The campaigns have commenced, and the jostle for the 2027 presidential election is beginning to take a feverish turn. As should be expected, Nigerians are advancing a myriad of reasons why Bola Tinubu, the man whose presidency is tormenting them, should not be returned to office for a second term. But as they do this, the tiny cabal that is benefiting from the Tinubu disorder are fighting back. Their benefactor cannot be dismissed just like that. They are raising arguments in favour of the president’s second term bid. That is the natural order of things. There can be no life of any sort without contraries.
Regardless of the attempts to defend Tinubu, whatever they are worth, the outcry from anti-Tinubu forces remains deafening. Nigerians of different persuasions and backgrounds are unable to come to terms with the disruption inflicted on them by the president. The protestations represent the disapproving voices of distraught Nigerians who have been rendered dysfunctional by Tinubu’s maladministration.
But what are the suffering Nigerians saying? They are against President Tinubu for inflicting maximum damage to their lives and livelihoods. They are worried by the fact that the Tinubu order has reduced them to hopeless voyagers. They are ill at ease with the present state of affairs in which want and privation have assumed a life of their own. Their unmistakable verdict is that Nigeria under Tinubu is headed for perdition if nothing urgent is done to rescue the country from his vicious hold. Nigerians, just like other citizens of the world, want to be alive. That is why they are very concerned with matters bordering on their survival. They want to ensure that their country is properly governed for the good of all its citizens.
But something seems to have receded from the memory of Nigerians in their anti-Tinubu campaigns. They seem to have forgotten the initial, and persisting, blunders that heralded the Tinubu order. Principal among them is the ethnic bias that characterizes the president’s appointments. When Tinubu made it a point of duty that only his ethnic brothers and sisters would occupy more than 90 percent of all the appointive positions that matter, Nigerians were taken aback by his bigotry. They wondered why a man who had, over the decades, posed as an apostle of democracy and good governance suddenly became an incurable irredentist. But while they expressed dismay over the actions of the Tinubu they did not know, the man did not bat an eyelid. He continued with his ethnocentric appointments. The Tinubu disposition has been so ugly that it is making Nigeria look like one big ethnic enclave inhabited majorly by people of Tinubu’s stock. Most regrettable about all this is that the president’s action in this regard is against the spirit of one Nigeria. It is an unbridled assault on national unity and stability. The people’s verdict then is that any man as biased and little-minded as Tinubu is not a good material for the office of the country’s president. For many Nigerians therefore, Tinubu has, by his own error of commission, sang the requiem for his presidency.
It is therefore strange that Nigerians are no longer talking about it. By not making it an issue in the ongoing campaigns, Nigerians are simply saying that what Tinubu has done in that regard is not an issue. It means that the people have come to accept it as the new normal. For a country like Nigeria that is struggling with ethnic cleavages and biases, what is required is a pan-Nigerian leader who sees the entire country as his constituency. Tinubu’s nepotistic actions betray the fact that he has an axe to grind with Nigeria. He is not happy with the country. He does not even believe in it. His actions show that he has been waiting for an opportunity to get back at Nigeria by way of revenge. But who or what is Tinubu revenging against? In what way has Nigeria hurt him or his people? Even if he is hurt in any way, is public office about revenge? Any leader who wants to succeed must be even-minded. Biases such the ones that Tinubu has displayed against Nigeria and Nigerians is unbecoming of a leader. To imagine that such a leader is the president of a country is even more damning.
While weeping and gnashing their teeth over Tinubu-induced hardship, Nigerians should remind the president of who he truly is. An ethnic bigot cannot advance the cause of a country in the right direction. He can only destroy the very fabric that holds the entity together. Tinubu’s guilt in this regard should not be glossed over. The time has come for the country to present him with a mirror. The reflection will remind him of who he truly is.
What about his Muslim Muslim ticket? Have Nigerians forgotten or have they come to accept this arrangement as another new normal from Tinubu?
As the campaigns go on, Nigerians must not forget how they got to where they are. It is time for them to understand that Tinubu’s presidential ambition is more important to him than the unity of the country. Nigeria is a country held together by a tiny thread. Disunity has remained the most destructive cankerworm that the country is struggling to kick off. Yet, what Tinubu chose to do in 2022 was to take a precipitate action that has the potentialities of tearing the fragile unity of the country apart. As a way of getting the support of the Muslim-dominated Northern Nigeria, Tinubu accepted the poisoned chalice they set out to administer on him. They asked him to settle for a Muslim-Muslim ticket in order to get their support. He accepted it without qualms . This arrangement was hotly contested then in Christian circles. Issues around it dug deeper holes on Nigeria’s bumpy highway. Christians in Nigeria were decidedly against that arrangement. But the powerful cabal which wanted Tinubu by all means made a mess of the people’s choice.
Four years after, we are at it again. The same Tinubu is waving a Muslim-Muslim ticket at Nigerians. He did it before and Nigeria did not fall. He wants to do it again because, like before, Nigeria would go on as if nothing is the case. That is the stage we are in now. The stage of arrogance. The stage where some will have their way at the expense of national unity. But what would have happened if the reverse were to be the case? I mean, how would Nigeria have fared if someone had come up with a Christian-Christian ticket? Some will say that there will be an uprising from a section of the country. This scenario points to one thing. In Nigeria, what is good for the goose is not good for the gander. That is unfortunate. The campaigns should remind Tinubu of the precarious situation he has put Nigeria in with his Muslim-Muslim ticket. If we do not, same faith ticket of the Muslim variety will become a new way of doing things in Nigeria.
QUOTE:
“Tinubu’s nepotistic actions betray the fact that he has an axe to grind with Nigeria. He is not happy with the country. His actions show that he has been waiting for an opportunity to get back at Nigeria by way of revenge”.
