Why Do We Fight?

Charles Odibo We fight because Nigeria, our country, blessed with vast resources and brilliant people, remains trapped in a crisis of leadership that has reduced the lives of millions to a daily struggle for survival. We fight because the promise of independence, of democracy, of a country that works for its citizens, has been repeatedly betrayed. And we fight because silence in the face of such failure is complicity. On this sunny but resplendent day in Houston, about 10,480 kilometres away from Nigeria, I stand before you committed Nigerian diaspora community to say that the struggle for a better Nigeria is not confined to geography. It lives in every Nigerian who refuses to accept that the poverty, insecurity and institutional decay – inflicted on us by this APC government – are our permanent destiny. A Nation in Crisis The numbers tell a story more brutal than any speech. Nigeria ranks 161st out of 193 countries in the UNDP 2023/24 Human Development Report, firmly in the low human development category. Nearly 20 million children are out of school—one of the highest figures in the world. Our healthcare system ranks 187th out of 191 countries according to the World Health Organisation. Multidimensional poverty traps 133 million Nigerians, or 62.9 per cent of the population, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Between July 2025 and June 2026 alone, 7,825 people were kidnapped and 1,142 killed. These are not abstract statistics. They are mothers, fathers, students, traders and farmers whose lives were cut short or permanently altered by a failure of governance. This is not fate. It is the accumulated consequence of leadership that has prioritised power over people, patronage over performance, and short-term political survival over long-term national development. The 2023 Elections and the Trust Deficit The 2023 presidential election deepened that trust deficit. Data from Mundx.com, an election monitoring application, revealed serious anomalies. Forty-eight per cent of the result sheets uploaded to the IREV portal were not transmitted from BVAS machines but from more than 800 phone devices—contrary to the law. In Rivers State, Peter Obi recorded the highest number of votes on the IREV portal, yet the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Bola Tinubu the winner. In Oru-East Local Government Area of Imo State, over 100 polling units had no agents from any political party according to the Form EC8A documents uploaded to IREV. Yet the All Progressives Congress won virtually all of them. More troubling still, those results were uploaded from just two locations—one in Omuma in Oru East and another on the Owerri-Port Harcourt road, near the state INEC office. The photographs of the Form EC8A sheets from these units were taken a day after the election, not at the polling units themselves. These findings do not require embellishment. They speak for themselves. They explain why millions of Nigerians, especially young people, feel that the electoral process has been compromised and that their votes do not count. When citizens lose faith in the integrity of elections, democracy itself is placed at risk. From Voices to Organised Action We have shouted. We have marched. We have demanded change. Now we must organise. Obidient Connect was born from that recognition. It is not another talking shop. It is a practical platform designed to turn frustration into structured civic power. In Nigeria, it connects Obidients and other well-meaning Nigerians polling unit by polling unit. It organises for effective voter mobilisation and election-day vigilance. It enables Nigerians anywhere in the world to donate in support of grassroots work and civic education. Critically, it provides real-time transmission of certified polling unit results to a central dashboard, creating an independent layer of transparency that can flag discrepancies as they occur. The goal is straightforward – every polling unit should have representation; every result should be visible; every attempt to manipulate the process should be exposed in real time for the world to see. The Wind Is in Our Sail Public sentiment offers reason for hope. The SBM Intelligence Voter Sentiment Tracker, conducted across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones, shows Peter Obi with a +58.3 net favourability rating. Bola Tinubu stands at –58.5. Obi leads on favourability in every zone except the Northeast. When respondents were asked about party or coalition voting intentions, the NDC associated with Obi and Kwankwaso was substantially ahead of both the APC and the ADC. A Reuters survey in August found that nearly 80 per cent of Nigerians believe the country is heading in the wrong direction, with economic hardship and insecurity cited as leading concerns. These figures confirm that a large and growing section of the population is hungry for an alternative. Why Your Contribution Matters This is investment, not charity. Your contribution helps protect votes. It helps hire and train poll watchers. It helps provide food and water for citizens who choose to occupy INEC offices in peaceful defence of the electoral process. It sustains the technology that flags IREV discrepancies in real time on the Obidient Connect platform. It strengthens our independent real-time vote transmission capability so that results can be seen live by Nigerians and the international community. And for those in the diaspora, it reduces the constant pressure of sending money home to cushion the effects of a failing system, because the long-term solution is a Nigeria that works. Every kobo will be accounted for. Transparency is not a slogan; it is a pledge. The funds will go into three core areas. First, connecting Obidients, building a dense network so that no polling unit is left without eyes and voices. Second, organising the grassroots, training, mobilising and equipping local volunteers with the knowledge and tools they need. Third, protecting the vote through technology that makes citizen monitoring practical and public. This is about more than one election cycle. It is about the survival of Nigeria as a coherent, hopeful nation. It is about the dignity of our children and the possibility of a country that works for the many rather than the few. We have come this far together, through the campaigns of 2023 and now 2027 beckons, through the disappointments and the renewed determination. The journey is not finished. History is still being written. Why do we fight? Because the alternative is surrender. Because a nation of 200 million people cannot continue to rank near the bottom of every meaningful human development index while its leaders congratulate themselves. Because the young people who fill our streets and our social media feeds deserve more than empty promises. Because those of you in the diaspora who send remittances, who watch from afar as insecurity and poverty deepen, still carry Nigeria in your hearts and refuse to look away. The wind is in our sail. The data, the energy, the growing organisation on the ground all point to a moment of possibility. What remains is the will to convert that possibility into reality, polling unit by polling unit, result by result, citizen by citizen. Thank you. And may God bless you all. Odibo, Coordinator, Obidient Connect, delivered this keynote presentation at the Texas Obidient Connect Rally held in Houston, on October 10, 2026.