By Bolaji O. Akinyemi.
Tinubu’s intervention on behalf of his party in the Edo State Governorship election 2020 was considered by Edo electorates as a needless meddlesome of an interloper. Though he was the National leader of the All Progressives Congress and it was within his duty as the party leader to spur his party members and supporters to victory. He went over the bar by laying claim to the leadership of all Democrats irrespective of party affiliation. His arrogance of speech and communication instigated a posture from the street; with the slang Edo no be Lagos, this was made the reality of his party APC at the 2020 governorship election. One would have thought the President has learnt a lesson or two in political communication. But the President is back to his old tirade of political harassment and threatening. That piece of a video is everything the office of a President does not represent. Even if the Mr President has concluded plans and given order that the mandate of the people in Edo State be grabbed and gifted his party, he needs not rub it on our faces and desecrate the highest public office in Nigeria.
If we have seen impunity of office and recklessness of Executive power deployed to deny the electorate of their choices at the polls, we only need to wait for the furthering of the fight in impunity of power carried out in Lagos in 2023 repeated in Edo 2024. The institutionalisation of same in 2027 we should earnestly wait for or resolutely resist in Edo.
In a viral video, the President was seen expressing his humiliation as a self acclaimed leader of all Democrats and the bitter taste of the pie of humility fed him by the Edo electorates. The pains of the loss of his party in Edo 2020 Governorship election the President had not overcome. hear him “Edo will turn to a beautiful; if not more beautiful than Lagos, it will be equal to Lagos! His emphasis on Lagos is for me a reaction to the pain inflicted on him by Edo no be Lagos slogan. If anyone is deceived into believing that this mission to grab and give Edo is about making Edo as beautiful as Lagos, that is unfortunate! It is about binding the bruise of his ego.
I am amazed that the oppositions are lost to what the President has declared against them, but I will help them spell it out!
“You know me well!
You know Adams Oshiomhole. We are still going to fight further, don’t worry, we are with you, you will not walk alone!
Do you want Edo back! One thing I can assure you is this,
AS THE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA, I WILL GIVE EDO BACK TO YOU!
Bola Ahmed Tinubu, beat his chest in pain of 2020, and vowed! Not with the influence of his personality but with the power of his office as the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces that Edo State is a gift to be given to his political party as a gift on the 21st of September 2024. The process may turn out to be a mere formality except the President is resisted by local and international Democrats to preserve the sanctity of democracy. The process is compromised already. Buhari’s impunity was often communicated in body language. He lifted his ballot paper to show not just Nigerians and the world the candidate he voted on the February 25, 2023 but the candidate all agencies of government must deploy the power and every instruments of the state to ensure his victory. What Buhari made known on election day, BAT has openly declared months to the election to all agencies of government saddled directly or indirectly to play one role or the other.
I expected that by now, opposition will be raising their voices and leading all well meaning Nigerians to call global attention to the threat that the posture of Mr President poses to our democracy and asked that Nigerians should boycott Edo election.
If Nigerians can’t understand what Mr President meant when he said we are still going to fight further, then we just need to reflect on the fight that resulted in the maiming and killing that produced the result in the 2023 elections in Lagos.
According to the Premium Times report on Nigeria’s last general election, 109 deaths were recorded in 3 months connected to the 2023 election in Nigeria. The Lagos formula that contributed death to the national statistics will be deployed in Edo 2024 and the weeping and gnashing of teeth formula that foisted Fubara on Rivers Wike has promised to deploy in the FCT in 2027 to ensure that Ireti Kingibe does not return to the Senate. Am I interested in the return of Kingibe? Of course not, that is for Abuja Residents to decide, not for me, Wike or Mr President. Not even INEC and all agencies of government have the power to truncate the will of the Electorates in Edo, Ondo, Anambra, Abuja or Nigeria in general.
Like APC’s BAT, like PDP’s Wike! The conspiracy of both parties against the lifeline of constitutional democracy raises worries for the future of democracy.
Just imagine how this will sound in Wike’s husky voice; “You won’t return to the Senate in 2027”!
On Monday, 1st July 2024 as he tackles the senator representing the FCT without decorum, saying the Senator representing the FCT would lose the support of residents in the Nigerian capital in the 2027 general elections.
“Speaking at the flag-off of the Mabushi Bus Terminal in Abuja, Wike said it was disheartening that instead of collaborating with the FCT Administration…”
What! I hope you heard that? So Wike know that collaboration is what is needed for good governance after elections are over? But what he wouldn’t allow Fubara to enjoy he is demanding of Kingibe. Had Abuja had a Governor,;the FCT would have become a theatre of war like it is seen in River State enabled by side taking of government agencies who should ensure peace.
His reaction was to Kingibe’s anger that residents were praising the President Bola Tinubu administration.
His words: “I overheard somebody on Arise TV this morning. Unfortunately, I hear the person is a member of the National Assembly and it is unfortunate; I say so.
“With all due respect, what you don’t know, you don’t know, what you know you know, and the good thing for you is to tell people you don’t when you don’t know, then people will educate you.
“The Honourable Minister of State and my humble self have not been in office for more than 11 months and the person is angry that they are praising us.
“If you don’t want to or you are angry about that, go and hang yourself on a transformer”. What a razz of a communication, coming from the minister of our Federal Capital Territory”?
Are you still surprised that peace isn’t in sight in River State? A political opponent should go and hang, (commit suicide) transformer for simply exercising her right in a democracy!
Wike said what he should have and be quiet; “If we have done well, we have done well. If we haven’t done well, we haven’t done well. I am proud to say that in the short time that Mr. President has appointed us, we have done well”.
Quoting Ireti Kingibe “You said there are no hospitals and there are no hospitals. You, as a legislator, what have you done? How many bills have you sponsored for us to improve our education and health sector?
“I challenge that legislator. If you are very popular, 2027 come and run under Abuja, we will fail you. Do you think that what happened last time, will happen again”?
Election in the Federal Capital Territory has always been a reflection of the will of the people but Wike has made a promise, “It will not happen again”!
Why! “Luckily for me, I am the FCT Minister now! So, that is my TERRITORY and I’m not afraid.”
Kingibe had accused the minister of abandoning the health, education and security sectors while focusing on unnecessary infrastructural development.
One would have expected the FCT Minister to present his score cards in 11 months in the areas that the Senator queried but like his principal, he resorted to arrogance and boasting of using his office to frustrate the process against an individual even if residents are disposed to her continuity.
Moving around the FCT in these few days has shown preferences of the FCT administration towards elitist infrastructures and projects, while projects and infrastructures that could ameliorate the suffering of the masses are neglected. If you have never seen a pedestrian bridge with potholes before come to Wike’s territory, the pedestrian bridge at Nicon Junction is an eyesore, may it not go down under the people one day before the calamity it represents is revealed.
Edolites like Nigerians are of the opinion that God will fight for them but politics is not a battle of the gods. Nigerians should not wait to see the fight the President is calling for on election day. Now is the time to use Edo to save the days of River State’s revelation that Wike is promising FCT and consequently Nigerians in 2027; by raising a global awareness on the need to boycott Edo election unless critical demand by the oppositions and the electorates are met.
Dr. Bolaji O. Akinyemi is an Apostle and Nation Builder. He’s also President Voice of His Word Ministries and Convener Apostolic Round Table. BoT Chairman, Project Victory Call Initiative, AKA PVC Naija. He is a strategic Communicator and the C.E.O, Masterbuilder Communications.
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