Politics

By Ahmad Deedat Zakari

The chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmad Tinubu, arrived at Murtala Muhammad International Airport in Lagos on Sunday, February 6, 2022, with a new look.

The 69-year-old presidential aspirant was unconventionally dressed in what many Nigerians called “youthful apparel.”

He was seen on a flat cap, black t-shirt underneath an unbuttoned blazer, scuba trousers and sneakers.

Tinubu was rumoured to be attending hospital for an undisclosed sickness in the United Kingdom. But his media aide, Tunde Rahman, has dismissed the rumour, stating that his principal was in the UK for consultations and meetings.

Tinubu’s ambition to lead Nigeria has stirred different reactions from people on social media considering his age and health status.

By Kabiru Danladi Lawanti

In a liberal democracy, political representation is a straightforward concept. In Nigeria, every four years, there are elections where citizens pause and turn back to see what their political representatives did to them during their four-year tenure. In a defined geographic area or constituencies, the citizens choose from a range of candidates—themselves citizens living in (or near) that same area—and elect a few to sit in the national assembly as representatives of the people of these constituencies. Yet both theoretically and in practice, it is far more complicated.

While representative democracy is often poetically described as government ‘of the people, by the people, for the people,’ it is not only the people who are represented: political parties, ideologies (in this sense religious and ethnic), business, urban and rural people — to name but a few—are also represented. Furthermore, even the very notion of ‘the people’ is amorphous as a representative cannot possibly represent the full diversity of ‘the people’ and all their divergent and conflicting interests.

Since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999, many representatives have been sent to Abuja to represent their constituency at the national level. These constituencies comprise a group of local government areas in a particular state. In some states, the constituencies are formed of a single local government area. For example, in Gombe State, there are six federal constituencies: Akko, which covers the Akko LGA, Balanga/Billiri that covers Balanga and Billiri LGAs, Dukku/Nafada that comprises Dukku and Nafada LGAs. Others are Gombe/Kwami/Funakaye, which contains Gombe, Kwami and Funakaye LGAs; Kaltungo/Shongom, which covers Kaltungo and Shongom LGAs and lastly, the Yamaltu/Deba federal constituency that covers Yamaltu/Deba LGA. These constituencies have sent representatives since 1999. Of particular interest to me is the Akko Federal Constituency, where I came from.

Politics, they said, is a network of no permanent foes but only connected interests. In the last 22 years, the constituency has had six representatives. Of this six, two remained the longest-serving representatives – Bello Suleiman and Usman Bello Kumo. Bello Mohammed spent only one tenure in the National Assembly, from 199-2003. In contrast, Umaru Barambu and Samaila Mu’azu Kashere spent two years each in the hallowed chamber after a court sacked Umaru Barambu in 2017.

To be fair to the reps mentioned above, each tried to develop the area in his way. However, a careful analysis of what came to the constituency in the last three and a half years cannot be compared to any in the previous 22 years. The level of human and capital development witnessed is unprecedented in the entire northeast. The only representative that can match the level of human and capital development brought to the constituency by Usman Bello Kumo (UBK) is Mukhtar Betara. This is obvious, knowing that Betara is Chairman House Committee on Appropriation.

A consummate and highly experienced politician, Usman Bello Kumo has a deep commitment and unrivalled passion for grassroots development. For instance, in his second coming alone, 2019 to date in the National Assembly, he has attracted infrastructural development in many areas of human development like education, health, water, roads, electricity, youth and women empowerment all over the constituency for the betterment of their economy and improved standard of living.

As Chairman, House Committee on Police, Hon UBK was able to also send more than 100 youth into the Nigeria Police Force. One thing is clear, UBK has always stood out among other politicians of his calibre. He has never allowed the trappings and grandeur of office to stand between him and his avowed goals of lifting his people from the shackles of poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness and mass unemployment.

As 2023 approaches, we shall soon be inundated with a mix of the serious, the incredible and sprinkles of the comical as political parties jostle to promote candidates of varying capabilities. These include those who appear to have genuine intentions for service to the people and aspirants who seem pretty content with no more than having their faces splashed around on party banners. Already, we have seen some campaigns of calumny against his person when some rabble-rousers, fighting for recognition, working under the instruction of politicians are sponsoring political jobbers to say many things against the man. This, they do discredit him in the eyes of his teeming supporters. One thing is clear; it seems UBK is not even distracted with these political mudslingers.

Holding onto his mission – an intense zeal for total political, economic and social liberation of his people, Hon UBK has always seen his primary vocation in the political arena as being one of service, duty, benevolence and charity towards his constituents. In this regard, he has abided by his campaign promises of using elective office to improve a lot of his people. This is the direct opposite of what his detractors are doing. His opponent definition of representation is that of trying to use political office to feather their nest, irrespective of the economic fortunes of the electorate that voted for them in the first place.

Notwithstanding these outstanding credentials and track record of success, we must remind Hon UBK, as stakeholders and indigenes of this area, that rural areas need his attention. Most of us in the rural regions of Akko, especially villages like Lawanti, Malam Jamo, Gamadadi, Akko and surrounding towns, are currently facing an acute shortage of water never seen in more than thirty years. My last visit in December 2021 to my home town made me pity the dwellers of these areas. Most have to travel many kilometres to get drinking water. Others use water from streams, competing with their animals. It is a pitiful scenario.

There are also allegations that his empowerment programmes are not all-inclusive. Recently, some communities in Gona District have a cause to go to press to complain that his empowerment programmes were only targeted at Kumo, his hometown. 

As a political maestro, who can be taken literally for his words, Hon UBK needs to pause and turn his attention to these people and listen to their complaints, even if they come from a minority voice. We have no doubt, considering the excellent job he did to his constituency in his first coming 2011-2015 and now, his words, as the proverbial saying goes, can be taken to the bank.

As we approach 2023, politicians, including Hon UBK, understand the importance of an alliance. There is no better time to do this than now. And I am sure he needs the rural areas to launch his return to the National Assembly.

Kabiru Danladi Lawanti wrote from the Department of Mass Communication, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, via kblondon2003@yahoo.com.

By Ahmad Murtala

Ever since Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu declared his ambition to succeed President Buhari earlier this month, the political sphere off and online stirred up debates in favour of Tinubu and the potholes along his way. People cite some irrelevant motifs that may hinder Tinubu’s success. However, these are not paramount of any buyable candidate at the moment, and of course, for the electorate.

The intrinsic status quo of our polity entertains those factors that undermine the democracy and the governance—rating region, tribe, religion, age, school attended, above competency and capacity going even further to dig up the ancestral root of a candidate. The result we are cultivating under this administration says a lot about the mistakes we’ve committed in the past – from  2015 to date—by using only those yardsticks to scrutinize a candidate. Can we still pelt with our intelligence to subscribe to the same mistake of the past come 2023, which appears new dawn to our country?

We imported the American presidential system of government, which is quite expensive and implemented its only cover page. It’s a multi-party system that compels too much spending which a saleable candidate capable of taking the lead is hindered from contesting by the processions. These include the ticket, the campaign, and the mobilization. In this context, two major parties are on the run, which the rest endorses the party that has the chance of winning in subterranean manoeuvre.

The Southeast has configured and domesticated PDP as its political party since 1999, while APC appears nascent in the region—the weakness of the ruling party and the deterioration of the security across the country under the watch of APC makes the nascent party lose its credibility far to the NE. If the president is to emerge from the region, two possibilities may arise.

First, northern people stereotype and characterize PDP as evil, callous and looters, which most of the states in the region are under. Second, APC has lost its shining plate before the people based on what appears on the ground since coming to power in 2015. Therefore, no matter the candidate’s credit from the SE, if APC deems it fit to give the flag bearer to the region to entertain zoning as postulated by some northern state governors, the chances are its success would be a bottleneck.

The polarization within the spheres of politics that SouthEast translates to secession if not given a chance to rule, it appears that PDP would have to play the same card of the last election, by choosing the running mate from the SouthEast, here the North would draw a line looking at the indices of the carnage their businesses faced in the region. Meanwhile, APC would play the South-West and the running mate from the North, perhaps a Muslim-Muslim ticket. The result would be determined by the primaries from the parties in a couple of weeks ahead.  

In those countries that have built the social establishments and have smooth working systems with literally little or no corruption, the age of presidential aspirants is not a matter of concern. We see Biden of US—unlike Nigeria when chunks of domestic battle are entangled yet to be addressed. The age of the candidate matters a lot in this context. Tinubu, who appears to be more robust so far from those who declared their aspiration, is brazenly feeble. If not a good diet and wealth make politicians appear strong, most of the politicians at the frontline ought to assume coach duties guiding the upcoming ones. We forbid the like we’ve seen in this administration by encasing the president in the Villa and plunging the country into anarchy.

From the view and the colour of the game, Atiku Abubakar, the former vice president, would swiftly take the PDP flag and Tinubu APC. Both have been dented by the people’s court to have maliciously accumulated wealth—having no other alternative polling box for the electorate. If history is to repeat itself, Buhari contested four times before he won. Now, Atiku is running on his fifth time is likely to have a smooth ride based on APC losing its credibility because of insecurity across the country. 

The extreme thirst for power to fulfil the ‘need hierarchy’ is not dangerous to the beholder alone. The motive is only to possess the authority without a sketched-architectural blueprint and clear manifestos which will coalesce with the national need. Buhari came on this platter, and the result is unbecoming.

So far, the two giants have not made it to the public the what-and-how to attend to the tangled problems agonizing every sector. The currently delicate security and imbalanced economy are at the top, strangling the country by the neck—finding it arduous to breathe. We, for now, don’t need the so-called ‘kingmakers’ who cannot heed or take advice from the public opinion but become foreign puppets—since, intrinsically, the presumption of superiority as the number-one citizen is established. 

Road to Villa 2023 must come from the parties and play the game card to sew the polarization across the region. The Villa in 2023 and beyond begs for a head that has both stick and carrot in his hands, the one who has a clear understanding of foreign policies and has immediate treatment to our problems, both short and long-term solutions. If to suggest best candidates, there are a multitude of them from SS, SW and NW, both fit in into position of President and Vice President, but for now, let’s see the outcome of the parties convention, which is the utmost decider.

Ahmad Murtala sent this article via ahmadmurtala@outlook.com.

By Zayyad I. Muhammad

The battle for the 2023 elections will be fascinating. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has commenced a challenging but exciting quest to be President of Nigeria in 2023. Tinubu would face five significant obstacles.

Firstly, his faith. Secondly, the choice of a running mate. Thirdly, the rugged politics the PDP would play – the PDP may present a northern presidential candidate and just ‘Siddon-look’, putting the APC on the defensive. And fourthly, how the North would vote relative to Omatekun and anti-Fulani sentiments in the southwest. And fifthly, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo supporters are on the move, solely focused on the presidency with confidence.

Tinubu, a Muslim from the Southwest, might have a free sail at home because of the complex nature of the socio-political settings of the southwest. But to appeal to other zones in the country, he will be in a quandary regarding his choice of a running mate. If he picks a Christian from the North, the bulk of APC support in the North, particularly the Muslim North, will look the other way. If he chooses a Muslim from the North, the country will undoubtedly be against a presidential Muslim-Muslim ticket. However, if the PDP picks its presidential candidate from the North, he may get some ‘relief’ in the South

Operation Amotekun and Sunday Igboho’s January 2021 one-week ultimatum to Fulani herders to vacate the southwest, Tinubu’s old statement – ‘ I don’t believe in one Nigeria’ will be another weapon that will be used against him in the North.

Tinubu’s war chest is enormous. His political tactics are shrewd; his political structure is solid, widespread, and well-organized They recently ‘bombarded’ the North and scared their opponents. Tinubu is a good candidate but has a big dilemma, as mentioned above.

On the other hand, the 2023 presidential election battle will be exciting – PDP will be on the offensive, while the ruling APC will be on the defensive. The flag bearers of either political party will also have many political hurdles to cross.

Most people expect the 2023 presidential election finale to be an Atiku vs a Tinubu game. Atiku vs Tinubu will be an interesting big game, a very BIG one. Two similar people with similar public perceptions and similar game styles; “I-know-you, you-know-me” scenario will come to play. The two have well-established political structures that can easily scare an opponent. They pay their bills; the contest would be 100 per cent politics, politics, politics- even the choice of the running mates. It will be a fascinating zero-sum game. Both have similar advantages and disadvantages.

Zayyad I. Muhammad writes from Abuja via zaymohd@yahoo.com.

By Kabiru Danguguwa

January 15, 1966, was the beginning of ethnopolitical division in Nigeria, followed by a civil war a year later. One may argue that colonialists initiated this division when they amalgamated the two, perhaps unrelated, protectorates for easy administration and exploitation in 1914. This manifested in the political parties formed on ethnic lines as a prerequisite for self-rule. Whatever the genesis of our division might be, January 15 1966, has been instrumental.

Different regimes have made several attempts, perhaps in vain, to create unity in diversity to address the above issue. Unfortunately, our democracy has not been a solution either. In a book chapter published in 2018, I argued that Nigeria’s democracy had recorded only one achievement. That’s the sustenance of “democratic rule” since 1999 without the return of the military. This is an outstanding achievement indeed. Thus, I conceptualised Nigeria’s democracy as an electoral democracy.

One of the most critical steps in electoral democracy is the transfer of power from the military to civilians, which happened in Nigeria in 1999. The remaining significant features are conducting elections as provided by the constitution and governing citizens with at least some concern of the process of law. From 1999 to 2019, we witnessed six general elections every four years as the constitution demands. The government also, to some extent, care about the citizens. Political science students may agree that we are operating above a facade democracy and, of course, below the liberal democracy found in the West. Put simply, unlike some countries in Africa and Latin America; we keep our military in the barracks and other places they constitutionally belong.

On the other side of the coin, the 23-year old Nigeria’s democracy is full of conundrums. The democracy is so illiberal that some citizens think of going back to the colonial era or the least, returning to military dictatorship. We often celebrate former military heads of state, especially when comparing them with civilian leaders. We almost unanimously prefer the military personalities of the people that ruled as military heads of state to their characters as civilian leaders. What is wrong with our democracy?

As 2023 approaches, just like the previous general elections, Nigerians are being divided over the choices of political parties and candidates that will govern the county. Several divisions emerged; some have been with us since the 1960s, while others were recently created. The North-South division might have come to stay. Southwest-Southeast has also been there for decades. There’s also Igbo versus the rest of Nigeria, mainly connected to January 15, 1966, and the Civil War.

There are at least two recently created or popularised divisions: Yoruba versus the rest of Nigeria and Yoruba versus the North. The duo, especially the former, is connected to the alleged concentration of the present government’s efforts on the welfare and well-being of Lagos and Lagosians.

Other popular divisions are APC-PDP and intra-political party rivalry between camps and political groups. I don’t believe in the religious division, for there are many Christians in the North and numerous Muslims in the South. There is Nigerian youth versus old-timers rift.

Political trends show that Northern Nigeria is more united politically. The North showcased its unity in 2015 when Boko Haram was on the verge of crippling socio-economic activities in the region. Out of optimism, people hated the regime of the day in favour of a Northern candidate. Forgive my conceptualisation of the North to include those who see themselves as Northerners.

There is a need for another unity as the region faces another severe problem mightier than pre-2015 general elections. In 2023, we must gear our unity using our strengths to present candidates who can deliver irrespective of their backgrounds and political parties. The South has never, since 1999, been united, but Yorubas have been. Look at how Southwest (Lagos), with Vice President, has been benefiting from this administration at the expense of the entire country. I firmly believe that we should only be united, not too ambitious. They say “politics is a game of numbers”, and we have the “numbers”.

Kabiru Ibrahim Danguguwa lectures at the Department of History and International Studies, Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Kano. He can be reached via kabiru.ibrahim87@gmail.com.

By Abdulrahman Yunusa

Borno State Governor Prof. Babagana Umara Zulum’s dealings with the power are enough to prove that he is an exceptional political player. He is extra cautious when sensitive issues are involved regarding the people he leads. He stood for his armless people during the tough days of Boko Haram activities and succeeded.

Unlike any other politician, Zulum neither puts his personal interest above his people’s nor allows his sentiment to overshadow his rationality. On the contrary, he often puts his people first before anything else. Thus, this aptly depicts how he resembles a statesman rather than a politician.

To attest to this, look at how he confronted several tragedies in the past. He does everything to get his people out of the cave of fear. Meanwhile, his recent assertion that says, “I’m not a politician, it’s my destiny that made me governor”, is another point of contention.

Either he said this wittingly to make an endpoint for his political voyage because he figured out something despicable attached to his govt, and he can’t withstand it. Perhaps he gets compromised as other politicians do, or he isn’t satisfied with his performance as a leader. That’s what we anticipated from President Buhari and his cohorts. But, instead, they end up disappointing us.

However, I do not support Zulum quitting politics so soon because he is the only man I have utmost conviction and respect for. And with people of his likes out of this dirty game, I can say we will be at a loss till God knows when.

Though I don’t know what the future holds for us, I’m terrified of losing such a rare gem among Nigerian politicians, for they always stand unique and prove to be the best among the rest.

I pray to have a lot of people of his personality amidst these useless politicians of ours because no matter how awful things go, they will surely change the narratives.

May Allah protect our Zulum, amin.

Abdulrahman Yunusa is a political and public affairs analyst. He writes from Bauchi and can be reached via abdulrahmanyunusa10@gmail.com.

By Ibrahim Tukur

For many years, persons with disability have been encountering various forms of discrimination from the government of all levels in Nigeria. From the onset of Nigeria’s democracy, nay, independence, there had been the executions of different, life-changing, life-saving and life-enhancing projects. However, if meticulously observed, one can see that only a very few numbers of persons with disability have benefited from it. Finally, in its bid to battle against abject poverty, and thanks to the establishment of the National Disability Commission, the current administration began to make a difference.

Persons with disability, for many years, have been using various mediums to battle against the discrimination thrown at them by the government. They clamour for their right, but their efforts yield only a slight result. Although the current administration enacted a law prohibiting discrimination against persons with disability, it has yet to be implemented in its entirety.

Disability-based discrimination is a huge problem that seems to have abounded every nook and cranny of our country. Fighting such entails a decisive element in the vicinity where the discriminations exist.

Persons with disability in Nigeria receive little concern or attention from the government regarding employment, health, education, empowerment etc. This happens as a result of the fact that persons with disability do not have a voice that will fight for them.

To eradicate this irrational discrimination, persons with disability should participate in politics. They can then play roles or be advocates of good leadership to help their kind and the general public.

Ibrahim Tukur wrote via inventorngw@gmail.com.

By Ismail Hashim Abubakar

Although the articulation of the presidential ambition of Bola Ahmed Tinubu (if actually this his real name) is seizing the attention of the public these days, Tinubu’s psyche might have likely become fraught with political confusion since 2020 when Mamman Daura gave the popular BBC interview on competence as the chief criterion for Buhari’s succession, rather than regional or ethnic consideration. 

This time around, the greed of  Bola Ahmed Tinubu seems even to surpass that of Atiku Abubakar. The man is using every channel to realise his (of course, legitimate) ambition while at the same time subjecting himself to more public shame. The man has become too wild in his bid to realise his dream of emerging as President, and there is a strong indication that he can go to any length to achieve his goal.

However, Tinubu is in a very disadvantageous position occasioned by the mixture of his ethno-religious and geographical inclination. The man is a Muslim, no one doubts, but of course, a very nominal Muslim who favours ethnic proclivities more than religious brotherhood and solidarity.

Based on clear historical evidence, to Tinubu, a Yoruba Christian is far better than a Muslim of any linguistic extraction. However, his hatred for the Hausa is beyond any human quantification. The series of brutal massacres of northern Muslims by government-backed OPC in the Southwest, especially Lagos when Tinubu was governor, still evokes gory memories in the minds of many Muslims, and this will play well as Nigeria approaches the general election in 2023.

Nevertheless, the shaky religious credentials of Tinubu, besides the status of his wife as Christian and his Christian handlers, do not at all make him a Christian or outside the fold of Islam. If that is the case, if, for example, he is nominated to contest for President, CAN and Nigerian Christians will never accept him as their representative, lest it means his running mate can be a Muslim.

Moreover, for most Muslims, especially in the North, Tinubu does not have enough moral credentials to be nominated as a Muslim candidate with any (northern) Christian candidate. Many northerners, in fact, will prefer a Christian from the South and a strong Muslim from the North to be paired to contest for the big office rather than Tinubu.

Tinubu’s visit to Kano a few days ago and his meeting with important and influential clerics in the city would not likely be sufficient to make his ambition sellable. Likewise, the many (courteous) praises showered on him by some Muslim scholars during the visit will not help him either.

So far, this is the dilemma that Tinubu has found himself in. My biggest fear, which I pray situations will not lead to that, is if all the above peculiarities tend to remain the huge stumbling block in the way of Tinubu to the Villa, and he may be left with no option but one: to publicly proclaim to accept Christianity. This decision will then mark his burial in the cemetery of Nigerian politics.

Ismail Hashim Abubakar wrote from Rabat and can be reached via ismailiiit18@gmail.com.

By Ahmad Mubarak Tanimu

It’s 2022. The twilight of Buhari’s administration is here, and the political permutations that will produce his successor are about to come bare. “Change” was the mantra in 2014. The Giwa barrack attack in March by Boko Haram, the Kibaku school girls abduction in April, the capture of Gwoza in August, the occupation of Bama in September and the ransacking of Baga in December by the terrorist group together with the over ten thousand lives lost during the year made 2014 an unforgettable year.

Goodluck Jonathan carried so many political accruals that outweighed his political assets, giving him an unfavourable political balance sheet that led to his well-anticipated defeat at the polls in 2015, becoming the first-ever one-term president in Nigeria. It’s an unusual political crash that the former presidential spokesman, Segun Adeniyi, calls ‘Against The Run of Play’.

Jonathan’s political misfortune didn’t start in 2014. He promised Nigerians a breath of fresh air after winning the 2011 elections. His major decision after the victory was fuel subsidy removal. He sent the then CBN Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi and the then Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to beg and convince Nigerians to accept subsidy removal.

The first nail on the political coffin of Jonathan was hit on January 1, 2012, with the announcement of fuel subsidy removal, which birthed a national outrage and mass protest known today in our history books as Occupy Nigeria. After that, Boko haram insurgency, the slump of oil prices in the global market, and the PDP crisis he poorly managed sent him to an early political abyss.

Whilst all these were happening, one man positioned himself suitably and leveraged on every misstep of the President, often described as clueless. The man is Muhammadu Buhari. When the commoner was not happy, as late political siege J.S Tarka would say, Buhari offered himself as the hope, the happiness and the long-awaited missing piece of the jigsaw. Buhari moulded all Nigeria’s problems into just one thing that he kept saying repeatedly; ‘corruption, corruption, corruption’. He then placed himself as the one and only man with an incorruptible toga in the political arena that could solve Nigerian security challenges and economic turmoil.

He became president in 2015, Nigeria’s economic crisis soared, and like the sunshine, insecurity moved from east to west in the North. But unlike 2014, in 2022, no one is leveraging Buhari’s ineptitude. Though to be fair to Buhari, with Nigeria’s over-reliance on oil for export revenue and foreign consumer goods, an economic crisis will always be inevitable in the situation of a fall in the global prices of oil.

The polity in Nigeria still looks primordial. No one is ready for issue-based conversation. Even the pundits often put in more sentiment than logic in their analysis. The reaction of Buhari’s detractors shortly after Tinubu’s declaration to run for the presidency in 2023 says it all. They want him to surrender a platform he built with his sweat over some decades of enduring and surviving political persecution under Abacha, Obasanjo and Jonathan.

One doesn’t need to be a seer or bookmaker to predict that Nigerians will face Tinubu and Atiku’s choices in 2023. This could be a run that will not dig and damage the image of Buhari. Atiku may keep things ethical as he did in 2019, whilst Tinubu will primarily defend the Buhari administration throughout the campaign and make promises of improvements.

In 2014, there was an exodus from the ruling party to the opposition. Governors Kwankwaso of Kano, Wammako of Sokoto, Amaechi of Rivers, Ahmed of Kwara and Nyako of Adamawa all defected to the APC and other party chieftains like Atiku, Saraki and Baraje. The defection made the ruling party’s defeat imminent even before the elections.

On the contrary, the ruling party is taking governors to its fold this time. Governors Umuahi of Ebonyi, Matawalle of Zamfara and Ayade of Crossriver defected to the ruling APC last year. While the long-awaited APC national convention can make or mar the party’s fortune in the next general elections, the current atmosphere spells gloom for the opposition again come 2023.

Going by the non-negotiability of Nigeria’s unity as enshrined in the constitution and the unwritten political arrangement of political parties in Nigeria, the next president should be ethnically and culturally Igbo. Still, the ethnic group can only claim that stake in the PDP, a party they supported wholeheartedly since 1999. They rejected the APC, and I don’t think the party will pamper the same region with a presidential ticket in 2023. I am harbouring a feeling that an Igbo presidency is all Nigeria needs to turn its fortune around as a country. It will bring integration and a sense of belonging for all, which may translate into socioeconomic success. But that’s a conversation for another day.

Ahmad Mubarak Tanimu wrote via ahmadmubarak.tanimu243@gmail.com.

By Ishaq Habeeb 

So I made a rather lengthy comment on Prof. Farooq Kperogi’s Facebook post regarding Bola Ahmad Tinubu’s presidential candidacy. He thought it was an excellent observation and thus an independent write up. Here is part of what the comment entails: “Tinubu is too old, too inebriated, too corrupt, too unhealthy, too controversial and too unfit to lead a nation that had just survived a tsunami”. That was my first reaction to the news making the rounds on social media since Tinubu officially made his intention public to run for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria come 2023.

A week before Tinubu’s announcement, our Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, declared his intention to run for the same office come 2023 and officially informed his principal to seek blessings as he intends to succeed him. My confusion here is: Mr Osinbajo’s declaration didn’t generate half the noise, Tinubu’s declaration is causing – although mainly in the negative. It makes me wonder, why are we all too focused solely on Tinubu? Everybody talking about what a terrible choice he’d be for the job, all attentions shifted away from Osibanjo.

Osinbanjo, Buhari’s VP since 2015, has never had any rift or imbroglio with his principal regarding the state of the nation. So now I put this to sleepy-eyed Nigerians: if Buhari is Pharaoh, doesn’t that make Osinbajo, the Vizier? Pharaoh’s Second-in-Command. That said, Osinbajo’s nonchalance to Buhari’s bad governance can only mean one of three (3) things:

1. That Osinbanjo is 100% with and actively part and parcel of the Buhari govt hence part to blame for the crass mismanagement of this country since they took over in 2015.

2. That he’s indifferent to the misruling and mismanagement of the country by his principal, so long as he remains the country’s VP and his family is safe and far away from the horrible effects of the bad governance, the Buhari regime – in which he’s the VP – has unleashed on Nigerians.

3. That he is not happy with the status quo but lacks the integrity and moral decency to do the pastoral thing and speak out against the ills or even step down, rather than feign indifference, watching the daily destruction of Nigeria and Nigerians by his principal, with himself, as second in charge.

Concluding thoughts…

Osinbajo is just as terrible as Tinubu for the job they’re eyeing, and Nigerians shouldn’t reject Taye but accept Kehinde. They’re two sides of the same coin. However, imperfect as they both are, if they’re the only two options, between the two, I’d rather go for the least, healthy, mentally and physically fit Osinbajo, over a sick, decrepitly-old, shady, and stinkingly-corrupt Tinubu. But thank God for multiple choices.

Ishaq Habeeb writes from Kano and can be reached via his Twitter handle @realishaqhabeeb.