Editorial
In France, Tinubu spits on Nigerian democracy again!
When Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the February 25, 2023 election told his host on Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS Network, on Tuesday, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done exceedingly well in destroying Nigeria, it was taken as sarcasms, more or less or oxymoron at best.
The former Governor of Anambra State, was simply alluding to the comment of the President during his campaign for the job ahead of the 2023 election that he would continue where his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari – President 2015-2023 – stopped.
Buhari, the first to defeat an incumbent President in the history of Nigeria, achieved that historic feat on the platform of the All Progressives Congress and as many political watchers have acknowledged, on the back of Tinubu who was the alter ego of the great political movement that emerged to take power from then Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the behemoth that assumed power at the termination of military rule in 1999 and held it with vice grip for 16 years.
Now, Buhari, before he left power in May 2023, held the record of the worst leader in Nigerian history – military or civilian. He was not only the most underwhelming, listless and indolent, but the most idealess and clueless.
So, for Tinubu, a presidential candidate to tell an electorate population, daily winching and twitching from the pains of such a totally bereft and insipid government that he would continue where the President who harboured such massive negative traits stopped, was the height of political hara-kiri.
But regardless the obvious implication of what ought to be a serious blunder that would have seen the electorates run with their legs touching their ears, Tinubu went ahead to emerge winner of the election – or was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Granted that many believed that Tinubu made that audacious statement, more out of necessity to placate and humour the former President, lest he did the unthinkable that could quash his take-over ambition – more of stooping to conquer – and not that he actually fancied Buhari’s outrageously disastrous performance, the picture of the last two years his presidency has lasted, seems to have proved the direct opposite.
If anything, Tinubu has bested Buhari in all departments to prove that he was not joking, but rather meant every word of his promise that he was going to continue where his predecessor stopped in punishing Nigerians.
That punishment started from the first minutes of signing off on his new job on May 29, 2023, when he made that notorious statement – subsidy is gone – that three-word phrase, considered a rash, impulsive and brainwave quip that had nothing to do with any sort of rigour or painstaking plan of action.
From that moment and since then, Nigerians have known nothing but progressive physical and psychological torture that wraps their collective life’s experience in one word – PAIN!
Right from that particular moment, even before the ink with which he etched his signature on the dotted line proclaiming himself President, the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, the life-blood of the Nigerian economy soared from N198 a litre to N550.
To complete the job, he also added the inglorious policy of the floating of the Naira that saw the local currency previously exchanging at $1 to N330 when he came on board, jump to an incredible, if not disgraceful $1 to N1,700 in a matter of weeks.
Today, the combined effect it that the Nigerian economy has been demobilised – shattered to smithereens, leaving the citizenry who picking food from the dustbins under Buhari going to bed on empty stomachs because those who threw the leftovers into those bins have now joined the daily-stretching queues of hungry population.
Now, Tinubu has upped the ante. Like Buhari who was a two-country President – spending his days in the UK and nights in Nigeria or vice versa, he has also adopted the model, only that he seems to fancy the beautiful city of Paris more, apparently for its rather relaxed life, compared to the knit-up, conservative, if not airtight London variant.
For now, Tinubu is yet to spend a whole five months in France as Buhari once did by moving the seat of government to London, an act by which he virtually threw Nigeria into a Limbo. But he seems to be getting there. It will only be a matter of time. If he could pick up his bag and zoom off, what stops him from taking permanent residency in the French city and merely visit Nigeria? After all, are his aides not telling inquisitive Nigerians that their President could work from anywhere?
Of course, for Tinubu’s goons, whether at the Presidency, the APC or anywhere, the anxiety of Nigerians to the parlous situation in the country, is usually dismissed as hatred, and cast in either ethnic or political colours. It is even worse when it has to do with opposition figures like Obi.
For instance, Obi in that outing on Tuesday, once again reinforced his earlier position a fortnight ago that Tinubu and his APC have virtually demolished the country’s democracy, by personally capturing and pocketing all the structures – executive, legislature and judiciary.
But hear how Felix Morka, APC spokesman, on Wednesday, dismissed his intervention. To him, the concerns are nothing but frustrations coming from the pains of losing election. In other words, he thinks Obi, as a Nigerian has no other life outside the desire to be President. He thinks Obi would be loathing of Nigeria that mimics the same France or would be averse to its economy overtaking Germany, because a Tinubu is in power. To him, Obi, is that inconsiderate and wicked.
Hear him: “Even Mr Obi’s trademark opportunistic sensationalization of transient difficulties that Nigerians have endured in patriotic support of the President’s bold and transformative economic plan availed no respite, as he floundered on national television, framing himself as a portrait of frustration and political desperation.
“Mr Obi’s favourite retort, ‘I would have done better as president’, must be a symptom of a protracted bout of election failure-induced hangover from which he has not awakened to the reality that he is not the president. Like an unlicensed back seat driver that thinks himself to be a race car driver, Mr Obi needs to tame his bloated and deluded imagination.”
Now, in which other country of the world where democracy thrives on the concept of government of the people, by the people and for the people, would their President whimsically pick up his bag, travel to another country and call it working-visit without prior knowledge?
Would it happen in France or UK, or Italy, or Germany or England or the US? Would it even happen in China that is not considered a democracy per se! Okay, these are developed nations. Let apples be apples and oranges be oranges. Would it happen in South Africa? Would it happen in Kenya or even Ghana, Nigeria’s backyard?
Again, would Tinubu pick up his bag and zoom off to Paris at the drop of a hat, if he actually believes that he was made President by Nigerians and holds same in trust on their behalf and at their behest?
Is it not because he knows that there would always be a variant of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), headed by Yakoub Mahmood that would hand him re-election on a platter, kneeling down that he could afford to spit, urinate and fart on Nigeria democracy from as far as the Eiffel Towers?
Indeed, what remains? What separates Nigeria from Paul Biya’s Cameroun, Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe or Yuweri Musaveni’s Uganda, where even the corpses could resurrect or their pictures placed at strategic places for them to continue in power after their death? Is this danger not clear for all to see? Tragic!
It began less than 10 minutes after taking the oath of office. In his address to the nation, he uttered those three-letter words – subsidy is gone. The ink with which he signed the documents declaring him President was yet to dry.
That was it. From that moment, Nigerians have known nothing but poverty, tears and death. It was a declaration that came out of impulse rather than articulacy. It was not even contained in his original speech prepared for the occasion. But it sprouted out – from a rash, unthinking and impetuous mental construct.
But the effect was instant, the impact direct. From that moment, Nigerians have never known peace. Every thing took a cue. Minutes after, the news broke that the price of Premium Motor Spirit, otherwise known as petrol had jumped from N189 to N550. It was that instant. Today, it hovers around N1,500.
The effect: Within minutes, transportation cost quadrupled. So too, commodity prices. Caught unawares, marketers, who had earlier thought it was a day of the rains as customers rushed to their shops, soon became suspicious and then got wiser – these were not ordinary customers but smart alecs playing a fast one on them.
They stopped selling, retrieved the items they could from those who had not disappeared with their goods and closed shop to study the situation properly. Hours after, they responded. A plate of eba and soup, went up from N200 to N1,000. Prices hit the rooftops.
In fact, the vehicle transporting what used to be Nigeria, which had been moving at a horse and buggy pace in the days of Muhammadu Buhari, stopped abruptly, engaged the reverse gear and began galloping backwards. That has remained the ugly, parlous tale of the Tinubu days, since May 29, 2023.
Now, the expectation would be that the President and his government that wrought such a horrendous punishment on the polity, would themselves take some blows. But nada! Instead, the opposite was the case. Within months of plunging the citizens into the untold hardship Tinubu went on a binge, spending money – in the words of Olusegun Obasanjo, former President – like a drunken sailor.
Few weeks after, as Nigerians were reeling and gasping in pain from the impact of their new situation, 469 newly-minted Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs), rolled out from factories in Japan, where they were produced into the premises of the National Assembly for the just inaugurated members.
Put the cost at N100billion – that is N160million for each unit, plus other charges. Reason: The lawmakers needed the vehicles because of their good suspension system, to navigate the so many bad roads in Nigeria. Yes, you heard right. How could they think well and make good laws after the hassles of the bad roads? Tinubu saw reasons, acquiesced and voila!
But it did not end there. Tinubu suddenly realised that Kashim Shettima, his deputy, needed a new home “befitting” his new office. Pronto! A voucher of N21billion was raised and he had it. Till date a haze still hovers over the project.
The last news that was heard was that Number Two refused to take residence because the entire environment, including the toilets was wired to the teeth to monitor him. And Number Two needed privacy.
Again, in the same weeks, Oga Patapata, also realised that Madam needed to transport more comfortably. Pronto! It was arranged. Another voucher was raised for cars for the Office of the First Lady. Cost N1.2billion. Of course, madam needed the comfort for peace at home.
Naturally, since transportation is not done by land alone, he also took care of that. For the sea, a yacht was procured. Cost N5billion. Because the birds in the presidential fleet were not good enough, Tinubu did the needful.
He enriched the fleet with the one befitting of his status and had it transformed to mimic the US Air Force One. To complete the status symbol project, he also added a replica of The Beast, the US presidential automobile.
Ironically, the funds used in procuring these luxury lifestyle, came, not out of productive ventures of Nigeria, but through borrowing. Today, Tinubu has practically borrowed Nigeria blind, doubling or even tripling that of his predecessors.
Meanwhile Nigerians had upped the ante from mere groaning and skreiching. Citizens, unable to take it anymore, now stop their hitherto sleek vehicles on the Third Mainland Bridge and plunge into the Lagos lagoon to end it all. The option is now more rampant than remote and occasional.
Many others, taking the Socrates option, now drink hemlock and many more simply sleep off without any intention of waking up. That is where we are. That is the new Nigeria – the Tinubu Nigeria. But there is more.
Terrorists and the landlords of the forest, having now discovered that the Commander-in-Chief has other fancies than security and welfare of the people – the constitutionally-declared primary purpose of government and scant regard for the citizens, have practically gone haywire. They have taken over and established their authority.
Presently, outside those wantonly slaughtered or butchered in their homes like animals at the abattoir, incinerated alive while sleeping on their beds, among other forms of decimation, many more citizens are now spending months, going to years as victims of captivity with them in various forests in Nigeria.
In their rampage, the terrorists have since broken all barriers considered out of place hitherto. One of their escapades is the present videos of the school children and teachers taken from Oyo State. The gory imagery captures the current Nigerian story.
For instance, on Thursday, just as the sound of heavy celebration was going on in neighbouring Ogun State as the world marked the Ojude Oba yearly carnival, two of the victims, one of them with a toddler on her back, were pleading for their lives, as others went through various forms of torture, including heavy whipping like beasts.
Don’t forget that the terrorists had earlier slaughtered one of their colleagues. In the new video, the totally terrified women, informed that they had chosen another victim to be similarly eliminated. Yet, no word about rescue! Terrible!
Interestingly, if not painfully, Tinubu’s response, in the few cases he bothered, was to see the crisis through the politics lens. His most recent reaction was to tell the world that the harvest of attacks and carnages ravaging the country, were sponsored by his political enemies, intent on shoving him out of power. That to him was all that mattered.
Now, where are your powers as C-in-C? They are mostly found in the most disgraceful economic and political acts of impunity. Nigerians now waking up to hear of the award of brain-dazing contracts such as the N15trillion Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Badagry-Maiduguri Highway – with scant regard for official regulations, is now becoming more common than rare.
Few days after one of the teachers was beheaded and the video of the hideous act made to circulate on the social media, the President and his All Progressives Congress (APC), party, rolled out the drums of his winning the party’s ticket to contest the 2027 presidential election.
To say that it has been three years of weeping, wailing, mourning and gnashing of the teeth, is a clear euphemism. There is no starker way of putting it than calamity – pure, unmitigated catastrophe – disaster.
Then comes the big question. Nigeria is already breasting the tape of these ruinous years of the first term. Suppose Tinubu succeeds in renewing his tenure by January next year? Will Nigeria survive five more years of a life like the last three? What will be left of Nigeria? Is there a way out, outside shouting – God forbid!?
Now that Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) has fully executed his plot against Siminalayi Fubara, Governor of Rivers State, where would it be placed in terms of identity, nuances, ethos and history? Where would it be placed in democratic arrangement and value? In other word, by what name would it be called?
So, this is what President Bola Tinubu’s much-advertised democratic credentials is all about? This is what being listed among the arrowheads in the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), the body that fought relentlessly against the late Sani Abacha and his henchmen has finally come to?
Is this where “The Last Man Standing” – apologies Tony Elumelu – has ended up? So, after wedging an epic battle for and through Lagos State, against then President Obasanjo and practically defeating him, even if perceptibly, in all the struggles – such as running government without federal allocation for years and surviving the political onslaught that took away other South West states like a tsunami, it has come to this?
Don’t forget that it was this selfsame Tinubu that served as the bastion of opposition in Nigerian politics from when he was Governor of Lagos State, not only standing up against Obasanjo, but undertaking the relentless battles that led to the All Progressives Congress (APC), winning the war eventually in 2015.
So, this is what all the struggles, the speeches, the colloquia, the meetings and the strategies have come to – the end result? So, the definition of democracy, to Tinubu, is selling the dog to buy a monkey – replacing democratic bad-behaviour with democratic-heist? So, this is it?!
Make no mistake about it. What you saw play out in Rivers is nothing but Tinubu at work. It is all about him, it is for him. Never make the mistake of adorning Wike in the toga of a powerful man. That would be a fatal error of judgement. Every power he exercises, real, imagined, inferred or contingent belong to and are exclusive to Tinubu.
Take away the President and Wike would turn to a political meek-lamb or a jellyfish. Fubara would have eaten him for lunch a long time ago. So, Tinubu it is – the reason the klieglights must be beamed on him. That is why he must carry the can in this odious construct in Rivers in particular and the entire Nigerian political scenario in general.
With the picture that assaulted Nigeria regarding the APC primaries that have just held, what is different from the edition we saw in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of old? Is it not worse or the worst in real and imagined terms? What then has Tinubu been fighting all these years?
Incidentally, where we have Wike today, we had Lamidi Adedibu, the Amala Politics exponent, Tony Aneni of the Mr. Fix-it fame and the Uba brothers in Anambra to whom the political firmament in Nigeria once bowed, among many plethora of examples.
So, there is nothing really new about the development, but for the fresh dimension that has been introduced into the narrative by the Wike phenomenon, which is totally novel. Before now it was a case of one behemoth in a political party rampaging the system.
But today, it has gone beyond that. Wike has developed the penchant for taking no prisoners. In his own strange construct, he has now coalesced the entire APC and PDP structure into his shoulder basket, from where he dispenses favours.
Imagine Kingsley Chinda, purchasing APC governorship election form, as a PDP federal lawmaker without first resigning from his original party. That is how wacky it has become. Wackier still is that nobody – not even the APC apparatchik has been able to raise a finger. Why? Obvious answer – the Tinubu factor.
Now, here is the danger. By the heist in Port Harcourt adding to the sequence of political oddities and absurdities since the Tinubu years, it has become obvious that Nigeria is headed towards a Paul Biya’s Cameroun, a Yoweri Musaveni’s Uganda and Zimbabwe under the late Robert Mugabe.
Tinubu, has shown obvious incapacity to tackle the parlous economic crisis in the country with 150 million Nigerians plunged into multidimensional poverty and many more growing the list daily, while also displaying uncommon powerlessness towards addressing the debilitating state of insecurity.
Under his nose citizens are daily being forced from their homes into the forests by terrorists, with some of them taken from their crutching positions, positioned before the camera and slaughtered – heads cut off like animals at an abattoir and video images freely displayed on social media.
Yet, by what has now happened in Rivers State, it has become obvious that Nigerians are not being factored into the whole equation and if they were, scant regard is paid to their opinion, ending in their powerlessness to change the situation. That is the tragedy!
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