Former President Olusegun Obasanjo raised political dust of monumental proportion when he advised President Muhammadu Buhari to drop his 2019 re-election bid in a letter that was released to the press recently. In the same letter, the erstwhile ruler wrote off the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in favour of a Third Force Movement in the form of a Coalition of Nigerians that share his vision.
As if acting from a prepared script, it took only a couple of days for the Nigeria Coalition Movement (CNM) to be officially launched in Abuja, the nation’s capital city with people like Olagunsoye Oyinlola, Donald Duke and Ahmadu Ali at the forefront. While Nigerians were still speculating about the conspicuous absence at the event, Chief Obasanjo (OBJ) is also known, enrolled into the movement the arrow heads of the Abuja episode superintended over in Abeokuta, capital of Ogun State, Chief Obasanjo’s home state in a matter of hours.
Nigerians have since been divided on whether or not the Third Force Movement is a viable political option that cannot only wrest power at the centre in 2019 but also lead the country out of its current socio-political and economic woods.
Two political activists in their own rights bare their minds on the vexatious issue in Port Harcourt during an interview with The Tide: Excerpts.
Dr. Emmanuel Iruayenama, Management Consultant and Public Affairs Analyst
I’m not sure that what he means is a political party, but if it’s a political party, then it is part of the failures of the existing political parties. Perhaps, what it simply means is conscientised set of Nigerians that will guide either the ruling or any other party that comes to win at every point in time at the national stage.
If, on the other hand, it is a political party he is tinkering with, first, I have had cause to look at who Obasanjo is vis the statement he is making and the persons he expects to form that third force.
However, if it’s a political party, he is tinkering with, it is only going to be one of the existing failed political parties. I don’t see a third force working in Nigeria as it is today. That is, if it’s going to be a political party, it’s not going to work. It is a waste of time.
My thinking is that it is a conscientised set of persons coming around to help shape already existing party in power or a party that would come to power. If that is it, then people could be drawn from all existing political parties to see how they can support government in power; to see how they can direct thinking in government. But to say he wants to form a new political party, I wish him the best, but I know it has failed before arrival.
So far it is laughable. No new persons; seen people. I even saw one Mr. Fixer. For me, they are a group of persons who have failed in the existing political parties and are merely looking for where they can hide their heads. Nigerians know them, so it won’t work.

Andy Akpotive, Public Affairs Commentator
It’s very impossible for man and indeed any being created by God to stop an idea whose time has come. For me, there couldn’t be a better time for this idea to take expression in our country than now.
For too long, we have been managed by people who are completely clueless about what administration of a state should be like. For too long we have had a group of people who at best are supposed to be at the garage, administering the affairs of this country. We have had square pegs in round holes and round pegs in square holes.
So, for the very first time, those who are instrumental to the current destiny that we share as Nigerians, some of them have been able to say that ‘before we die, let us rewrite some of these ills, some of these evils that we have helped to perpetrate.’
One of such persons is actually Olusegun Obasanjo. For me, that man is beyond an enigma; that man is a movement. So, today he is saying that ‘if I have been instrumental to how it came the first, the second time, the third time, I have one more chance, particularly because I’m at the exit lounge right now much more than I was twenty years ago, I have this option to change and turn things around.’
So, for me, this is something that indeed is very exciting, it’s an idea whose time has come so we need to talk about people who are youth, people who are visionary, who have the passion to revolutionise the things that affect us as a people, people who are passionate about putting Nigeria on the map of countries that are developed, countries that are progressive, we can have them come and take center stage and begin to drive this car and leave this place to the destination we need to get to.
As it stands at the moment, it is a movement but it is most definitely going to evolve into that which will create the opportunity for the people whom it supports to get into elective positions. What I am saying is that, most definitely, it will evolve into a political party or it could join itself with other political parties of like minds and throw up candidates that, according to the vision, will be able to give us the ideal that we want from a state.
It is pseudo political party so that he is able to fix the super structure and attract the best of people to give the political party the needed experience. I have no doubt that it is going to evolve into a political party or at worst join with other political parties to support certain people who carry the DNA of the new Nigeria that we aspire to be.
The question is, is it going to be different from the way the APC is currently constituted as a political party that has strange bed fellows? Would it not be something that is going to move in that direction? However, the difference with this one is that it will be a political party that is structured for the youth.
Today, we have a government that is at best a gerontocracy, a government of the old ruling the young. We have a government of people who used certain ideals, knowledge, principles over forty years ago are made to superintend over challenges that would require 2030 wisdom to address.
So, we are talking about an Obasanjo and Olagunsoye Oyinlola who understand that ‘our time is down, our time indeed is out but we can provide the structure for the youth to run on, we can provide the board that can spring the youths to the highest heights so that when we’re long gone, seeing that we’re at the departure lounge, the children that are left behind will say that we were a part of the failure and we were also a part of the success story of the Nigerian project.

Opaka Dokubo