Everything Is Wrong With APC, and Nothing is Right with Tinubu.
As the inauguration nears, excitement dwindles in an election with scarce jubilation. From Obasanjo, Yar’adua, Jonathan, and even Buhari, jubilation was visible, excitement was poignant, and Tinubu’s supposed victory has left mixed feelings amongst Nigerians. The APC government came in 2015 with a promise of change and stamping out corruption; hardly did any of those things happen. Change could mean different things to different people, but to deny that the change promised was one that would dissect through the opaque, corrupt, and unscrupulous double-dealing that has become the standard in the Nigerian governmental apparatus would be disingenuous.
The Nigerian Naira never dropped so fast as in the eight years of Buhari’s APC, and FDI waned faster than at any time since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999.
Hardly was any such change or attempt to fight corruption felt in the eight years of the former general Muhammadu Buhari, a man who made running for the presidency a routine. In fact, never has the presidency of Nigeria since its return to democracy felt so lulling, lacklustre, and dormant. President Buhari created more poor people faster than all the other presidents combined. The Nigerian Naira never dropped so fast as in the eight years of Buhari’s APC, and FDI waned faster than at any time since Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999. At times, it makes one wonder if President Buhari even knows what change stands for. Why did the former general want to be president so badly when he has no clue what leadership entails?
In fact, Nigerian Gen Z and Millennials have never lived with uninterrupted power supply; to them, having uninterrupted power supply is a luxury only common in foreign films and among those who have lived or been overseas.
He (PMB) has never spoken of the 63% of Nigerians living in multi-dimensional poverty, the worst in the world; he has never mentioned the drop in our power generation; or even attempted to initiate any type of process to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians by attempting to tackle the frequent blackouts that have become the benchmark of Nigeria in the last few decades. In fact, Nigerian Gen Z and Millennials have never lived with uninterrupted power supply; to them, having uninterrupted power supply is a luxury only common in foreign films and among those who have lived or been overseas.
With the recently concluded elections yielding another APC victory, the victor could not have been the worst of all nightmares. 218 million people call themselves Nigerian; 96 million of those hold a PVC, and 86 million are eligible to vote. However, just over 29 million turned up to vote, and APC won the election with just over 8 million votes, 4% of 218 million, 9% of 96 million, and 10% of 86 million. Whichever way you look at this, Nigerians scantily voted for the APC; this is democracy misfiring. Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not loved by Nigerians; that is a fair statement.
“Every nation gets the government it deserves.
The Northwest and Northeast except for Kaduna and Taraba produced a worrying outcome which many have since ignored. Barely 3% voted for the Labour Party. Why? For a simple reason, the flagbearer was Igbo, nothing more, nothing less. A BantuPage poll conducted face-to-face in these zones produced a similar outcome; the dislike for the Igbo candidate was not euphemized, it was boldly conspicuous. As the famous Joseph de Maistre quote says, “Every nation gets the government it deserves”. Do we deserve APC? Most young people will dispute the election results. Foreign observers echoed this sentiment. Due to the discrepancies between demographical historical voting patterns and the mismatch between the announced result by INEC and those on the IReV, this election was not equitable; it was flawed.
Would the discrepancies or errors, either intentional or inadvertent, in their variances have impacted the true outcome of the vote?
Would the discrepancies or errors, either intentional or inadvertent, in their variances have impacted the true outcome of the vote? That has been the question begging all along. Nonetheless, elections must be seen as transparent, and the independence of the body in charge of the election must be sacrosanct; this was far from the case in the February 2023 election. President-elect Bola Tinubu has been tossing his private jet between Nigeria and Europe in exuberance and luxury, something 99% of Nigerians will never be able to afford in their lifetime. A single one-way trip to London by private jet plus stationery ranges between N35 million and N75 million. That will be enough to equip 500 Nigerian police with body cameras, 2,500 new uniforms for our traffic officers, or furnish 15 primary schools in rural Nigeria. Is this the man you want to run Nigeria?
The Labour Party, PDP, and other parties have challenged the outcome of the February 2023 election; hearings have begun. No matter how small the chances are, it is still possible to overrule the APC’s win. It will be disingenuous if Peter Obi of the Labour Party, who has become the face of this tribunal, is not mentioned. His followers, dubbed Obidient, will devour anyone with dissenting views; they hold a position of absolute truth; anything else is unacceptable, and they will waste no time to pounce on anyone who dares say otherwise.
The Labour Party claims that the election was rigged, but none of the petitions put forward to the tribunal contain rigging of any kind. Why?
The Labour Party claims that the election was rigged, but none of the petitions put forward to the tribunal contain rigging of any kind. Why? If you believe that an election was rigged, is it not customary to present evidence to that effect? Before digging any further into the Obidents, it is important to note that these young people have lived through the brunt of Nigeria’s misfortune caused by a rotating set of septuagenarians who have shared Nigeria’s wealth like breakfast served only to a select few. When you have seen your future toss around like a ball game all your life, you lose every sense of order. These young people (Obidients) have lost every sense of order. Their future is at stake here. Tinubu, on the other hand, is the quintessential corrupt Nigerian; he embodies everything that is wrong with Nigeria. Cogently, the reaction of the Obidients becomes crystal clear.
If Tinubu is that bad, who are those who voted for him?
INEC claimed that only 24.9 million, or 26%, turned out to vote, the lowest since Nigeria’s return to democracy. This could not be further from the truth. This election was the most hyped in the history of Nigeria’s fourth republic, and prominent Nigerians echoed the large turnout, unusual for their previous franchise experience. Why did the INEC record differ so much from eyewitness accounts? Why would 13 million more people register for PVC only to not turn up to vote? It just does not add up. Assuming Tinubu won the election, it will still translate to 24.9 million people out of the 218 million who engaged in the electoral process; that is less than the population of Lagos State and Ibadan. If Tinubu is that bad, who are those who voted for him? He obviously won many states, especially in the Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest. He performed equally well in the North-central, but Rivers State was the misnomer; Tinubu himself knows Rivers’ outcome does not tally with reality. A country that cannot conduct a decent election in 2023, in an era of vast technological advancement, is embarrassing. We are greeted with derision across the globe for such an ignominious display of ineptitude. Our achievements are not commensurate with our size, position, and potential; we are unprecedentedly underachieving. Will Tinubu be the magic bullet?
There is no record of Tinubu’s son Oluwaseyi Tinubu’s business venture, just like his father, but they live a lavish lifestyle, buying and owning properties and private jets that exceed their income, if any.
Oluwaseyi Tinubu, the son of the president-elect, purchased a North London mansion in St John’s Wood through a company registered in the British Virgin Islands known for hedge funds and the hiding of assets, especially criminally obtained ones. There is no record of Tinubu’s son Oluwaseyi Tinubu’s business venture, just like his father, but they live a lavish lifestyle, buying and owning properties and private jets that exceed their income, if any. The president, Muhammadu Buhari, has spent time in North London’s mansion with Tinubu senior. The property was purchased from Kolawole Aluko, a known corrupt Nigerian who helped Alison-Madueke syphon off $1.76 billion from the Nigerian government. Aluko himself was accused of money-laundering and was wanted in 2014 by Interpol; the spoils of corruption are encircled all over the Tinubus. Is this what Nigeria is embracing for the next four years, at least?
Tinubu has no source of income; he commands the elite in Lagos and has built an empire of corrupt individuals who are carefully handpicked to stay in a certain position of power within the Lagos state hierarchy to maintain the status quo of syphoning the wealth of the city state.
Tinubu has no source of income; he commands the elite in Lagos and has built an empire of corrupt individuals who are carefully handpicked to stay in a certain position of power within the Lagos state hierarchy to maintain the status quo of syphoning the wealth of the city state. He slowly built a ladder to Aso Rock after being empowered by Lagos’ dominance of Nigerian institutions. President Buhari, a handpicked puppet chosen to be the face of the concatenation of various parties initiated by Tinubu designed to seal power at the centre, APC (Buhari) was to relinquish power to Tinubu after the former’s term was over; these people should have no place in contemporary Nigeria, whose average age is 18 years.
For those who elected Tinubu, history will not be fair to you. Ethnocentrism is a blinder to justice, equity, and transparency; it robs one of their mental capacity to reach an objective outcome. Religion is another detriment that has pierced through the Nigerian interface, polarising us into Christians and Muslims first before Nigerians. Until we mature enough to be able to separate religion and ethnicity from reality, Nigeria will continue to suffer at the behest of ethnocentrism and religion.
Writer: – Ikechukwu Orji –
