It is only an act of God that can stop Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ascent to the presidency. The lines are persistently falling to favour him. This presidential election does not come in February 2023. It would hold earlier December, and the results would be out by Christmas. Is this fallacious? It looks but it’s not.
PDP, the only obstacle to Tinubu, is profusely bleeding from the knife stab by former Anambra state governor, Peter Obi. And now, Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, and four other governors are baying for the party’s last reservoir of blood. lf by December that wound is not surgically patched, PDP would faint and collapse before January 2023. Atiku Abubakar cannot survive the treachery of Obi, Wike and co. In fact, no one could. Therefore, what is coming in February is not an election but an attestation. And by February next year, the winner would have been generally assumed. Only a decree of God can stop Tinubu being sworn in as president. Not even our rebellious votes!
But how would Tinubu presidency be? What would be the form of his policies and politics? Tinubu’s era would be oxymoronic. It would be good bad. His economics would be fantastic, but his politics would bleed the noses of many. As an unrepentant tax man, Tinubu would drain blood from us and turn our hemoglobin to cash. He needs money for monstrous infrastructure, more money for recurrent expenditure, and a lot of money as repayment for dollar loans. Therefore, henceforth, we would pay! All of us. Taxes, rates, fines, fees, tickets, zero subsidy. That’s what he did in Lagos. That’s what awaits me. And it’s your portion too. Every one of us would chop breakfast.
But I like the menu. lt is the main reason I endorse and would vote him. We need more of our monies-public money-to run government. See, corruption is a tsetse fly on our polity, but it is not the cause of its leukemia. There is no state governor that is stealing 30% of his revenue. Most can’t even pay salaries. So, our bigger problem is lack of enough funds. For example, what my state needs is an additional ₦3.5b to add to its gross monthly income of ₦6.5b; and then we would be on the way to eldorado. Lagos, Rivers, Oyo and Kano have crossed that line. Unfortunately, federal government hasn’t. We currently milk a little less than ₦1trillion monthly as income through FAAC.
Expectedly, Asiwaju Tinubu presidency would attempt to double that in his first term – so that he can borrow more money in his second term. In summary, Tinubu would tax more and borrow more to spend more. Don’t be afraid! The only time nations would finish paying their national debts is after rapture and when we all appear at the judgement throne of God. In 2021, the US borrowed ₦2,000 trillion naira. UK borrowed ₦300 trillion naira. And Nigeria borrowed ₦6trillion Naira. I therefore say unto this nation: Borrow, for even up till this time, ye have borrowed nothing! Okay.
How would Asiwaju’s presidency shape the political landscape? What would happen to our national politics? Tinubu is a deal man. He plays poker. And he’s a ruthless soccer player. Once he misses the ball, rather than let you go, he breaks your legs. And no Video Assistant Referee alias VAR can prove it. Your only proof is a painful tendon. Like the one Rotimi Amaechi is nursing now. When I predicted on my recent article that Tinubu would mess with, and destroy PDP by luring out Nyesom Wike to selfishly use him for 2023, no one believed. But that’s who Jagaban is. He’s a tactician, a political strategist. A slave buyer. A bricklayer.
Therefore, Bola Tinubu would turn this country into a one party state. He would turn APC into ANC of South Africa. He would bring Bukola Saraki, James Ibori, Ayo Fayose, Peter Obì, Daniel Bwala, Dino Melaye, even Nnamdi Kanu and the remaining remnants in northern Nigeria back to APC. I know you don’t believe. But I do. Because, I know Nigerian politicians: their god is their belly; they would eat their vomit rather than stay long out of power.
But we need to stay alive to see these wonders. Can Bola Tinubu keep us safe? What would happen to criminals and criminality? You would see. That guy, he would rout out these workers of iniquities out of our land.
Tinubu is ex agbero. He used to be a bandit. An oil vandal. These titles are literary cosmetics of course, they mean to say, unlike Muhammadu Buhari, Tinubu is a man of the world who had swam in deep black underwater of businesses and political exile. He knows the game. The biggest trading post in Nigeria is organized crime. It is a multibillion dollar enterprise. If you are not a trained gangsta, and you don’t have “ẹjẹ loju bi t’Abacha” and the stubborness and ruthlesness to jail billionaires and run out former military generals and national security advisers out of crime business: corruption, kidnapping, banditry and oil bunkering would stay.
Asiwaju would break the powers of criminality in Nigeria. He would use the courts. You can’t fight organized crime behind and without the courts. Once Judges and judicial officers trust they have the backing of government, you would see how cheaply jail terms could be. Safe this paragraph: Bola Tinubu would jail more powerful persons than any other administration. Why would he? Because Asiwaju is a man who loves and wants power. To prove and display his extra presidential powers, he would tell sponsors of crimes – those in his calbre and class, that ọga na master.
Men like Bola Tinubu who love power are jealously territorial. They can’t share a piece of their authority with lesser gods. That’s why Sani Abacha and Olusegun Obasanjo tenures were relatively peaceful. Imagine someone stealing crude oil under Sani Abacha, or some Chadian herdsmen rolling freely with AK 47 under Olusegun Obasanjo. The both would never permit such sacrilege. Likewise Tinubu. He won’t share his bed of power with any warlord either.
Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe was enigmatic. Tafawa Balewa was charismatic. Obafemi Awolowo was emblematic. Muhammadu Buhari is iconic. But Nigeria has not produced a president in the form of Bola Tinubu. Asiwaju is a man of numbers, an accountant. He would raise taxes, stop subsidies and print paper money to build a greater Nigeria. He would remove the pillars of opposition parties and collapse all of them into a single cauldron to produce successive leaders after him like he did in Lagos. Demons of crimes would see his torchlight and flee. The only person that can stop Tinubu is God. Not an abandoned Atiku Abubakar. Nor a playful and shishiless Peter Obì.
Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has shown beyond question that he is a master strategist, and he has also proven his indolent critics wrong in many ways. He has deliberately, consciously, and physically inoculated visitation to flooded areas into his presidential campaign time table with a view to identifying with the people. It means every affected state shall have a taste of Tinubu’s sense of benevolence. This is an underpinning philosophy that espouses welfarism in governance.
Tinubu had hitherto donated one hundred million naira to flood victims in Kano, Katsina and Plateau states before now. His wife along side Shetima’s wife also donated twenty million naira to flood victims in Benue state before the contemplation of campaign timetable. In show of solidarity, empathy and sympathy to the flood prey in Delta State, Tinubu announced a donation of N100 million cash, Omo-Agege gave out N100 million making it two million worth of relief materials at Okwagbe in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State.
The opposition do not give this crucial area of welfare a pride of place. Peter Obi only went to Benue and donated five million naira without continued effort to other affected states. Atiku went to Bayelsa and gave an impression of welfarism without further action. The actions of the opposition are a pretentious cacophony of impression to hoodwink the gullible or credulous public for electoral gain.
Another striking strategy from Tinubu’s camp is the insertion of campaign on Mondays in two states of the Southeast into the timetable, if it was later cancelled due to some hitches. While Peter Obi from Anambra state and Atiku from the North consider it a taboo or sacrilege and antithetical to their political interest in holding rally on a Monday in Anambra and Imo states, Tinubu is using this avenue to unite the Igbos with Nigeria project and plunge them into the political mainstream of Nigeria.
The master strategist, Bola Tinubu has developed a template of continued engagements with the corporate and business community owing to their critical contribution to nation building. He did this successfully in Kano and Lagos. This has become an integral component of the campaign.
The ragging fire of disunity in the PDP remains unabated. The crisis is taking different shape and expanding by the day. Governor Wike has inaugurated the first set of one hundred thousand Special Assistants, it was later added another one hundred thousand, making it two hundred thousand Special Assistants in a state. This is a huge minus for Atiku which supposed to be a fundamental value addition to him. Atiku has moved on without Wike and his co-travelers. The Lagos state Vice Chairman of the Labour Party has just joined the APC in Lagos. Both the PDP and LP are losing steam drastically while the APC is firing from all cylinders.
Ibrahim, public affairs analyst and commentator, writes from 17, Ajanasi Street, off Ajagannabe road, Oke-Posun, Epe, Lagos state ia: [email protected] or 08060799328.
