pulse.

America long ago learned to recognise the face of terror; Nigeria’s tolerance of this self-styled sage is both tragic and farcical. His continued prominence is a theatre of chaos, tolerated at the expense of national coherence and the quiet dignity of governance. Vision becomes mockery when authority flirts with folly, and the state trembles under the weight of absurdity.

Leadership demands foresight that listens and authority that acts. What currently passes for President Tinubu’s vision for Nigeria is, regrettably, unconvincing—an unsettling display of incompetence and self-interest. The agenda being pursued appears to serve only a narrow elite bent on mismanaging scarce national resources. Vision without execution is a cruel illusion; power without performance is a hollow farce, exposed the moment it is tested against reality.

As 2027 approaches, the central question before Nigeria—and the watching world—is no longer about political tactics, but about national direction. The electorate, bruised yet alert, is increasingly unmoved by rhetoric and resolute in demanding measurable results.

The Nigerian diaspora, particularly in the United States, has already demonstrated its capacity to shape outcomes, and global engagement is no longer optional. The environment is shifting, and the consequences of inaction will be severe. This raises a final, piercing question: can those with influence, who have confronted injustice elsewhere, remain idle—or is this the moment to act decisively to prevent further calamity?

The window for corrective action remains open, but it is rapidly narrowing. What is required now is not defiance, but discernment; not delay, but decisive and courageous leadership. The world is watching. President Donald Trump is watching. History will not forget.

Professor Mondy Selle Gold, PhDs, CFP, FICLG, FEBS, is an American-based scholar, Deputy Pro-Chancellor of Edsea Business School and HIBC School of Divinity, and authorised biographer of Major Isaac Adaka Boro. A recipient of the United States President’s Lifetime Achievement Award, he serves as Co-Chairman of the African Policy and Research Consortium.

A former Chairman of the NADECO Board of Trustees, he currently chairs the BOT of the African Democratic Congress (USA), is National Academic Adviser for AcadPass, and Patron of Democrats for Genuine Change. An inductee of the Nigerian Hall of Fame and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Governance and Leadership, he writes extensively on governance, human rights, global diplomacy and religion in public life.