Tinubu: The making of a president- Femi Adeoti Column

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FEMI ADEOTI COLUMN

The deed is done. It’s signed, sealed and delivered. Every
permutation, prediction, manoeuvring came to halt. And all prophesies
ended the way they came.
It’s now their season of banters and brickbats. Time to celebrate and
lament. Yes, time for jubilation and mourning. All at the same time.
We are glad we’re not lacking in any.
In fact, they come in good abundance. All are the handiwork of our
desperado politicians. They can’t afford to disappoint themselves.
They must do what they know how to do the best. We are enjoying every
bit of their shenanigans.
The game has changed. So also its narratives. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed
Tinubu is it! He’s President-elect. The ruling All Progressives
Congress (APC) obliged him that opportunity. Trust him. He came, saw,
fought, battled and conquered. He remains the rave of our times.
It’s given. It is expected. The winners will hold on tenaciously to
his victory. The losers will cry foul, even revolting. It is about
democracy and its beauty.
Nigeria’s elections can never be free of rancorous. It is perpetually
soaked in bitterness, disputes, claims and counter-claims. It’s not
today, not yesterday. Neither was it the day before. And so it will
continue to be.
We have a very rich history of election misconducts. We are not
ashamed to flaunt them. The reason we keep on improving on our
atrocities. We are creative and crazy about that.
We see each election as a golden opportunity for mischief. Each poll
presents new window to mess things up. And we never for once fail
ourselves.
We thought we were used to these politicians’ tricks and perversities.
This time around, they are something else. They have taken their
misdemeanour to the highest level.
They have beaten us to it one more time. We were enthusiastic we would
get it right. We erred. We goofed. We didn’t know we’re still naïve.
We had a misplaced focus on Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
That’s our undoing. Had we known, we wouldn’t have trusted them to it.
BVAS became the chief instrument of gross manipulation. It was used
excessively to compromise election results. Almost all the parties are
culprits. Instead of given us relief, we got anguish. That is not what
we bargain for.
We took it as given. It turned out to be “magical” BVAS. It did not
give us the liberation we earnestly yearned for. It sank us deeper
into bondage.
And in its trail came tears and sorrow. In some few instances, it
brought blood. BVAS entrenched us into further subjugation and
servitude.
Help, our dreamed freedom is slipping away. It’s fast eluding us. BVAS
was meant to help matters. It ended worsening our woes.
The “magical” BVAS worked up to a critical point. It captured the
voters and they voted accordingly. Votes counted and results endorsed.
Pictures taken. That ended it.
The story took a downturn. INEC officials played their pranks. Many of
them stubbornly refused to transmit the results. Suddenly, their
servers failed them. So they claimed.
Even more. Social media went awash. Video clips of various forms
occupied the space. They showcased glaring electoral malpractices.
These cut across parties. No state was unaffected. It was a bug, a
virus of sort.
These are more than mere hiccups. They are threats to our fragile
democracy. And they need to be confronted frontally. There’s no other
way to it.
The hues and cries are necessities. They should not be taken as
ranting of the opposition. They make democracy tick and thick.
For crying out loud! The winners of today were in the trench before.
They were yesterday’s losers. They cried the same bitter, hard way. In
some instances more than the bereaved.
They did that vehemently between 1999 and 2015. They lamented. They
yelled. They threatened blood. And they did spill it. We are all
living witnesses.
That a sitting president lost his home state in an election is no big
deal. That also can’t stop opposition from raising the alarm elsewhere
if they perceive ant wrongdoing.
Let anybody cry foul. It is his or her right to so do. And let’s see
out it plays out. Complaint in election is democratic. All politicians
do. It’s the norm all over.
This presidential election was strictly Nigeria. And typical of a
Nigeria’s election too. The reason the President-elect must be
deliberately intentional. That is Herculean task. It has to be done.
We have lived awful life these past eight years. There MUST be a clean
break from that horrible experience. We dread a repeat performance of
our recent past. We don’t want even its distant resemblance.
The break has to be total and clear. Old terrible things have passed
away for our good. All things have become new from now. And new things
are springing up.
We have lived enough of forced life, one of compulsion. Let these
heavy burdens be relieved off us. This is the appropriate time. No
better time than now.
Let the naira come back; old or new. We want to survive and survive
decently. Release unto us our hard-earned money. It’s our sweat it is
not Godwin Emefiele’s.
We need to move on. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor cannot
deny us. We refuse to deterred and retarded. Naira is our most urgent
need at the moment.
Tinubu must made concerted efforts. The “japa” syndrome is not paying
off. We are losing our bright, youthful brains to this unhealthy
phenomenon. And at the speed of light! In alarming droves. It has to
be tackled with all the seriousness it deserves.
One sure way to go: Put an end to buck-passing, complaints and
excuses. They’re irritating drawbacks and setbacks. We afford to
tolerate them further. They did not do us any good. They ruined us
this far.
Tinubu fought the life of his life. He was daring from start to
finish. His “Emilokan” declaration was legendry. On that day in June
2022, he never minced words.
Give it to him. He knows his onions. He chooses his words with extreme
care. In fact, he selects them. He even reads his palms to be sure of
his facts and figures.
And on this day in Abeokuta, Ogun State, his strategy didn’t fail him.
It was in the hot build-up to his APC presidential primaries. For
maximum impact, he elected to speak in his native rich Yoruba
Language:
“It is my time, I am educated, I am experienced. I have been serving
you for a long time, give me the presidency. If it is the turn of
Yoruba, then it is my turn (Emi lokan).”
And that did it for him. With the pronouncement, he clinched his party
ticket. He secured it in a tension-soaked and cut-throat competition.
They closed in on him again. He did run back to the oracle in
Abeokuta. He was convinced he would succour there. And he was damned
right. He roared like never before:
“Let them increase the price of fuel, only they know where they have
hoarded the fuel. They hoarded money, they hoarded naira; we will go
and vote and we will win.
“Even if they change the ink on naira notes, whatever their plan, it
will come to nought. We are going to win. Those in the PDP will lose
(Won ma lule.”)
With that he got what he wanted. Things started falling in line for
him. The APC governors brought in their “magic.” They turned things
around for the best for him. And the rest is history.
Next time you dare to be our president. Abeokuta is the place to go.
In fact, your first port of call.
Still in doubt! Ask Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President-elect,
Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He has a sweet story to tell.