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The education Doctor Reuben Abati needs outside PhD!
By Sunny Igboanugo
Would any sane man go to Iga Idunganran and demand to buy the palace of Oba of Lagos or a piece of land inside? How much would anyone offer the monarch to cut such a deal? Even if Kabiesi is willing to sell, assuming he is so pressed for cash or the amount being offered is so mouth-watering and irresistible, would his chiefs allow it? Would ordinary Lagosians including even the area boys that swarm around that area of Lagos?
An accurate response to these questions should produce the right answer to educate Reuben Abati, the main anchor on The Morning Show, the breakfast programme on Arise Television on issues regarding the sale of land in Igboland. For indeed, despite his high educational level and high intellect, he still needs education – a lot of it.
That Abati is an intellectual giant and media guru is difficult to deny or put down even by his worst enemies. But there is more to intellectualism and media face to make things complete. I guess that’s where the problem is with (Doctor) Abati – he insists that everybody must include that prefix in addressing him. So, I must comply.
I guess Doctor Abati has everything anyone could desire in a country like Nigeria where superfluousness takes precedence over substance. His meteoric rise in the academia – getting a PhD at the age of 24 – certainly no mean achievement – speaks to this. So is his attainment in the media industry also enough proof.
Imagine leading the Editorial Page of The Guardian – the almighty Flagship of Nigerian media – where all the intellectual titans of a certain era in the country coalesced as a driving force of the nation’s thought industry – and at such a young age to boot. He couldn’t have been up to 30 at that time. So for this, he becomes a superstar – so elevated by an admiring public. But is that all there is to it?
Somehow, Doctor Abati, seems to reflect the reality of Nigeria. President Olusegun Obasanjo, put a finger to it in one of his public outings. He narrated how certain people had gone to God to complain about Nigeria. Why should you give this country everything on earth – abundant land with all manner of precious minerals buried in it – so rich that it grows virtually everything – too many waters that are home to the most prized aquatic life – human resources that prove the best across the globe – how could you be this partial?
God was said to have laughed at his accusers and told them to wait and see the type of leaders the country would have. Even those who took that complaint to God, which of course could have included people from Israel, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia or Singapore, would have been aghast at what Nigeria has turned out and would be thanking the same Almighty for not allowing them switch places.
Doctor Abati, as he wishes to be addressed, has virtually everything. But see what his immense gift has done to him. Like many of his ilk unable to manage their endowments, he has been struck with the same disease geniuses suffer – megalomania. He simply lacks the ability or knowhow to manage all the gifts bequeathed in him by nature and learning.
Imagine what he would have been if humility was added onto him as well. But instead, having been so bereft, where that virtue ought to be, sits a deluge of egomania, self-conceitedness, if not narcissism. Even a passive observer notices those features easily on that programme, where he ostensibly makes his own rules and brooks no form of opposition thereof. Who else hasn’t noticed him dismiss his critics as illiterates and uneducated? Who didn’t hear him call others social media rats? Many of such expressions are not only inelegant for use on television especially, but in most cases, forbidden totally. But he uses them.
“I’ve said it severally on this programme that nobody will tell me not to speak!” That was him last week, clapping back on the backroom staff, who apparently wanted to manage the programme to fit into the time and space allocated to it. Of course, he spoke while others had to recline and recede to their cocoons.
How many times did he have to shout-down his colleagues right there before the cameras? Even the irrepressible Rufai Oseni had had to suffer the impetuous, grumpy attitude and bow to the cajoling, if not bullying on many occasions. Who would have thought that Mary Chinda, his colleague could face such tongue-lashing in the open studio for the singular sin of not prefixing his name with Doctor?
Who else could have demanded that especially on television where it is a well-known tradition to address people by their first names if not Doctor Abati? It is this penchant for egoism that has been at play since last Thursday’s outing on the programme regarding his infamous comment about Ndigbo not selling land to strangers, which has now raised a lot of dust.
Now, much as I agree that targeting Ndigbo and handing them the short-end of the stick in Nigeria has remained a somewhat state policy under the All Progressives Congress (APC), beginning with President Muhammadu Buhari, as he then was and sustained on a higher scale by Bola Tinubu, his successor, I don’t think that he was playing anyone’s script in that direction. I definitely don’t think he was speaking for anybody.
I think he simply went into an overdrive as it is wont with him on many occasions. No doubt, the nature of the programme allows the anchors a lot of latitude to impute their opinions lavishly on given subject matters. But on many occasions, this has not only led to excessive licentiousness, but outright abuse. This was actually the case in this instance, in my view.
Now, what was in issue? Ojy Okpe, the anchor of What’s Trending segment of the programme, had played a video where Godswill Akpabio, Senate President, praised the entrepreneurial spirit, what he called the mercantile spirit of the Igbo that impels them to develop everywhere in Nigeria, including building their own residential houses and dwelling with host communities, something he says other ethnic groups lacked.
“The Igbo are very proud people, the Igbo are very mercantile, the Igbo are the only ethnic group in Nigeria that when they enter Kano State, they build houses in Kano State for themselves. They don’t rent. When they enter Lagos, they own almost two or three local governments, they build houses and live there. There’s no place they go they don’t make impact. But other Nigerians will come to my place, rent houses and live without building a structure. But the Igbo are not like that.”
This was what Abati reacted to. And what did he say? First was to acknowledge the truism in Akpabio’s comment. He even stressed the popular local saying that anyone that ventured into a community where there was no Igbo should scram immediately because it meant danger. But the problem is what he described as the flipside, which he took the liberty to adduce.
In doing so, he sought to take back with the left what he gave with the right hand, stating that in Lagos, for instance, it was rather the “liberalism” of the people than “conquering spirit” of Ndigbo that was at the base of their massive investment. Really? Pray! What is this liberal spirit supposed to look like when the lands were not given out free?
When did a symbiotic affair based on willing seller, willing buyer translate to one party doing the other a favour. For those who don’t know, it is with the proceeds of such lands Igbo people bought that families established businesses for themselves and sent their children abroad where they became high-rate professionals, with some of them becoming mega billionaires in foreign currencies.
This is not peculiar to Lagos. It is true of all the major cities in Nigeria. Families in major towns of Onitsha, Aba, Enugu, became very prominent because they sold land to outsiders to develop themselves. Onitsha became the hub of lawyers in the entire Igboland, because families sold lands and with the proceeds, sent their children abroad to study law. The evidence of that enterprises is everywhere.
Many interior Igbo families would like to be like Onitsha where land is hot cake or Aba, where families become entrenched as billionaires because they raised enough capital through land sales to engage in merchandises like textiles, stockfish, same as their counterparts in Lagos. Incidentally, it is the scallywags and urchins in such families that the public seem to focus on to count the losses. They never showcase the big men that attained their status from such proceeds. In other words land sales is a quid pro quo, where you lose something to gain something. It has nothing to do with accommodation or liberalism. It’s pure business, simplicita!
Besides, could an American in New York claim to be “accommodating” or being “liberal” to a fellow citizen from Texas who bought and built house in the city? Shouldn’t that be an anathema? Should those expression ever come from a public figure like Doctor Abati? Methinks no! That’s a dangerous mindset, the sought that has now become quite prevalent in recent years, especially of the APC-Lagos.
When Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu established the Apapa Wharf, was the thinking like this? Did he acquire land to set up and engage in other businesses that made him the richest man in Africa, because the Yoruba were liberal or because each of the people in the value chain saw opportunities? Did Aliko Dangote establish the Dangote Refinery Limited in Lagos, because the Epe people are the most liberal in Nigeria?
Citing what he claimed was the experience of Thomas Owolabi Shobowale (TOS) Benson, the late Yoruba politician and lawyer, who rose to the rank of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), and who he quoted as claiming that his Igbo in-laws refused to sell land to him, Doctor Abati had stated how that summed up the “irony of Nigeria about the politics of the federation.”
Then he went off: “The same Igbo who are so industrious that they are all over and do well in other parts of Nigeria, you go as a non-Igbo man to go and buy umunna land, you will be told that you don’t belong even as an in-law. That’s by the way of an aside, but these are the issues, in my view!” Does he know what Umunna land is all about? That’s where he should have begun the conversation.
By now, it would have been obvious to Doctor Abati that he committed a faux pass given the deluge of responses that have trailed his comment. In fact, it would have been much so as he stepped out of the studio on that Thursday into the volleys of reactions from Ndigbo across the world. Even those with him in the Arise News studio, who were privy with the Igbo tradition would have schooled him adequately.
The encounter between him and the same Ojy Okpe the next day, seems to underscore the fact that he must have been privy to the other side of the story. They must have told him the difference between Umunna land, which is land belonging to a family as opposed to land belonging to an individual. He must have been told the reason such lands are seldom sold to an outsider, including members or the same community.
All he needed do at that stage, was to at least clarify his position or provided further evidence if he was convinced he was right. That’s if apology would be too heavy in his mouth. But he didn’t. Instead, he remained obstinate and even switched on a combative mode, dismissing the opposing views as nonsense is the key issue. That’s the way of the pompous – a disease of the self-centred.
How would it look that a whole Doctor Reuben Abati, who ought to know everything, and whose job is to teach and correct the ignorant society, who practically learn at his feet, would now submit himself to correction? That constituted the albatross that made him thunder at Ojy Okpe, when she tried to bring up the issue with the obviously sole intention of offering him the opportunity to make amends.
Even since that time, more evidences have been pouring out about how wrong he was on the matter. Beside many examples of Yoruba people owning properties in Igboland, the Mbieri people of Imo State – the supposed in-laws of TOS Benson have also contradicted the TOS Benson supposed narrative. It has now emerged that the people saw it as an anathema to sell land to their in-law, but instead, donated one to him, where he now decided to build a post office that is still standing in the community till date.
Indeed, the issue of Ndigbo not selling land to outsiders didn’t start from last week. It is an old story. But the classic response is how many houses do these people have in other areas outside Igboland? Recall Akpabio that spoke is not Igbo and the reference he was making wasn’t about Igboland. He was complaining that other people do not copy Ndigbo who build houses in Akwa Ibom and live.
He insisted that rather do so, others simply rented for the number of years they lived in the state and departed thereafter without owning properties. That was the crux of his submission. Abati, ought to have made more sense if he had detailed how many houses, he built in Akwa Ibom or anywhere outside Lagos to justify his hunger to buy Umunna land in the South East.
How many houses do other tribes have elsewhere outside their homelands? Are the people in Maiduguri refusing to sell land also? Are people of Benin, Delta, Benue, Katsina, Rivers, Ibadan or Ekiti selling to only Igbo people? So, why are other ethnic groups not dominating the Igbo in those areas where lands are sold easily to outsiders unlike Igboland who hoard their land?
Except anyone could prove that he went to buy land from the ubiquitous real estate companies or land dealers that advertise on daily basis all over Igbo cities and was denied on account of not being Igbo, Doctor Abati, would not make sense. But insisting on buying Umunna land or okpuno obi land, is like insisting on buying land inside the palace of an oba or a sacred shrine in Osogbo. The response to that is a no-brainer. If that is the crime Ndigbo committed, then it will be repeated over and over for many years to come.
Doctor Abati must have been told this much. But has it changed anything? Will it? Nada! From him since then, mum has remained the word. Incidentally, Ojy Okpe was not on duty on Monday. Perhaps, if she were, she might probably be moved to raise the issue once again and given him further leeway to make amends. But knowing the persona involved, the “emperor” would have cowed the others from bringing up the matter, accounting for why it was not on the card on Monday despite remaining a live issue on the front burner in the Nigerian polity still.
What does this say? Not a few see the development as demonstrable evidence of character failure on his part, which they say reflected the President Goodluck Jonathan days and the mess he made of it as presidential spokesman. His critics say with Oronto Douglas, his predecessor the former President, was smelling roses, but even after Jonathan virtually handed him a blank cheque and boundless latitude to operate when he took charge, the result was still unmitigated disaster.
By the time he was trounced by Buhari, the image of the ex-President was so bad that Nigerians preferred to vote in a man with bread label or NEPA bill as certificate instead of a PhD holder then at the Presidential Villa. Nobody needs be told the consequences of that ironical outing, given what Nigeria is today. So, vicariously, given this line of thinking, Doctor Abati cannot exculpate himself of blame from the further mess of today’s Nigeria – a consequence of his supposed character failure.
That same template erected on omniscience, arrogance and self-conceit with which he was accused of virtually messing up the well-oiled media structure Oronto left behind, thus ruining the Jonathan presidency, is what they insist have become evident in the current undertaking at The Morning Show, he hosts.
The jury is still out on this tag. But what is evident is that Doctor Abati needs some education – not the type through which he acquired all manner of academic credentials that have equipped him with such rare intellect and with which he has become such a superlative analyst on television, quintessential orator and public speaker – but the one that strips him of all forms of arrogance and purges him of every vestige of contempt for opinions outside his. He needs to attend the University of Humility and human management!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo and I’m The Tiny Voice!
Have you been watching the drama happening in ADC? I have, and I have been thoroughly amused doing so. Have you been following the television appearances of Rotimi Amaechi recently? Did you see how the former Governor of Rivers State had been vibrating, assuring of his victory at the party’s presidential primaries?
Did you hear him boasting how he was going to vanquish Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and now the presidential candidate of the party, indicating that ADC members would prefer him over the seventh-time election-contesting Nigerian record holder, because of his (Amaechi’s) records?
Did you see the vehemence with which he warned that television host, to “stop that nonsense,” for suggesting that he could end up as the VP candidate to the same Atiku? Did you see how he rolled his bulging eyes and how angry he sounded?
Did you read the statement of the former Minister of Transportation, rejecting the outcome of the ADC presidential primaries, even before it was finally announced on Wednesday.
Now, pan the camera to the Abuja home of the same Amaechi – by the way – I could swear the ambiance could compete with the palace of the Sultan of Brunei – how did he do it – but how could I forget his wife is a money-minting machine!
Did you see the selfsame man with Atiku? Did you notice the difference? Did you notice the robustness, the comicalness? Did you watch the chumminess and the camaraderie? What meaning did you read into it? You actually have to be an initiate to correctly read everything perfectly.
Just wait for a few days to hear the announcement. I won’t be the one to tell you that the huffing and puffing, the air-punching and the table-banging is all for one thing – the VP position.
For those who had advocated that Obi stayed back and contested with Atiku, it would have been a fatal gambit. He would have come a distant third in the contest, competing with Mohammed Hayatu-Deen. Not because it will be so by the desires of the members, but the goons, wanted it so and would have made it so.
Even the position of the VP which hitherto had been bandied as his for the asking, would have eluded him. Amaechi was there to pick it up.
You heard Dele Momodu an accomplice in that plot telling you that Amaechi was more experienced than Obi in that interview with Charles Aniagolu on ARISE NEWS Television’s Prime Time.
It was all figured out. If Peter Obi had fallen to the plot he would have been the greatest political mugu of the century. He would have rubbished the rock-strong foundation on which his profile was built and stands today – as businessman and politician.
Indeed the plot appeared skewed towards not only making him wave goodbye to politics forever, but caast a huge slur on his exhilarating credentials that account to his being celebrated as one of the most successful Nigerian business tycoons today.
Only a few seconds and the trap would have snapped. Had he waited a few days more in that ADC environment, it would have been over. He would have been trapped in the odd situation of point of no return.
By now he would have become an object of mockery and an item of sport for his enemies. Tons of them would be having a bellyful of laughter over his ordeal by now – had he wasted a second more.
But having that laugh would mean that the eagle has lost its lustre. Obi isn’t Obi just by name. Now, here is the Obi they wanted to trick into a trap. Still in his early 20s, he drove three cars he bought with his own money before graduating from the university.
First year – a Volkswagen Beetle (today’s Venza) – second year a Peugeot 505 (today’s Prado) – third year – a BMW (Today’s Maybach). Now think of yourself as a student then. Think of your children that are students today. That would bring you closer to the persona in question.
It didn’t end there. Still as an undergraduate, he owned the supermarket on campus. There was more. He built residential houses and became a landlord to students and locals in the university community – one of them, said to be Abubakar Sa’ad, the current Sultan of Sokoto, who was then a military officer.
De hear o! This same Obi, was among the 1,000-ONLY, UK customers the American Express Bank gave their Platinum Cards. You know what that means. In the whole of the UK – including oyibo people of all nationalities doing business.
Before his 33rd birthday, this Obi, had become Chairman of a commercial bank and director of other blue-chip companies. At the same age when his colleagues still clutch files in their armpits in pursuit of jobs, he was already heading a conglomerate of firms dealing with supplies and distribution of goods.
So, add all these up! Imagine the number of intriguing situations he must have dealt with in this long journey. Imagine the boardroom politics. Imaging the various business tricks he must have survived.
In politics, this same Obi practically cut off the head of the political monster prowling Anambra for years.
Before his arrival, the whole of the state was one huge conflagration and cataclysm. Elements sponsored by patrons of evil had razing down structures including the Government House of governor’s residence. Anambra was all chaos – a huge bedlam!
But all these Obi faced and conquered, arresting the tempest, quietening the tide and smoothening the waves – not without battles – there was a deluge of them – but with willpower, wisdom, tenacity, consistency, and above all – courage.
He battled the electoral heist that stole his original mandate, won, then impeachment, triumphed, then abrupt tenure termination, challenged it and returned to power – battled entrenched interests in the labour unions – teachers, doctors, workers – et al – prevailed and handed down a new Anambra sitting on the foundation of sobriety and good behaviour.
Now this was the man they wanted to trick. Obi’s case would have been that of the late John Chukwu, the hero in the tragicomedy, Isubru Ekperi – described as the crab which swam across the mighty ocean, but fell in the woman’s pot of soup.
Had Obi, stayed in ADC to contest against Atiku, his fate would have mimicked Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, whom for fear of being thought weak, destroyed his own destiny by killing Ikemefuna and ended up committing suicide! But providence was on his side;
Thankfully, he did not. And today, NDC provides a new horizon. Nigerians are being provided the opportunity of a new country, that could rise from the ashes of the old order – a clean break from the past – a new hope of awakening the sleeping giant!
The Tiny Voice!
By Sunny Igboanugo
On Wednesday, April 22, 2026, Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s 14th leader and the fourth elected President was at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on a visit to President Bola Tinubu. Nobody knew the content of that visit because discussions were conducted closed doors.
However, knowing Tinubu, would anything concerning him ever be free of politics, especially given the nuances of the season? Would the snake ever give birth to a creature that is short?
Naturally, as it is wont with Nigeria where one event takes over from the other in quick successions, the Jonathan visit, naturally disappeared – buried inside the reservoir of public consciousness.
But then, things have begun to unfold that people are not only now returning to that April visit, but are taking notes as well as connecting the dots.
Nothing yet seems definite, except in the realm of the popular local saying that when a witch cries at night and the baby dies in the morning, the people know where to look.
Indeed, the droppings of the caterpillar on the ground is making people look up to the tree to see if they are actually eating the green leaves on them. Naturally, events around the 14th President, do not look ordinary – at least not that ordinary to escape more than a scant public scrutiny.
So, when on Thursday May 7, 2026 youths stormed the Abuja office of the ex-President urging him to run for the office he left in 2015, after his historic defeat by Muhammadu Buhari, it elicited a deeper interest from the previous attempts. Yes! It wasn’t the first time Nigerians would be making the pitch. Several groups had tried in the past, even as far back as the 2023 elections.
So, the attempt three weeks ago, was not new. But, this time, eyebrows were raised all the same because it seemed to conduce more intriguing interpretations. Therefore, instead of mere passing interests, Nigerians are now interrogating deeply, putting two and two together.
How much did the former President know about that visit? Did those youths ambush him or was he in the know that such a visit would take place? Was it what is known here as an arrangee – a well-crafted political facade?
Then came the angle of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). A long time ago, when speculations were rife that Peter Obi, was being courted by the former ruling party to return and run for the 2027 presidential election on its platform, Jerry Gana, a stalwart of the party had served notice that they even had a more seducing and deliverable option. It turned out to be Jonathan.
So, long before the Nyesom Wike devastating blow on the party that has kept it in its prostrate state, Jonathan had been on the cards as the number one option for the party. Therefore, it follows that the current steps the party is taking to draft him in, to run as its candidate in the election, is normal. But is it?
The argument in PDP quarters for the Jonathan choice is because he is the only one constitutionally barred from contesting a second term, he is the most fitted to satisfy all shades of political interests in Nigeria today, especially the North eager to return to power. Quite scintillating.
But seducing as this appears, there is a hugely compelling argument against the move. A groundswell of analysts swear that the ex-President is being pushed into the ring as an instrument to stop Peter Obi, the current moving train threatening to crush the ambition of Tinubu to remain in office beyond 2027. In other words, the sole reason is to play the spoiler role.
Supposing this is the reason. Then what is before us is more fatal than critical. This is the same Jonathan whose singular act of calling Buhari that morning on March 31, 2015 to concede defeat, suddenly catapulted him to a global democratic icon – the same that hops into presidential planes to other countries in Africa to straighten crooked democratic roads.
Now, would the same Jonathan swear with his church mind that Tinubu’s model of democracy is what he would prescribe even for an enemy country, let alone Nigeria? What aspect of the country has Tinubu not damaged. So, what would make him a Tinubu’s ally in the further destruction of Nigeria, if he truly loves the country?
This was the same Jonathan who swore that his ambition was not worth the blood of any Nigerian. Is he not aware that the land on which he’s standing is already soaked with the blood of the same citizens by the sheer butchery that is happening daily in the country under the nose of the most underwhelming President yet? Isn’t this the issue now?
Indeed, not a few people have argued that Jonathan should be in the forefront of the Obi project. For one, Obi was once his appointee apart from being a sworn ally. So, he would be in a position to ascertain his true qualities first hand and confirm that he’s the only one among the lot that could fix the country. Even an imbecile knows that Obi would create the clean break from the past that Nigeria needs today to build the future everyone desires.
Besides, he Jonathan, if anything is substantially part of the reason the South East is in its current state at the moment, the level of support the area gave him throughout his tenure is part of the reason the late Buhari increased his hatred for the Igbo a million times more – a phenomenon he transferred through the APC to Tinubu – and which the current President has been unable to extricate himself from.
Okay, is the former President not aware that the position Tinubu is sitting on today belongs to the South East – the zone that took him like one of them that they even gave him an Igbo name – Ebele. If everyone else shortchanges Ndigbo, would he also join, given the foregoing? What manner of ingratitude would that be?
O yes! He has had his Villa meeting. PDP has adopted him as their candidate. Even the legal barrier that would have stopped him, was cleared on Monday when Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, handed him the all-clear sign. He has told the world that he is consulting. While at it, hopefully, more people would tell him the home truth.
Fortunately, he was the one who said it is easy to wake someone that is actually asleep than someone pretending to be asleep. Regrettably, by his silence since the obscene drama began, it appears he prefers the latter. Therefore, his action would not derive from ignorance.
If he finally bites at the apple, it wouldn’t be because he didn’t know how much Tinubu has messed up Nigeria and the implication of reinforcing him with another four years.
His complicity wouldn’t mean that he doesn’t know what to do to reverse the trend. It would only mean that personal interest has taken the better part of him and not the love of the country.
If he deliberately makes that choice, with both eyes open, then he’s welcome in the hall of infamy rather than honour. Fortunately, there is still a window to prove that the foregoing was a mere political nightmare and not reality. But otherwise, it would be apposite for Nigerians to say in unison – GOODLUCK?
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice!
Option A4, occupies a central place in Nigeria’s democratic development. That unique election model developed and introduced in the Nigerian electoral process by Humphrey Nwosu, the late Professor of Political Science, has become a symbol mounted on a standard and raised high above the sky.
It is Nigeria’s mimic of that biblical golden serpent to which both the nation and its citizens look up at and derive instant succour – much like a balm to their heavily-lacerated democratic soul – a wonder device, that once mesmerised the world.
Yes! Anytime Nigerians want to serenade their democratic spirit with the allure of sweetness, they take a recourse to that unique event that happened more than three decades ago, on June 12, 1993. They reminisce on the purity of the process and beauty of the outcome.
Like the saying that precious things come in simple packages, Option A4, was not only as simple as simplicity itself, but was as powerful as the most impactive dynamite – simple enough to break all barriers of ignorance and powerful enough to destroy all electoral bad behaviours defacing the beautiful perspective of democracy.
Here is the process. Voters converge on a location at approved time, get accredited, queue behind preferred candidates, get counted and the votes recorded in approved result sheets. Finish! No ballot-snatching, no ballot-stuffing, no quarrel, no thuggery, no blood on the floor.
Even the issue of proper voting that lead to void votes is eradicated by the process. The electorates need no education on how to vote properly. The issue of thumb-printing in the wrong space or double-voting is taken care of.
Today, in Nigeria, June 12 is designated as Democracy Day, based on the outcome of that election. It was so seamless and produced such a perfect result that the product – Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola was never challenged on the inviolability, but on the other ideas the military government in power then had.
But did you see the same Option A4 put to test under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu? Did you watch the primaries of the All Progressive Congress (APC), at various stages, including the one that produced the President as candidate of the party in the 2027 presidential election? If you did, you would understand where your country is currently and where it is headed.
How could anyone have the mindset to deface such a beauty, let alone design a mechanism to destroy it, given its centrality as the bastion of Nigerian democratic commemorations? How could anyone be so wicked as to destroy the most beautiful Nigerian democratic ornament?
It is like pulling the original of Monalisa or the best of Bini Bronze from their protective encasements and smashing them on the floor. It takes a mindset that has scant regard for beauty – a destructive spirit to do so.
But see how easily they did it! See how simple it was for them. It was as easy as jumping from 10 to 1,000 in a simple counting process a primary school child could do.
Did you see the smiles on their faces to indicate how much fun they had supervising the putrid, outlandish and parlous construct – like the lurid expression of a rapist seeking to satiate his lust? Clearly, it did not matter to them the danger they’re putting themselves and future generations – comprising their children and grandchildren, Tragedy!
But what is it that Tinubu and his co-travellers have not destroyed since happening on Nigeria? What pain have they not wrought on the polity? Is it the economy? Think of those rich Nigerians alighting from their fancy cars and jumping into the Lagos Lagoon.
Is it security? Reminisce on the last moments of General Sani Uba, as he watched the approach of the terrorists while crouching on his knees in the forest, having lost the vain hope that his country would save him.
Think of the Oyo school teacher in that final moment as he waited for the impact of that sharp knife on his bare throat, while being slaughtered like a goat at the abattoir. Think of Zamfara, think of Sokoto, think of Kwara, think of Anambra – add to the list – think Nigeria.
Yet, the APC foot-soldiers – including a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives – a leader in the legislature – the most important institution of democracy – clowned, jested and had fun.
For them, the rest of the country doesn’t matter. All that matters is Tinubu’s happiness. And the master-strategist, the democratic doyen, the June 12-NADECO icon, was all and about, grinning from ear to ear and lapping everything up.
With economy destroyed from day-one with the impulsive, brainwave – subsidy is gone declaration – with security in tatters that school children, now scurry and scamper in different directions like scared rodents, at the slightest sight of strange faces for fear of being the next kidnap victims – with the national fibric almost giving way from the consistent and unrelenting pressure in running the most nepotistic administration – far worse than the days of the late Muhammadu Buhari, thought to be the worst at a time – what else remains of Nigeria?
Before now, I had grieved that Tinubu deliberately left out Humphery Nwosu in that outlandish June 12 struggle honourees list, when he ought to be the numero uno. I had hoped however that someday, someone more amenable than Tinubu would do the needful. But what hope is there now that Tinubu and his men are tightening the noose on Nigerian democracy? Now this!
The worst part is not that the APC goons committed this heinous atrocity, but in the manner they did. They enjoyed the process. Only mindless characters such as mafia kingpins we watch in movies, take pleasure in inflicting pains. That we now watch such playing out in real life is not only disturbing, it is THE TRAGEDY!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice!
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