In the 2022 APC presidential primary election, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as a contestant, had to suffer sleepless nights with negative effect on his fragile health to achieve his desire. He launched an aggressive campaign exercise covering the entire APC holds in Nigeria. He reached out to those party leaders that mattered, and even to those that mattered less incase of the obvious.
He assembled a campaign team comprising all manner of politicians with the hope of achieving his dream of ruling Nigeria not bothered with his credibility deficiency, and poor health status.
He was a regular visitor to the Presidential Villa, and No.40 Blantyre Street, Abuja where the APC National Secretariat is still squatting as tenant. His aspiration was responsible for the sack of Adams Oshiomhole as APC National Chairman, and the appointment of a caretaker committee chaired by one Maimala Buni, supposedly the serving governor of Yobe State.
Despite the temporary setback, Tinubu never reneged. He continued with the fight to the end. But before the end of the fight, he almost worshipped the APC national chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu just to have his endorsement for the presidential ticket.
Tinubu played his cards well and got the ticket for the race. He kick-started his campaign project with the Change slogan of their party, which has since been replaced with Renewed Hope after he ‘purchased’ the presidential seat as he said. The change slogan is no more fashionable in APC because it has along with it an eight-year monumental failure (2015-2023). Instead of changing the old order for the good of the country as it promised, it failed woefully below the old order it promised to change. Things got worse that forced Nigerians to cue for palliatives to survive the harsh economic condition. Nigerians were transformed to victims of clueless government without direction. Things were falling apart without solution at sight. Nigerians in groups regretted voting for their undertakers ignorantly.
APC accessed the presidency in 2015 through intimidation, blackmail and threats to national unity. It wasn’t prepared for leadership of a complex country like Nigeria. It assumed office trying luck without a clear blue-print of action but governing the country through trial and error mechanism.
That was the situation that birthed Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the presidency in 2023. He joined the presidential race not armed with any blue-print other than Emi-lokan and Omoluabi agenda.
It’s over three years in the Tinubu presidency. Nigerians are still waiting to count list of those achievements promised. For a sitting president like Tinubu, a second term campaign is supposed to be a reaffirmation of the good work he has done in the years gone by. Under such circumstance, a performing President will readily mount the rostrum and march his words with performance. A President who has utilized the first opportunity offered him appropriately will naturally project into the future or consolidate on the good job he has done so far that deserves a clarion call for continuation.
For Tinubu, who has spent the better part of his first tenure on dangerous politics at the expense of governance, a second term campaign will be an uphill task without positive results to support the campain. Let’s isolate just one national incident to illustrate Tinubu’s incapacitation and mindset.
In April 2026, Plateau State, Nigeria’s ethno-religious killing field was in the news as usual. The state had, as always, witnessed another gruesome massacre in one of its volatile communities (Unguwar Rukubu) within Jos North metropolis.
Suspected terrorists had swooped on the impoverished sleepy community, leaving in their wake tears, sorrow and blood. Over 30 people were reported dead in the attack with several others critically injured.
The President, no doubt, had no plans of visiting Plateau State to see for himself what had happened. But because everything in Nigeria, including the death of innocent people has been reduced to politics, the President hurriedly decided to present Nigerians with a façade of a presidential condolence visit to Jos.
At first, Nigerians were taken in by the grand last minute deceit. Nigerians thought that the President would sympathetically visit the survivors in the hospital where they laid sick. Little did they know that the President had already instructed Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang to ferret the critically injured to Jos airport to see him briefly as their President before departing to his real destination in Ogun.
The ceremony attended by some selected Plateau State indigenes, was very brief without any iota of meaning other than President Tinubu had visited, had a brief chat with some indigenes and departed. But before his departure, he played politics with Jonah Jang, former governor of the state who was at the airport as one of those invited. The whole drama started and ended within 30 minutes.
But one must commend Tinubu for understanding the real motive behind the crisis rocking Plateau State. At the brief airport ceremony, the real culprits who allowed the escalation of the crisis were present, and hypocritically quiet as if they were innocent. Joshua Chibi Dariye and Jonah David Jang couldn’t have been invited at the first instance.
At any rate, nothing can be stranger than Tinubu visit in human history. It sounds unreal and inhuman. But that was what actually happened. The scenario was an enactment of a show of shame. It was an assault and insult on the memory of the dead and a mockery of the injured living. No leader in Nigerian history has shown that level of insensitivity in the midst of agony of its people.
But was the President under any compunction to travel to Jos to condole with the people in the first instance? No.
The President didn’t have to visit Plateau State under compunction. But if he must, then the proper thing could have been done. But he wanted to look politically correct. He did not want the opposition to criticize him for non-appearance. So, he reluctantly decided to play to the gallery. What we got in the end was the scandal of a presidential visit that never was.
But if one may ask, why did the President shy away from riding into or walking on the Plateau to show solidarity? Several Nigerians believe that he was equally afraid for his life as the terrorists could be nearby monitoring events at the airport. He couldn’t be sure of what the terrorists could do should he venture into their territory. And so, he fought shy. The contrary explanation from the presidency was sheer balderdash. Then you wonder: if the President could be so afraid of visiting part of the land he governs, what then becomes of the entire helpless citizens?
One expected the President to visit other affected communities within Plateau State to commiserate with them over the loss of loved ones: Riyom, Bokkos, Barikin Ladi, Dorowa Babuje, Ex-land, Mangu, Panyam, Garga, Kukawa, Bunyun, Kanfani, Zurak, Gaji, Zak, Nyalun, Yuli, Bangalala, Gimbi and Pinau. That wasn’t even on his agenda because even the State Governor, had never for once visited some of those troubled areas to commiserate with the people. The governor was always quick in visiting selected areas when attacked such as Bokkos, Mangu, Bassa and Riyom but not parts of Wase or Kanam. That’s a topic for another day.
The President’s assurances to the people of Plateau State were, in themselves, another source of scandal. Obviously bereft of any substantial thing to say to the people, he promised them thus: this will never happen again. The distraught people needed a soothing balm. The President’s words seemed to convey some to them. That was why they chorused and clapped. The President also promised them that cameras would be deployed, thenceforth, to monitor and track the activities of terrorists. Yet, there was no intention to match words with action. The President just uttered those words for saying sake in the absence of better words. If not, since the government knows of the idea of mounting cameras to monitor and track criminals, what stopped the government from mounting same cameras along the federal highways to monitor and track criminals until the Unguwar Rukuba massacre?
Indeed, to prove to the world that the President just entertained the people with fanciful declarations, the terrorists whom he said would never be given a chance to strike again dared him almost immediately. They struck the next day in Jos South, killing three. Since then, the killings in Plateau State have continued unabated almost on daily basis.
But Plateau State is not an isolated case. The killings are ongoing everywhere in the country. Plateau State was even fortunate for the presidential visit. What of places like Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Kebbi, Niger, Borno, Yobe, Taraba, Nasarawa, Kogi and Adamawa States? They have never been considered for any visit to commiserate with the bereaved. In fact, Tinubu’s wife had never visited Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Niger, Kogi, Adamawa, Taraba, Yobe, Borno and Nasarawa State to donate anything for the displaced. She visited Plateau State twice. One is not yet talking of Southeastern states.
When the Unguwar Rukubu massacre occurred, it was at about the same period the United States asked its embassy staff to leave Nigeria. This was in reaction to widespread kidnappings and killings. The Nigerian Government to say the least has so far demonstrated helplessness.
It has taken no concrete step to stem the tide of the violent extremism and ethnicity in the country. Given this scenario, can the President carry his campaign to any of those embattled abandoned states? Will he be able to answer few questions from the people if allowed to speak? What will Tinubu tell the people to convince them?
While gallivanting from Plateau to Ogun- Lagos, and then Bayelsa State, Tinubu left no one in doubt that he has no solution to the country’s problems. While in Bayelsa State to commission some projects completed by the State Government, Tinubu told his audience that Nigeria was not worse in the ongoing energy crisis.
He acknowledged the sufferings of Nigerians occasioned by the spike in the prices of petroleum products. But his message said nothing about how the country he governs can get out of the woods. Rather, he wanted Nigerians to know and appreciate the fact that citizens of some other countries are suffering more than Nigerians. For the President, therefore, Nigerians have not suffered enough to warrant any intervention from his government for now.
What rankles, the most in the face of all these is the President’s suffocation of the political space for his selfish interest. A misgoverned people, anywhere in the world, have the right to choose who should govern them.
But Tinubu and his goons are foreclosing the right of Nigerians in this regard. They desperately want the people to continue to grovel. That is why the President and the electoral commission, which is saddled with the task to midwife the coming transition programme, do not want the opposition to breath for fear of the obvious. They are working hard to ensure that the opposition withers away so that the people will be struck with the Tinubu disorder. But they misfired!
The battle for the soul of Nigeria is going on at the moment along this line. Armed with a biased and shameless electoral umpire, the President is behaving as if Nigerians are conquered slaves who have no right or choice and cannot have any over anything.
It is ultimately scandalous that the man who is taking Nigeria through this blind alley was once one of the strident voices who used to make so much noise about democracy and human right. For over three decades, Tinubu postured tirelessly about democracy. Many thought he was real, serious, and believed him. Today, they are convinced beyond doubt that the man was only a pretender to the throne of democracy. Having fooled the people, he now wants to also deny them the right to hold any contrary opinion. Indeed, the Tinubu deception is the challenge that Nigeria is faced with at the moment.
Surmounting it is a task that must be accomplished, if Nigerians must get to understand the real stuff the Tinubu is made of, then they have a way out of the trap.
Muhammad is a commentator on national issues
