Nigeria

By Abdulbasit Toriola

I am Abdulbasit – an undergraduate student at the University of Lagos. I first heard about the CBN’s plan to redesign Naira from a hostel mate while returning from the mosque one evening. Soon, the news went all over. The boys of Biobaku Hall, my hostel, quickly picked up on it. It became a good subject for late-night arguments in a few rooms (after Messi-Ronaldo debates). I suppose the arguing parties, like me, were wondering how a change in currency design would help augment Naira’s depleting value against the US’ Dollar and other strong currencies. The Central Bank’s motive, however, was different. According to a CBN handbook I read, the redesigned notes were to help check counterfeiting, straighten the economy, reduce the expenditure on cash management, promote financial inclusion, and enhance the CBN’s visibility of money supply. These – are good benefits, anyone would say.

It was not until January 31^st that we started bearing the brunt of a new cash policy. Prior to this, immediately after its launch, we had seen from a viral BBC post what the new notes were like. Some of us said the notes were a bleached version of the old. Others said the CBN only dyed the monies, our monies. Our currency had become more of a joke. Apparently, things were unfolding in the background. CBN had given directives that all old banknotes be deposited on or before January 31, while encouraging Nigerians to explore other payment channels. The CBN, literally, put us on a thin, experimental line.

Soon, banks got filled, stacked up like they were market squares. In order to avoid hiccups, they kept their customers queued outside their premises in very long and rowdy queues that almost never moved. They kept their gates shut, too, till noon or afternoon; especially after some branches reported cases of violent protests. It was hard and perplexing. But as young students, we quickly adapted to the virtual alternatives CBN had left us with.

Still, it was hard. Perplexing. But we knew – judging from what we see or hear – that the pain we feel paled in comparison to that felt by those living beyond the walls of a campus. Sometimes, I lay still on my bed imagining what it would be like for market women, for school children, for drivers, for commuters. I remember, again, our hostel coordinator saying this was Buhari’s final ingenious gift to Nigeria and Nigerians. He says the President’s plan, like in 1984, is to checkmate politicians who have stockpiled Nairas ahead of the 2023 General Elections. I nod.

For us, hostel occupants, the deal breaker was an announcement – coming from the VC – ordering everyone to vacate school hostels for the election break. It was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. In the past few weeks, we witnessed the FG shift the deadline to February 8; various NGOs beseeching them for an even longer extension. We also saw the case brought before the Supreme Court. We saw the Court gives an order; we saw them adjourn the court case.

On February 15, the Supreme Court validated their previous order – that the old Naira notes remain acceptable as legal tender. The following day, we woke up to a nationwide broadcast, by the President, stating that only old N200 notes will remain valid till a due date. It was hard. Some of us left the hostel as early as 6:00am to join queues in front of the Nigerian banks. We had to pay commercial drivers in cash or nothing. Many of us stopped attending lectures, and sat/squat in front of bank ATMs instead. Cash was scarcer than ever. Outside campus, POS outlets had their places shut. Those that opened, literally, sold us the new Naira – they were charging exorbitantly. We looked everywhere for a way. And when we finally found one, we packed our bags, hoping silently that home would be good to us.

By Muhsin Ibrahim

Social media has a double-edged function. It can uplift you or do the exact opposite. It largely depends on the people and pages you interact with. Worried about their teens’ mental health, Utah became the first US state to regulate teen social media access this week.

According to a BBC report, “under the measures enacted on Thursday, a parent or guardian’s explicit consent will be needed before children can create accounts on apps such [as] Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.”

People of all ages can have their mental health wrecked on social media if they aren’t cautious. Some of us crave attention or other’s validation. Thus, people do crazy things to get more “likes” or ensure what they do gets their friends’ applause. That is one thing some of your social media ‘friends’ will never grant you because they are not your friends in the true sense of the word. So, the earlier you understand this, the better.

Of course, you should not be carefree. Each culture has its codes, and so on. So, consider these etiquettes but worry not about people’s attention or endorsement. Social media friendship is primarily fake. Folks, especially teens, can’t understand this. Thus, trolling push them to lose self-esteem, hate themselves, and some take their lives!

I salute the government of Utah. I am sure more states in the US and elsewhere will do the same. However, as ours (in Nigeria) will likely not do the same anytime soon, parents and guardians should do more. As it’s very challenging to deny your kids access to social media, monitor whom they interact with and the pages they visit.

Muhsin Ibrahim lives and works in Cologne, Germany. He can be contacted via muhsin2008@gmail.com.

By Salim Toro

A mistake repeated more than once is not a mistake anymore. It is a decision. – Paulo Coelho

I am not sure if this write-up will reach the appropriate authorities. But, anyway, if it reaches them, they should please consider and solve all the problems facing students of this great learning environment.

This question keeps coming to my mind. I can say that most of the University of Maiduguri students recall that the school commenced its 2022/2023 academic session on 3rd January 2023 for its new students and 16th January 2023 for returning students. However, I can see that no one is talking about it, although it’s already getting to two months, and no proper academic activities have commenced yet. 

Firstly, I’m not sure if this happens at a few universities. Still, it’s not proper to commence an academic session without placing your students’ results/academic statuses. But the case is different at the University of Maiduguri, and no effort is put into changing it. This same mistake happened last year, resulting in massive failure the following semester for those carrying over previous level courses, especially first-semester courses, because tests had already been conducted before the placement of the academic status. 

It’s tragic to know that the University of Maiduguri, a university created in 1985, doesn’t have any active student portal for registration, hostel registration, etc. They always come up with a new portal at the beginning of each session, with many difficulties for students when registering. Many students could not apply for hostel last year due to such challenges, and the management is still not ready to sort out this problem. 

Moreover, the university management doesn’t listen to students’ pleas on issues such as electricity, hostel maintenance and water supply. Sadly, students stayed in total blackout for weeks during the last examination session, which might result in massive failure in the semester examinations. Unfortunately, neither the school management nor the Student Union Government (SUG) takes serious action to solve the problem.

It’s sad to say that when the student representative met with the Vice Chancellor of the university, he boldly told them that the students should focus on their primary assignment and should not bother about anything other than that, which is impertinent. 

Although the SUG is supposed to be a channel between us and the management and a representative when any matter arises, I think they were appointed without minding to know the exact duty of the student union, and at last, they failed woefully. Aliyu Fannami’s administration is the worst SUG administration the university has ever had. 

Lastly, I’m calling on the JAGABAN of this administration to please put things into order. There’s still time to leave good legacies that will write your name with a golden pen in the university’s history, sir, because going down like this will only write your name as one of the worst JAGABAN the university ever had. 

Best wishes, Sir!

Salim Toro writes from Toro and is a 400l student from the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Maiduguri. He can be contacted via salimabdulhamid0909@gmail.com.

By Muhammadu Sabiu 

The Nigerian Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs has confirmed that the Ramadan crescent has been sighted in different locations in Nigeria.

This announcement was made by the Islamic Council in a statement on its official Facebook page on Wednesday night.

The statement reads, “His Eminence has received positive sighting reports of the Ramadan crescent from various locations nationwide. Thursday, 23rd March, is the first day of Ramadan.”

It added that an official statement would follow afterwards.

The sighting of the crescent marks the beginning of the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, in which Muslims fast for twenty-nine of thirty days before observing Eid al-Fitr.

By Saifullahi Attahir

It’s not surprising that nowadays you see my post regularly. I’m always looking forward to moments like this where  I get released from the yolk of sleep-inducing medical books. Once again, I’m lucky to be surrounded by my favourite literature I  enjoy which serves as a source of enlightenment, happiness, experience, and loyal and non-disturbing companionship.

This week I luckily came across a 362 pages novel written by a great and rare literary icon, Chinua Achebe, who needs no introduction. Dr Achebe was born around the 1930s in pre-independence Nigeria. He witnessed the early struggle of our nation with colonial amalgamation, premature political activities, and half-baked western knowledge. He was also blessed to witness the coup and the counter-coups, the civil war, the many long military juntas, and various democratic regimes. He died around 2013. what a long journey!

My respect for Achebe began when I discovered his early taste in Medicine (MBBS) at the University before switching to the Humanities. This is obvious in his surgical approach to writing and his simple use of words to convey a powerful message resembling a patient-doctor relationship in a way that no other can. Achebe is a political philosopher with all the tools to delve into politics (being famous, a great orator, experienced, a historian, and knowledgeable, of course, without the money) but decided to steer himself away from remaining a true nationalist.

The book, Man of the people, was so captivating that I couldn’t stop reading it until I was done in less than three days. How it related events in the early 1950s political arena to how it is in the present moment shows me that history is often a cyclical process with only names and dates that tend to change a little. This struck me with a reality that humans, despite our self-acclaim superior intelligence, are sometimes unfortunate gullible creatures that hardly learnt lessons from their past mistakes or the mistakes of others. This is more so true as today we rarely like to read history. Below is my take off from the book:

Chief Honourable Nanga is regarded in our settings as a wise and lucky few who was previously a low waged primary school teacher before finding his way into politics in the newly independent country. He was elected as a parliamentarian to represent his local people, who were mostly less literate in books than he was. Before his political adventure, Nanga was simple, intelligent, respectful, and friendly. All the mentioned attributes earned him the automatic approval of his people to represent them.

Of course, they weren’t wrong. Chief Nanga continues to be available to his people because he was a person you could describe as ‘let us eat together’. The main concern of his people was to bring them something to their mouths, not tangible and economically sustained programs. This automatically makes Chief Nanga the person whose main concern was to butcher the ‘national cake’ to satisfy his people and at least secure their approval for the next election round.

Chief Nanga was nominated a National Minister of Culture by the Prime Minister for his unquestionable ‘loyalty’ to the party and its leadership. The loyalty was nothing more than his ability to see wrongdoings and remains silent. Transgressions include high inflation, dashing money to party members, over-estimated contracts, sub-optimal road projects, conspicuous import duties, debt-ridden economic policies, debilitating educational reform, and countless more.

In exchange for his loyalty Chief Nanga was assured 10% of every project he was given, a 7-bedroom self-contained house, ten newly designed buses for his next election campaign, a  newly 2-storey mansion in his village hometown Anata, a new Cadillac car, and four security bodyguards. Remember that this was 1960’s politics!

In the story, there was an incident of some members of Parliaments who were not loyal to this dirty scheme of ‘party politics’ and stood their ground to expose all these scandalous affairs. Their fate was that the newspapers, magazines, and media outlets were being bought up (bribed) to write news regarding a coup plot arranged by those patriotic citizens who were later dismissed and imprisoned. At this juncture, I noticed that it’s true that news from some media outlets sometimes has some aspects of interest, either being compromised financially or for personal benefit. This required a separate article on its own.

It’s a rule of life that such activities can never continue unnoticed. Therefore a group of young, overzealous, and enlightened University graduates, some of whom were already practising in various sectors, including lawyers, doctors, teachers, and engineers led by  Max (a lawyer) and Odili (a teacher)  gathered to form a political party or rather a revolutionary movement to counter the activities of Chief Nanga’s Government. After various arrangements and meetings, they began launching their campaign. They were able to display every tactic to draw the attention of the common men and women in the country.

To cut the story short, these zealous young men were, to some level, unsuccessful in their mission; as the system began to unfold, it seemed a very complex situation where the very people they were shouting to rescue were the very culprit supporting the corruption. Those masses see the politician as saviours whose role is to go and bring them their share of the ‘national cake’ bounty because they do not view it as their right or National asset that deserves preservation up to their unborn generation.

The problem is that the same common masses are responsible for encouraging the leaders to do the vices. The common masses are the vanguards (‘yan jangaliya), the bodyguards, the local party chairman, and the man who complained of Kola-nut for his daughter’s marriage. The same masses would first laugh at him (elected politician)  after one year when he resigned from office without amassing something. Then, they would laugh at him that now he had become a  pauper, so this automatically creates the intrinsic urge to loot.

During the election campaign, Max lost his life after being attacked by those unfortunate vanguards, and  Odili sustained injuries, while his nomination paper didn’t even reach the electoral office as it was confiscated by corrupt Police. Chief Nanga’s party were ‘elected’ unopposed through massive ballot rigging and political hullabaloo. Fortunately, the country was saved by a military coup that overthrew Chief Nanga’s government.

The rest is history.

Saifullahi Attahir wrote from Dutse wrote via saifullahiattahir93@gmail.com.

By Muhammadu Sabiu 

The benchmark interest rate will rise by 50 basis points to 18% following a vote by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, revealed this while reading the communiqué from the second MPC meeting of the year on Tuesday in Abuja.

In a statement to the media following the two-day meeting, Emefiele stated that the committee had decided to maintain the asymmetrical corridor around the MPR at +100 and -500 basis points.

According to the governor, the small increase is intended to lessen the impact of inflation and other economic problems.

Since April 2022, when it was 11.50%, the MPR has been increasing.

The rate affects lending and inflation rates, which, when raised, have an adverse effect on the rise in the cost of goods and services.

By Ishaka Mohammed

Children smile when they are happy and cry or weep when they are hurting. They see you (an adult) as a loved one and guardian, so they hold your clothes, allow you to touch them and accept your gifts. Kids believe that everyone is innocent like them. Little do they know that some of their “loved” ones are child sexual abusers looking for opportunities to steal their innocence.

From relatives and friends to neighbours and teachers, we see people who derive pleasure from destroying poor kids. We live with people whom we consider as lovely friends and guardians of innocent children, unknown to us that they are monsters who see the innocent kids as sex objects. What a wicked world!

Although male children are also victims, sexual violence or abuse disproportionately affects female children. At a tender age, the girl-child suffers sexual abuse from people she’s supposed to trust. While at home, her mother tends to be indifferent when a man starts his subliminal seduction by touching her and calling her “my wife”. And at school, some of her male teachers use their bare hands to smack her—not as a punishment. These unscrupulous men abuse the girl-child while smiling and making her do the same, taking advantage of her naivety. 

I recently read a disturbing story about the arrest of a teacher who allegedly defiled four underaged sisters within ten weeks. It’s even shocking that the eldest of those girls is just 14 years old. I initially wondered how the suspect got a one-to-one meeting with the girls. I later realised that some parents are utterly irresponsible.

While listening to a Muslim cleric a couple of weeks ago, a man rebutted the claim that the religious orientation of children (especially girls) is a collective responsibility. According to him (a supposed father), parents had done their part by enrolling their wards and paying school fees, so the rest should be on Islamiyya schools. I was disappointed to hear such from someone who sometimes leads us in prayer. With this kind of man as a parent, it might be easy for a male teacher to even invite a female student to his house for a special (one-to-one) session.

Many parents trivialise the care of the girl-child nowadays. Maybe they are oblivious to her vulnerability, so they leave her to the mercy of people they tend to trust. Call it suspicion or being overprotective; I insist that it can be disastrous for a girl to be with a man (except her husband) in seclusion, regardless of their biological or social relationship. 

While searching the incidence of incest in Nigeria some time ago, I found an enormous volume of reports. The findings shocked me because I grew up in a society where almost every family protected its name by keeping such nasty stories from the public. Besides, I never imagined sexual activities between parents and their children. Although I’ve read a few stories involving mothers, this unthinkable act happens mostly between fathers and daughters. If poor kids could be abused by their biological fathers, I doubt if they’d be safer anywhere else. So, what’s the way out?

Here’s my take. To protect the girl-child, we must shun emotional blackmail and take rigid measures. Members of every family should unanimously agree that any man (father, uncle, brother, teacher, etc.) that wants to talk to a female member should do so in the presence of other people. However, in the case of something seemingly private, they can be given a gap but must be visible to another member of the family.

You may think my position is absurd, but I’m sure you’d change your mind after reading some of the reports I’ve accessed. Child sexual abuse and incest in Nigeria cut across all regions and religions, so we must deny one another the chance to engage in this heinous act.

I once saw a quote that reads, “Virginity isn’t dignity; it’s lack of opportunity.” Although I disagree with the first part, I find the last one meaningful. A lot of people are innocent because they have no chance to commit certain sins.

I know a man in his late 30s who used to be angry with his dad because he had no personal room to copulate with girls, but this fellow is grateful today for the opportunity he didn’t have years ago. Indeed, a lack of something might just be a blessing in disguise. Dear men, let’s fight child sexual abuse by denying one another a one-to-one meeting with any girl.

By Iranloye Sofiu Taiye

Gone are the days when most people in our society were contented with little they had and a time when we slept with our two eyes closed; it was a communal state characterised by collectivism. Then we were our brother’s keepers when travellers were safe to journey at night without any security threats, a time when meritocracy prevailed over mediocrity when criminals were not sympathised with, and an epoch when elderly people were highly respected and venerated. 

The situation is quite catastrophic currently with the substitution of collectivism with individualism. We are now dwelling in a society where everyone minds his business with no form of a collective check on the excesses of our people, especially when it comes to criminal actions. I can vividly recall when we were juveniles. Generally, few people had cars, televisions, fridges, and generators.

Children had fewer clothes bought during the festival period and ate the best dishes (rice and chicken) during the festive season or special events. Yet, we are not frustrated. On the contrary, both day and night, the entrance and doors to the house of the rich are wildly often open to play and eat together with their children, and the rich also tolerate their children eating together in the less privileged homes and vice-versa. 

Children always troop into the room of anyone who has a television whenever there’s light to watch movies and listen to the news with no intimidation from anyone. In our community, we are always proud and happy if someone has a car in our area because, during any festival, all children in that community will go to the praying ground with that car. No one is under a burden to amass what they couldn’t afford just to oppress others.

Society has a culture of contentment though people strive to improve their living conditions within their means. Owing to contentment and collectivism, the crime rate was meagre because the notion of ‘i-must-make-it-anyhow’, which has ravaged our societies today, isn’t the order of the day then.   

Pathetically, our society of today has been polarised and characterised by social class disparity anchored on economic buoyancy, where those who are wealthy don’t tolerate the less privileged. Thus, the relationship only exists if the poor are ready to kowtow to the dictate of the rich to advance their oppression. 

Youths commit crimes including; kidnapping, armed robbery, murder, rape, internet fraud, money ritual, and alcoholism because they want to wear designer, drive the latest cars, use the latest iPhones, and party with open Street girls. Sadly, many members of our society today are abetting this aberration and terror, demonising our communities of which the parents, guidance, religious clerics, and even the bad eggs within our security personnel and government officials are not left out.  

The rise in the rate of internet fraud, known as Yahoo-Yahoo! and kidnapping is one of the major causes of carnage across our communities today, but all our hands are at akimbo as if what’s happening is normal in our communities today even though we are all aware the perpetrators of this evils engage in human parts harvesting for money rituals.

Many young men on our streets today are into drug abuse, cultism, and alcoholism, which have continued to pose a severe threat to the peace and security of our communities, thus, increasing the crime rate. Our parents, known to be a model before, had soiled their integrity and never cared to know the source of the wealth of their children today. Alas, we now have the ‘yahoo-yahoo mother association’ organised to support their children who are into cybercrime and internet fraud spiritually. Let alone ladies freely engage in advanced prostitution (hook-ups) to compete and oppress others. 

The schools and institutions known to be an avenue for character modelling before are nothing to write about today. People only attend school for academic accomplishment, devoid of character. Stealing and misappropriating the public commonwealth by those occupying public offices, including politicians and civil servants, is now a culture.

Regrettably, the court system and the judiciary are now blemished with conspiracies and marred with corruption. The supposed last hope of the masses has become the fortress for the rich, where the highest bidder gets the desired judgment.

How did our esteem values and norms get substituted, and why is criminality on the rise despite our religion and high level of education? I believe it’s already too late to continue to point fingers at colonialism, globalisation, or westernisation as our problem currently. But the main issue is that our values and norms have been neglected. Hence this dilemma and nightmares befall us.

As a Yoruba aphorism says, “if you know not where you’re heading to, you should know where you are coming from” Revival of our culture; norms and values are pertinent now to arrest and stem this risen criminality in our society.

Iranloye Sofiu Taiye (Optimism Mirror) is reachable via iranloye100@gmail.com.

By Abubakar Muhammad Tukur

In Nigeria, true federalism means different things to different people. The newfound phrase could be better understood using a geo-political lens. Let us begin with the southwest, which the Yoruba dominates.

The agitation for true federalism started in the southwest immediately after the annulment of the 1993 presidential election, believed to have been won by a Yoruba man. The Yoruba elite argued that the election was annulled simply because their northern counterparts were unwilling to concede political power to the south. Hence, their vigorous campaign for a ‘power shift’ to the south. By power shift, they meant an end to the northern elites’ stranglehold on political power and, by extension, economic control.

However, with a Yoruba man, Olusegun Obasanjo, emerging as the president in 1999, the clamour for a power shift became moribund and was replaced with that of ‘true federalism’. By true federalism, the Yoruba elite means a federal system with a weak centre, a system in which the constituent units are independent of the centre, especially in the fiscal sphere.

The cry of marginalisation has been loud in the southeast, home to the Igbo ethnic group. The Igbo’s position regarding Nigeria’s federal system is that the system is characterised by lopsidedness, particularly in allocating national resources.

Another ground of Igbo agitation for true federalism is their perception of non-integration into mainstream politics since the end of the civil war in 1970, citing a lack of federal presence in the region. This sense of lack of belonging informs the views of some pro-self-determination groups like the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that the Igbo people are no longer interested in being part of Nigeria and should be allowed to secede and form an independent state of Biafra.

It is, however, doubtful if the campaign for the resurgence of Biafra is popular among the elite of the southeast whose political and business interests cut across the country. By true federalism, therefore, the Igbos of the southeast mean a federal practice that accommodates every ethnic group in the multinational federation.

Similarly, a sense of political and economic marginalisation forms the basis upon which the minorities in the Niger Delta (or the south-south geo-political zone), where the bulk of Nigeria’s oil is located, persistently demand their own exclusive political space using the euphemism of ‘resource control’ and true federalism.

In the Nigerian context, the term resource control means the right of a federating unit to have absolute control over the mineral resources found within its jurisdiction and contribute to the central government to fund federal responsibilities.

The perceived injustice in resource distribution is the main driving force for the struggle for resource control. The oil-producing states have repeatedly argued that Nigeria’s fiscal federalism, which encourages lopsided distributive politics, has been unfair to them. For the people of the Niger Delta, therefore, resource control is a solution to marginalisation. Thus, for the people of this region, true federalism means a federal practice whereby the federating units are allowed to own and manage their resources as they desire.

Seemingly, the northern elite wants the status quo to remain based on the belief that the present system favours its interest in some quarters. These include the federal character principle, majority representation at the federal level and quota system.

We have been able to demonstrate in this article that central to the agitations for true federalism in Nigeria is the struggle for access to national resources. Oil rents and their distribution have shaped the operation of Nigeria’s federal system and have also contributed largely to the failure of federalism in Nigeria. Nigeria’s history of revenue distribution is about each ethnic group or geo-political region seeking to maximise its share of national resources. One reason for the acrimonious revenue allocation system is that Nigeria’s component units lack viable sources of revenue of their own.

Also, the economic disparity that has given rise to unequal development among them is another source of contention. Therefore, any future political reform must ensure the accommodation of the country’s ethnic diversity because this is one of the many ways national unity could be achieved.

As a way out of the over-centralisation of the system, the country’s fiscal federalism should emphasise revenue generation rather than revenue distribution, as this would ensure the fiscal viability of the states. Any future reform should be tailored towards the states generating their own revenue, and those not endowed with resources should devise strategies to generate revenue from other sources. Internally-generated revenue should only complement a state’s share of federally collected revenue. Moreover, with the decentralisation of economic resources, the states would be in relative control of their resources and be less dependent on the centre.

A weakening of the federal centre may not be a bad idea, but Nigeria needs a federal system that would ensure the relative supremacy of the central government vis-à-vis the state governments. The size of the federation, as well as its ethnic diversity and economic disparity, requires a relatively strong federal government that would be able to regulate the competition for national resources.

It may be concluded at this juncture that Nigerian federalism is defective, and reforms are inescapable. The unending quest for true federalism, political restructuring, and self-determination within the context of the ethnically heterogeneous Nigerian federation will disappear until the political leaders reform the institutions and structures of the federal system to give a semblance of genuine federalism.

Abubakar Muhammad Tukur, LLB (in view), can be contacted via abubakartukur00396@gmail.com.

By Lawan Bukar Maigana

It is now an open secret that the former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is now Nigeria’s president-elect. For many who may not know, the erstwhile Lagos Chief Executive is not the typical run-of-the-mill Nigerian politician. 

A master political strategist of no mean repute, Tinubu has never lost an election since he started appearing on the ballot. The lessons in his political journey are enormous and worth studying by contemporary politicians, especially young people who aspire to be leaders of tomorrow. 

Tinubu’s political trajectory depicts the importance of building people regardless of any differences. He built builders, and the builders built him. 

Most people, including some members of his party, had thought that he was not going to win the February 25th presidential election because of some varying factors.

But Tinubu, for a minute, never lost hope. He consistently told people that he was going to win. He candidly said, “it is my turn, and I will win.” These were the songs he sang until he won. 

It is a fact known that most politicians fear the “enemies within”, but the reverse is the case with Tinubu as the Aso Rock cabals in President Muhammadu Buhari’s government fear him. He tackled them and moved on. 

The contribution of the people he built in politics to his emergence as president-elect cannot be overemphasized. 

Hours after he was announced as the winner of the keenly-contested election, he first extended his heartfelt appreciation to the Vice President-elect, Senator Kashim Shettima, and the entire northern governors who gave their best to his ascension to the presidency. 

One of the qualities of a resounding leader is his ability to unite people and carry everybody along. That is what Tinubu started with. He called on all presidential contestants to join him in building a new Nigeria for the betterment of all and sundry. Who has ever done that in the history of our nascent democracy? 

Tinubu’s track record as governor of Lagos is a testimony of his effort for the unity and development of Nigeria. He brought capacity hands outside Lagos for the betterment of his people. He has national spread, unlike his Labor Party rival, Peter Obi, who was largely voted by people of the east and a few from the west. 

Obi, being the governor of Anambra, does not take his state as his permanent residence. He lives in Lagos—a state developed by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I expect him to calm down his supporters, conceit defeat and join hands with the president-elect to steer the Nigerian project. 

One of the best ways to advocate peaceful coexistence and give people a sense of belonging is by giving protection to the people you govern, regardless of any differences. Tinubu’s house is a good example. He’s a Muslim. His wife and children are Christians. 

Teeming Nigerians have joined Tinubu to savour his electoral victory in the penultimate Saturday’s presidential election. But the President-Elect knows, more than anyone else, that the journey ahead will be rough, bumpy tortuous. 

He, however, should do all that it takes to actualize the visions of his ‘Renewed Hope’ campaign slogan. It is not for anything that many, including his armchair critics, regard him as a political colossus who has greatly paid his dues in helping to entrench democratic governance in Africa’s Giant.

Lawan Bukar Maigana writes from Abuja and can be reached via email: lawanbukarmaigana@gmail.com.