Opposition Still Arguing Over Who Will "Carry The Flag" In 2027, Flag Currently On The Floor

So the plan was simple: opposition parties come together, agree on one person, face Tinubu as one united front, make 2027 competitive. Beautiful plan. Very sensible. The kind of plan that works perfectly right up until real human beings with real egos are involved.

Because as it stands, everybody wants to be the "consensus candidate," but nobody wants to be the one who steps down for the consensus candidate. It's like four people ordering one plate of rice and each person insisting they should hold the spoon.

Every few days, somebody floats a "grand coalition." Then somebody else says the coalition is "still being finalized." Then a chieftain somewhere gives an interview saying talks are "progressing well," which in Nigerian political language means absolutely nothing has happened, but nobody wants to be the one to admit it publicly.

Meanwhile, the camps are already forming. One group says it should be zoned to the North. Another group says the South has waited long enough. A third group is quietly asking if anybody has considered them, even though nobody invited them to this conversation in the first place. And somewhere in the background, an aggrieved former ally is threatening to run as an independent "on principle," which every Nigerian knows is code for "I did not get what I wanted."

By the time this actually gets sorted, if it gets sorted, 2027 might already be knocking on the door, and the ruling party will simply sit back, watch the opposition argue about chairmanship and structure, and let democracy do what it does best in Nigeria: reward whoever is the most organized, not whoever is the most popular.

Because here, having the better message has never mattered as much as having your paperwork sorted before the other person even wakes up. And right now, nobody in that room can even agree on what time to wake up.