President Tinubu and His Dangerous Experiment – By Tochukwu Ezukanma

Posted by admin Tochukwu Ezukanma, Articles, Columnists, NNP Columnists Monday, July 29th, 2024

By Tochukwu Ezukanma | Lagos, Nigeria | July 29, 2024 – Just before the 2023 presidential election, Mrs. Oluremi Tinubu was at her oratorical best. Like a Casanova wooing a credulous damsel, she was suave and charming. She told her audience that “my husband and I” are already wealthy. And, as such, in running for the presidency, they are not seeking power for any material gain, but to serve the people. Thus, as the first couple, they will be consumed by the exigencies and rigors of service to the country and resolving her complex and seemingly intractable problems. They will not be susceptible to the allures and temptations of the office of the president. [AHI1]

And like a credulous, and even, naïve damsel, under the sway of a seducer’s sugar-coated words, her audience were impressed. In their credulity, they asked no question; they just believed. The applicable and reasonable question for her would have been: what is the source of that enormous wealth of yours that will place you above the fascinations and baits of Nigerian public life?

Neither Mrs. Tinubu nor her husband is elaborately erudite or notably versatility. So, none of them could have penned a globally acclaimed bestseller that netted them millions of dollars in royalties. They were never singers, dancers or actors. Thus, their enormous wealth could not have been from entertainment. In addition there is no fabulous tale of their excellence in business and/or the professions. What then could have been the source of their staggering wealth?

Of course, it was from corrupt dealings and outright thievery of public funds, especially, from Lagos State. It was grasping avarice and cupidity on a bewildering scale, and its attendant piratical depredation of Lagos State that made the Tinubus excessively wealthy. Even after his tenure as the governor of Lagos State, he continues to milk the state through his mind bogglingly over bloated pension, outright sequestration of state properties, diverse financial stratagems, and railroading a continuum of the state governors into channeling an alarming proportion of state funds into his private account every month.

Disconcertingly, Tinubu’s rise to power was not determined by the will of the people but by “Emi lokun”. His presidency was a product of an elite arrangement, and the most fraudulent election in Nigerian history. With his rise to power dictated by an infamous elite agreement, he, not surprisingly, pledged to continue from where his predecessor, Mohammadu Buhari, stopped; he will continue with Buharism. What is Buharism? It is pandering to banditry, sympathy for Boko Haram terrorism, amnesty for terrorists, support for Fulani expansionism and its associated Fulani herdsmen unhinged murderousness across the Middle Belt and southern Nigeria, irresponsible economic policies and their palpable symptoms of hunger and increasing raw dirty poverty among the masses of Nigerians, etc.

With his continuation of Buharism, the bandits continue to thrive with their scandalizing impunity and sense of entitlement. The policy of amnesty for “repentant” terrorists and their integration into the army remains in effect. The Fulani herdsmen continue with their blood-soaked murderous binges across the Middle Belt and southern Nigeria. And pervading hunger and desperate poverty hold sway over the land. Ultimately, despite its “Renewed Hope” mantra, the Tinubu administration will only reinforce the status quo; and things will worsen across board.

We lack prophetic powers and cannot foresee the future; we can only extrapolate the future from the past. Thus, we can only anticipate the Tinubu presidency from his antecedence. President Tinubu’s life is teeming with question marks and his past is blemished by criminality, mendacity, avarice, cronyism and disdain for the welfare of the people. As president, he must inescapably exhibit his personal traits and replicate his political modus operandi at the national level.

As we lament the unwarranted, excessive affluence of an elite few at the economic strangulation of many, and the perils of an economy tottering at the brinks of a collapse, the Tinubu administration is engrossed in its flamboyance, profligacy, and misplaced priorities. His usual motorcade of more than 120 of the most expensive cars in the world disconcerts and exasperates Nigerians. In his avarice and cronyism, his most important aides are his earlier henchmen, who, in their honed skills for looting government coffers, helped him to loot the coffers of Lagos State. The budgeting of N15billion for the renovation of the vice president’s residence, payment of N90billion as subvention to Hajj pilgrims, purchase of a presidential yacht and addition of two more planes to the presidential air fleet, at the cost of almost N1 trillion naira are egregious instances of profligacy and misplaced priorities.

With its reputation for cronyism, corruption, misplaced priorities, irresponsible economic policies and contemptuous indifference to the economic plight of Nigerians, Tinubuism can only exacerbate the problems of the country. The terrorists, bandits and Fulani herdsmen will continue to have a field day. The economy will continue to deteriorate, as inflation spirals out of control; mass hunger surges; poverty deepens and widens; and the economy teeters even more terrifyingly at the edge of a total collapse. And by 2027, the Nigerian electorate will be significantly more impoverished, and therefore, extremely susceptible to political manipulation, and the democratic opposition will be so enervated by the administration’s instigated infightings and financial compromise of many within their ranks.

Despite my determined optimism for Nigeria, and my unwavering belief in Nigeria and the inviolability of her union, the prospects for Nigeria in the coming years is bleak because to mix Buharism with Tinubuism is a disastrous experiment.

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.

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