As a Nigerian, I would be extremely concerned and embarrassed if Bola Tinubu became Nigeria’s next president. As a Yoruba, I would be deeply disappointed and ashamed. Why? Well, as a Nigerian, I would be concerned and embarrassed because a Tinubu presidency would devastate Nigeria internally and demean it externally.

As a Yoruba, I would be disappointed and ashamed because Tinubu’s politics and behaviour are antithetical to the values Yorubas claim define them; the core values of integrity, character and honesty, encapsulated in the honour-signalling Yoruba word: Omoluabi! First, for Nigeria, a Tinubu presidency would destroy the fabric of presidential politics.

It would legitimise a self-serving behaviour where someone entrusted with public office amasses inexplicable wealth and uses the stupendous wealth to manoeuvre his way to Nigeria’s presidency. If that were to happen, the presidency of Nigeria would be for sale, going to the highest bidder. No one has ever become Nigeria’s president that way!

To be clear, this is not about wealth, but its sources. MKO Abiola nearly became Nigeria’s first billionaire president. But everyone knew he was a government contractor and an international businessman. He never held public office, not a state governor, not local government chairman! Similarly, if Aliko Dangote were to run for president, no one would question the sources of his wealth: we see them everywhere. He has held no public office! But how, for God’s sake, did Tinubu, governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007, become, in his words, “richer than Osun State”, owning private jets?

The Financial Times recently wrote about “his shifting versions of where his money came from”. In one version, Tinubu said he became a multi-billionaire through real estate. It stretches credulity. Yet, he faces strong allegations of state capture, of large-scale transfer of public resources for private interests. Tinubu’s reflex response is: “Prove it”! But that won’t suffice in sane climes. Elsewhere, someone so stinking wealthy, with no known legitimate source of his wealth, especially being in public life, cannot glide insouciantly to a nation’s leadership without absolute openness about the source of his wealth.

This matters because unexplained and inexplicable wealth distorts politics and undermines democracy; deep pockets determine the outcome of presidential primaries and can influence the result of presidential elections. That’s one reason a Tinubu victory would be disastrous for Nigeria; it would license, reward, and perpetuate morally bankrupt politics.

Of course, there’s also the documented case of Tinubu’s drug-related past. In the early 1990s, he forfeited $460,000 to US authorities after they concluded that certain funds in his bank accounts were “proceeds of narcotics trafficking and money laundering”. Such a person would never dream of becoming president of a country with the right value system. Truth is: a Tinubu presidency would make Nigeria a laughingstock globally, accentuated by Tinubu’s unpresidential carriage and gait and his crude manner of speaking, particularly his habitual gaffes. At home, his Muslim-Muslim ticket would further erode internal cohesion, while his proposed statist policies and fiscal activism would destroy Nigeria’s economy.

Yet, Nigerians may elect him as the next president next week, which would vindicate the French philosopher Joseph de Maistre, who said: “Every country gets the government it deserves.” As someone also said, a rescue mission cannot succeed if people aren’t entirely sure they want to be saved. However, I believe Nigerians can choose to save Nigeria and themselves by rejecting Tinubu at the polls on February 25. Which brings me to the Yorubas. In a recent column, I wrote that two sections of Nigeria could make Tinubu the next president: the South-West, which might vote massively for him, and the North, which might give him enough votes to win the race.

However, in that column, I appealed to the North’s sense of patriotism, urging them not to foist Tinubu on Nigeria. Here, I appeal to the Yoruba’s sense of honour, their omoluabi ethos! The Yorubas pride themselves on the values of integrity, character and honesty. Perversely, however, they also have a saying that undermines those values. They say that omoeni ki sedibebere, ka fi ilekesiidiomoelomiran; meaning, roughly, that however ugly one’s child’s bottom is, one won’t put beads in the bottom of another person’s child. Well, true, literally.

But applied to politics, the saying absurdly means that even if someone from your tribe is an embezzler, a drug baron or an infirm you would choose him as governor or president over a better candidate from another tribe or ethnicity. Sadly, that’s how some Yorubas view Tinubu’s candidacy in the presidential election: he’s a Yoruba, so, we’ll vote for him! Of course, Tinubu opportunistically whips up the ethnic sentiments. Recently, while campaigning in Ado-Ekiti, he told the crowd: “This election is not about me because I’m not looking for what to eat.”

Really? So, despite the “lifelong ambition”, despite the emilokan sense of entitlement, he’s not in the race for himself but for Yorubas who are “looking for what to eat”? How insulting to supposedly well-educated people! Well, he went on. “This election is yours. You will use it to liberate yourselves,” he said, adding: “They want to turn us into slaves. We are not slaves.” How can Tinubu say anyone wants to turn Yorubas into slaves when they’ve produced president for eight years and vice-president for nearly eight years since 1999? What about Igbos who have produced none?

Ironically, if anyone is enslaving the Yoruba, it’s Tinubu himself. Chief Obafemi Awolowo liberated the Yoruba through education, and Tinubu is enslaving them, at least those in Lagos, through feudalism. He’s the “owner” of Lagos, the feudal lord, and everyone else, from the governor down to councillors are serfs, who must carry out his wishes. Feudalism is a social system alien to the Yoruba, but Tinubu feudalises Lagos, using his inexplicable wealth and political power to subjugate the people. Tinubu violates Yoruba’s moral code and introduces an alien system, feudalism, into the race. Yet, a Tinubu presidency would be such a disaster that it would do even more harm to the Yoruba race. Thus, it would be sad and shameful if Yorubas enabled it. Yoruba ronu!

By Olu Fasan

Disclaimer: 

The opinions and views expressed in this write-up are entirely that of the Writer(s). They do not reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or any of its employees. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of materials herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or its employees concerning the legal status of any country, its authority, area or territory or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. Equally, the sketches, images, pictures and videos are gotten from the public domain.

The Buhari regime’s naira “redesign” policy is causing discomfiture in the APC camp and joy in opposition camps. But will it benefit the opposition? Which candidate will benefit the most from it? That’s what I examine in this week’s column:

When I first suggested that the Buhari regime’s naira “redesign” policy was strategically conceived to cripple Bola Tinubu’s financial tendons for the 2023 presidential election, many people, particularly wide-eyed APC partisans, scoffed at me. But the very people who thought I was mistaken in my assessment are now re-echoing what I’d said.

The intensity of frustration and rage that APC governors have been ventilating over the policy is the surest signpost that they recognize the politically mortal danger that the policy poses for them in next week’s election. Their winning strategy was obviously anchored on the strength of their financial muscles. It had to be. With its sordid record of unrelieved deprivation for the vast majority of Nigerians, APC couldn’t possibly hope to rely on its performance as a basis to solicit votes.

To be fair to Tinubu, though, he was never directly in government in the past eight years and hasn’t directly influenced any of the policies that underline the Buhari regime. Given the complete absence of any clear-cut ideological or policy directions in Nigeria’s political parties, it’s reasonable to say that Tinubu’s future performance as president can’t be gleaned from Buhari’s past and present. Political parties are no more than mere vehicles to get to power.

That is why APC’s northern governors’ fulmination that the new naira policy, which has created an artificial scarcity and deepened the misery of everyday folks, was intended to make voters associate their suffering with APC in order to hurt the chances of the APC presidential candidate isn’t supported by the evidence. If that’s APC’s only worry, they should hold their horses because most voters now know that there’s a wide, unbridgeable gulf between the Buhari-led federal government and the APC presidential candidate.

The APC presidential campaign has done a great job of distancing Tinubu from Buhari’s naira policy, so I doubt that the collateral damage of the policy on Tinubu’s electoral chances that northern governors fear is justified. Most voters now know that Tinubu isn’t just his own man but is at odds with Buhari on so many issues.

So, it is now clear, if it wasn’t clear enough before, that the artificial scarcity of the naira days to the election not only has Buhari’s visible imprimatur in it but is actually his brainchild—in the fashion of his April 1984 naira redesign policy. That indicates that, as I’ve pointed out in many past columns, Buhari is invested in ensuring that his party’s candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, loses next week’s election.

But who will benefit the most from this? Supporters of both Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi think the policy is designed to benefit their candidates. I have even seen a chorus of Peter Obi supporters singing Buhari’s praises and saying Buhari is secretly “Obi-dient” because he has seen parallels between his austere lifestyle and Obi’s. Ha!

Atiku’s supporters also assume that Buhari’s silent resentment of Tinubu has caused him to embrace Atiku with whom he had been locked in mortal political combat in 2019 and whom he had also financially hamstrung as a Machiavellian pre-election move. Recall that Buhari forced Atiku to divest his shares in Integrated Logistics Services Limited (Intels), his former “cash cow,” a few years before the 2019 election when it became clear that Atiku would challenge him.

Similarly, a well-regarded international journalist who is close to Nigeria’s power brokers told me in February 2019 that, like Jonathan in 2015, the Buhari cabal had prevailed on INEC to postpone the 2019 election because they wanted Atiku to spend himself lamely before Election Day. “Word from a very credible source within the ruling party: ‘we need to throw Atiku off his game. He’s invested too much and since yana da kudin banza [he has a lot of money] let him continue. It’s good for us.’,” she wrote in a chat.

Well, in an ironic twist, Atiku appears primed to be the major beneficiary of the hamstringing of Tinubu this time around. I don’t have any reliably exclusive insights into this, but my hunch tells me that if Tinubu has been so restrained by the politically engineered scarcity of the naira that he can’t financially induce voters to vote for him, Atiku may be president.

The realignment of forces in the Muslim North is now decidedly in his favour and, while he may not win the Christian North outright, he has a great fighting chance there because of his enduring image among northern Christians as a tolerant, cosmopolitan Muslim who has no known record of religious discrimination toward Christians.

In fact, the single most important reason for the erstwhile lukewarm reception he had received in the Muslim North was the perception that he was too comfortable in the midst of non-Muslims in ways no Northern Muslim politician of his stature has ever been.

APC vice presidential candidate Kashim Shettima’s recent amplification of this sentiment (he said northern Muslims should reject Atiku because he’d opposed Sharia in the early 2000s and resented being addressed as “Alhaji”) actually helps Atiku with northern Christians and does nothing to reverse the growing consensus around him in the Muslim North.

Plus, Atiku’s political tentacles across the length and breadth of Nigeria’s ethnoreligious labyrinth are deep and enduring. If he is not outspent (which the naira “redesign” policy seems calculated to achieve), he just might get lucky this time around.

Peter Obi might also theoretically benefit from the financial constraining of Tinubu, but whether it will be enough to one-up Atiku remains to be seen. Obi has to overcome enormous structural handicaps to have a chance at winning, and that seems almost insurmountable at this late stage.

Out of Nigeria’s 36 states, he will most certainly not get up to 25 percent in at least Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Kano, Kwara, Kogi, Niger, Sokoto, Jigawa, Zamfara, Katsina, Kebbi, Katsina, Oyo, Osun, Ondo, and Ekiti. Even if he were to decisively win states in the Southeast, the South-South, Benue, and Plateau, he would still come up short by a lot.

Plus, opinion polls that show him with a commanding lead, most of which are mere partisan exaggerations to start with, overlook what we call social desirability bias in social science research and public opinion polling, which is a tendency for survey respondents to give answers that affirm sentiments that are thought to be sanctified by the community that respondents belong to or aspire to belong to.

In the United States, it used to manifest in what was called the Bradley or Wilder effect. The Bradley or Wilder effect was the phenomenon where white people used to lie to pollsters about their willingness to vote for Black candidates because they didn’t want to be seen as racist. This was used to exaggerate the electoral chances of African American candidates.

“Bradley effect” is named after Tom Bradley, an African American who ran for governor of the state of California in 1982. Opinion polls showed him leading his white opponent by several margins. In fact, exit polls (what people told pollsters after they voted) showed that he had won the election. Based on these exit polls, the media declared him the winner. But when the actual election results were released, he lost to his closest white opponent by a wide margin.

In 1989, seven years after Bradley’s shocking defeat, Douglas Wilder, America’s first elected African-American governor, nearly lost to his white opponent, even though opinion polls had shown that he was ahead of him by 15 percent. He won by a mere 6,700 votes.

Among southerners and Christians, there’s a lot of stigma in saying you will vote for Atiku Abubakar or Bola Tinubu—and for good reason, to be honest—so it’s not hard to see why they will tell pollsters that they will vote for Obi, the current darling of the South and of Christians, even if they will actually vote for another candidate. There are also a lot of reputational brownie points to be gained if a Muslim says he’ll vote for Obi, even if he won’t.

These factors may conspire to overestimate Obi’s electability in opinion polls even though he has virtually no presence in almost half of the country. Having said that, it’s still hard to tell how much impact Buhari’s politically engineered naira scarcity will have on APC’s vote-buying schemes because Nigeria’s political elites always have a way of circumventing barriers put in their way.

By Farooq A. Kperogi, Twitter: @farooqkperogi

Disclaimer: 

The opinions and views expressed in this write-up are entirely that of the Writer(s). They do not reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or any of its employees. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of materials herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or its employees concerning the legal status of any country, its authority, area or territory or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. Equally, the sketches, images, pictures and videos are gotten from the public domain.

Fellow Nigerians, this is how ATIKU became the “acclaimed” businessman he is today. Please I do not have any partisan political agenda, but rather a factual report on ATIKU as a Presidential aspirant in Nigeria. Please any or all ATIKU supporters or his campaign structure are free to deny these submissions with facts not sentiments.

As Head of the National Council on Privatization (NCP), since 1999, @atiku dug Nigeria’s economic grave for today’s extreme poverty and unemployment. There were over 600 federal assets when @atiku’s NCP started selling. Atiku should tell us who bought what and what was left for the country when he left power.

Nafcon
Eleme Petrochemical
Daily Times
Ughelli Power
Egbin Power
NICON Insurance
ALSCON
Transcorp Hilton Hotel
NICON Luxury Hotel
Sunti Sugar Ltd
NetCom House
Bacita Sugar Ltd
MM2

In 2007, Onigbolo Cement operating at 500,000 tonnes per annum was sold to Dangote at N1.7Bn. To those selling Atiku, let me remind you of the @NGRSenate public hearing of August 2011 which succinctly captures how @atiku through the retinue of cohorts, fronts, and shell companies, ring-fenced over 70% of FG’s assets through a brazen daylight robbery privatization that he supervised.

This is nothing sensational. It’s real-life facts and all the Senators are alive today. The 2011 privatization Senate committee was made up of Senator Ahmed Lawan – Chairman, Senators Babafemi Ojudu, Philip Aduda, Mohammed Ndume, Ifeanyi Okowa, Hope Uzodinma and Mohammadu Magoro. Let’s look at the Aluminium Smelting Company, ALSCON, that Atiku privatized. ALSCON which Nigeria built with $3.2 billion, was sold to a Russian firm, Russal, for $ 130 million. As of the time of sale, ALSCON had received $ 120 million for the dredging of Imo River but was never done.

When the Senate Seating of August 2011 asked the Russian company the whereabouts of the $ 120 million dredging money, the company’s Deputy Managing Director, Vitaly Kuzrestov, said that the money has been used for Environment Impact Assessment.” EIA kill you there. FG’s Five per cent share in Eleme Petrochemical worth USD27 million was never presented to the National Council on Privatization before it was sold to Indorama. Indorama recovered this amount by selling Polyethylene and Urea to the entire west African sub-region in just 14 months.

The Atikulate Business Theory: Sell to yourself Government assets that leave millions in penury, to set up personal businesses that provide for a few. @Atiku didn’t employ the few hundreds he employed because he likes them, he needs them to work to preserve what he took from Government. Fam, the business acumen of Atiku you are bandying about is smelly. A man who supervised sales of over 145 federal investments as a vice president, without a thought for today wants to be president. He didn’t revitalize them. He didn’t resuscitate them. He sold them to whomever. May Nigeria succeed”

Mohammed Fawehinmi II

Disclaimer: 

The opinions and views expressed in this write-up are entirely that of the Writer(s). They do not reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or any of its employees. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of materials herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or its employees concerning the legal status of any country, its authority, area or territory or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. Equally, the sketches, images, pictures and videos are gotten from the public domain.

God is in control, but we must give Him something to work with…

When you speak to so many people in Nigeria, these days, and ask how things are going, especially with respect to the elections, they will respond, “God is in control”. I have often been tempted to say, “we all know that God is in control, after all, he made man and the universe, but have you given him something to work with?” Many of us genuinely want Nigeria to get better. But some just do not want to do their part. They want God to procure PVC for them and then vote for them. Or better yet, they want a miracle from God that will just change Nigeria overnight.  Unfortunately, things do not work that way, if they did, Nigeria would be a far better place than it is today considering the number of churches there that preach the “God is in control” doctrine without lifting a finger to do their part.  Even when Jesus performed the wine miracle, he had something to work with- the people provided water. When he performed the miracle of bread loaves, he had something to work with, the people provided bread.  

The 2023 Presidential election takes place in a few days. It is highly consequential. It will determine the fate of Nigeria and Nigerians. For those who failed to get their PVCs, you have basically ceded your ability, if not right, to complain if things continue on the wrong path in Nigeria. But for those who procured their PVCs and are now mulling whether to go and vote, I will make the decision easy for you.  I say, clear your calendar of every other commitment. On that day, leave your house early and go to your polling precinct. Stand in line until you are able to vote. If you live in a city like Lagos but are registered in your town or village, plan to travel back and vote. It may be inconvenient but worth doing. If you live in the city and registered to vote there, stay put and no matter the provocation, on that day, go out, stand in line and only leave the line when you have voted.

Yes, I am super pleased that I will not be hearing or reading too much about cases of people being paid for their votes. It gives you the opportunity to go out and vote your conscience. Even if your candidate ends up not winning, you have earned the right to complain afterwards. Ndi Nnewi nasi na “Ukpana Okpoko bulu, imalu na nti chii nyabu ukpana”. It means, if a grasshopper is carried away by a swarm of bees and eaten, it means that that grasshopper is deaf. Why? because these bees(Okpoko) make so much noise as they approach that only the deaf will not know that they are coming. Many have written, many have sounded the alarm, many have shouted from rooftops, and many of our youth have basically left what they do and concentrated on making jingles, satires, and videos all to inform Nigerians why they should take this election seriously and vote. If you have not at least heard part of that message, then you have fallen in line with the deaf grasshopper and whatever negative result comes out of the fact that you did not vote, stand ready to absorb it and don’t complain.

Na so me I see am oo. This ends my advocacy. I will now stand by in readiness for the results of the efforts of well-meaning Nigerians on February 25. 

Good Luck Y’all

By Alfred Obiora Uzokwe.

Disclaimer: 

The opinions and views expressed in this write-up are entirely that of the Writer(s). They do not reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or any of its employees. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of materials herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or its employees concerning the legal status of any country, its authority, area or territory or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. Equally, the sketches, images, pictures and videos are gotten from the public domain.

It is exactly 10(ten) days to the Presidential and National Assembly elections in Nigeria, and candidates, political parties, stakeholders and sundry other actors are putting finishing touches to campaigns, consultations and engagements, in the closing moments, before the actual ballots are cast.

Many Nigerians are (or appear to be) uninformed, underinformed, misinformed, or outrightly disinformed about the major Candidate in the presidential election; ASIWAJU Bola Ahmed TINUBU, more popularly called the JAGABAN…. the flag bearer of the ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS (APC). Rather than ask, to know what he brings to the table, his unfriendly friends and outright detractors have twisted the narrative and made it look as if it was some kind of beauty contestation the candidates for the presidency of Nigeria In 2023 were vying for.

We shall proceed to adumbrate what a Tinubu presidency will portend for Nigeria, using his background as a parameter, to gauge what he has done, what he is capable of, and what we should look forward to, in his likely presidential dispensation. We SHALL use these broad parameters; A). Vision B). Capacity C). Track Record, D). Inclusion/Talent Hunting, E). Incentivization, F). Temperance/Accommodation, to continue this conversation.

Beginning from the first parameter, Vision, we are straight away taking a kaleidoscopic view of his occupation of the Governorship position of Lagos State, Nigeria, between May 1999, to June 2007.

A) VISION;

A very close associate of his, who is now the deputy governor of Lagos State Obafemi Hamzat, an engineer, recalled in a recent interview with Television Continental (TVC) that Tinubu had drawn up a massive and very detailed master plan, encompassing ALL sectors of the economy, including infrastructure, transportation, health, education, housing, communication, the financial sector(particularly revenue generation) and others, which he deployed to manage the State, during his very eventful dispensation as governor. 

Besides drawing up that master plan, he had sized up Lagos, as a growing megalopolis, with the challenge of a sprawling waterfront and waterways to manage. He had therefore taken the trouble to seek out the iconic and celebrated father of modern Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, to inquire how he built Singapore, to make it possible for that hitherto backward country, to emerge (transform) from her Third World status, to be one of the go-to nations, rubbing shoulders with the technologically savvy nations, like Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the almighty USA.

It is disclosed that one of the most searching questions the Avatar asked Tinubu when he went on that pilgrimage, was about the sustainability of Tinubu’s proposed plans, as it related to his plans for succession (after he must have finished his tenure, or transited, even if in a permanent way). In fact, Lee Kwan Yew is said to have asked him; who will be your successors? 

After that engagement in Singapore, to which he was accompanied by some of the government operatives who are even now, still functioning in some more advanced ways in the government of Lagos State and at the Federal level, Tinubu is said to have formed his governance teams, with an eye on the future, and posterity.

It was against that kind of background that Tinubu’s Lagos took off, in 1999.

In addition to the Singaporean expedition, the Jagaban is reported to have studied many contemporary and successful governance and development models, which were used as a canvas, to develop the new Lagos, whose development trajectory has been on the forward March siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiince.

B) CAPACITY;

Tinubu came into politics straight from ExxonMobil, where he served as Treasurer, for a good number of years, before resigning, to contest elections as Senator, for the Lagos Central senatorial district. That district is reported to be the biggest, most populous and most challenging electoral district, in the state. He is reported to have been directly involved in the planning and ideations, which led to the construction of Mobil House, the headquarters of THAT company, in Lagos, while he was in charge of the treasury.

His in-person testimonies indicate that purchases for the materials used in the construction project were made in such a way that the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP), which ensued immediately after the project commencement between 1983 and 1989, when the local Nigerian currency (the Naira) was devalued, had almost nil effect on the costs of the materials used to do that construction work, even as prices had doubled, and in some instances tripled during the period.

Having come into government as a Senator in 1992/93, the June 12 crisis shortly erupted, upon which his fidelity to democratic values and friendship, were severely tested. He evidently acquitted himself creditably. This phase of his life has been severally confessed to, by no less a personage than the Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka himself, as well as many notable Nigerians and nationals of other countries, who played some parts, in the epic struggle that ensued, to validate the mandate of Chief MKO Abiola(the winner of the June 12,1993 elections) who eventually died, to water the seeds of democracy that Nigerians now enjoy.

As a governor, he proceeded to run Lagos State, using technology that was at the time novel. Tinubu is reported to have been one of the first government operatives across the globe, to have engaged the services and technology of ORACLE, at a time(1999) and in a dispensation, when even the state of New York, had not understood, let alone take the risk to engage with the tech wonks. The subsequent digitization of the operations and machinery of the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service (Lagos IRS), saw the internal revenues generated by that State, take quantum leaps, from around N600million per annum, to over N24 billion before Tinubu left office.

C)  Track Records;

It was Tinubu’s Lagos State government that set up the legacy agencies that turned Lagos into a more liveable place. Lagos Transport Management Agency (LAMATA), Lagos State Environmental Management Agency (LASEMA), Lagos Waste Disposal Agency… Etcetera were established during Tinubu’s time. The institution of the Lagos State Rails Transportation system was conceived by Tinubu. Today, THAT rail infrastructure is undergoing tests, and will soon become operative, and it is estimated that the rail system in just the first phase, will transport over 500,000(five hundred thousand) passengers daily, in comfort.

The Eko Atlantic City, which converted the misfortunes of annual over flooding, into fortunes for both the Aboriginal owners of that stretch of oceanfront, is now shared by even distant shareholders living in distant continents, countries and cities, and who may never have set foot in Lagos, save to invest their money into the futuristic investment, which has begun to yield returns already. In those projects, the original owners of the land were said to have been offered 5% in a going concern, that evidently has a bankable future, different from the wild and hopeless, and futureless landmass which these locations were, in the very recent past.

The same can be said for the Lekki Free Trade Zone, where the biggest refinery in Africa(Dangote Refinery), and the biggest fertilizer company in Nigeria (among other signature investments) are located.

D) INCLUSION/TALENT HUNTING;

No State government in Nigeria has been so far, reported to have engaged talent, like the Lagos State government under Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s dispensation. Excellent and talented persons were engaged either directly by him in the cabinet, as Commissioners, Special Advisers or Special Assistants, or as civil servants, judges and other professional development areas. It is to his credit that from THAT government that he superintended, a vice president emerged, just as a speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, ministers, permanent secretaries, and many other leaders emerged. 

In Tinubu’s Lagos, consultation with relevant stakeholders was a major feature of governance. For instance, the famous Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC), was conceived, activated and instituted, comprising elders and notables from that state, who gave counsel to Tinubu, his successors and mentees, up to the present; men and women of intellect, wisdom, substance and depth. Little wonder that the puzzle of governance succession and regimes sustainability, which was the worry of Lee Kuan Yew, when his counsel was sought, has thus far been managed… seamlessly.

E) INCENTIVISATION;

Beginning from his tenure as governor, the Lagos State government is said to have instituted a dispensation where the health sector, the education sector, and other professional services delivery sectors, were INCENTIVIzed, such that people who offer professional services, were adequately remunerated. Salary increases almost always begin from Lagos, before other states copy the trend. Whenever and wherever a medical doctor resigns or disengages from service, he/she is replaced automatically. This feature is also said to be operative in the ministry of education.

F) TEMPERANCE/ACCOMMODATION;

Tinubu, a minority Muslim, from majority Christian Lagos State, is married to Oluremi, a Christian, a Pastor in one of Nigeria’s biggest Pentecostal denominations, the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). She is a Senator of the Federal Republic. Tinubu has managed this marriage, without incident, for more than four decades.

His running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, is a Senator of the Federal Republic too. Incidentally, the government of Borno State, where SHETTIMA was governor for eight eventful years was one in which the inclusion of other Nigerians from different tribes, ethnicities and cultures, were actively sought out, to participate in governance, during Shettima’s tenure. Could Shettima have used a crystal ball, or Nostradamus’ binoculars, to gaze at the future?

Tinubu’s signature can be said to include; the deployment of relevant human resources, accommodation of contrary opinions, planning, implementation, monitoring and tolerance… dispositions anyone ascending to the Nigerian presidential office, sorely needs to have, in 2023 and going forward.

Lagos occupies just 0.4% of Nigeria’s landmass, but it caters to the needs of over 11% of Nigeria’s population, a situation that Tinubu inherited and was capable not only to manage but recorded remarkable improvements, which have been built on, by his successors since he exited the office of governor, in 2007.

THE NIGERIAN PRESIDENCY;

Many have raised issues about the fact that Tinubu is advanced in age, and therefore cannot perform the arduous duties required of an occupant of that office. To that question, many have offered reasonable explanations, to the effect that the job is not a 💯 meters dash, or a sapping lawn tennis duel, or a boxing or wrestling tournament, where participation is predicated on physical fitness of the musculature.

Our take on this issue is this; Governance is about ideas, experience and capacity, not about brute, physical force. Indeed in these kinds of matters, the older one gets, the soberer he/she becomes, and the more tempered, to be able to manage people and situations.

The question which naysayers must necessarily answer is; who among the other contenders, can match Tinubu’s track records, capacity, disposition and provable trajectories in public office and management of governance infrastructure?

Indeed, if not Tinubu, who else?

The writer is Deputy Registrar, Planning Research and Statistics, Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic Ikot Osurua.

Disclaimer: 

The opinions and views expressed in this write-up are entirely that of the Writer(s). They do not reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or any of its employees. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of materials herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or its employees concerning the legal status of any country, its authority, area or territory or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. Equally, the sketches, images, pictures and videos are gotten from the public domain.

While Nigerians and the world are still trying to understand what’s going on in Nigeria, Buhari and his Fulani kinsmen are already waging full scale war on Nigerians especially Christians in  the South having successfully dealt with their counterparts in the North. They are now shooting indiscriminately and maiming anybody that comes their ways.

Without mincing words, Christian’s are being prosecuted in Nigeria today like never before. From Southern Kaduna down to the Atlantic Ocean, it’s the same story. They have a plan. It is pure genocide and ethnic cleansing.

The world must pay attention to this. It’s no more joke! Fulani Herdsman and their armed bandits have turned Nigeria into another Afghanistan / Yemen. No part of the country is safe; from the the urban areas to the remote country sides.

Let the world understand that their silence means agreeing to these atrocities. Evil prevail when good men sit and do nothing. The world most powerful Leaders must act now. They must remember that the same way they looked the other side during the Biafran pogrom of 1966 – 1970 when over three million Biafrans were massacred, is the same thing they are doing now.

History will judge them harshly if the keep quiet now and allow Buhari and his kinsmen to successfully carry out their deadly islamization agenda in Nigeria. But must act on time, to stop Buhari otherwise history will never exonerate them from a wilful sin of omission for not stopping these murderers now before it’s too late. 

The situation is escalating and this time it will be worse than imagined. If this is allowed to continue, it will result in mass exodus of Nigerians to the outside world; the number that the world has never seen.

Imagine the migration crises that will arise in the world from Africa to other ends of the earth, if Nigeria is plunged into a situation where between seventy to one hundred and twenty million out of over two hundred million Nigerians are forced to leave Nigeria to the outside world because of these Fulani terrorists? The world need to think deeply about this.

From the look of things, there’s no doubt Buhari and his folks have their master plan which is to islamise Nigeria at all cost even if it means to kill as many Christians as possible who refuse to convert to Islam.

Young Leah Sharibu is an excellent example who for over two years and running is being held against her wish by Boko Haram terrorists for not denouncing her faith in Christ and the government does nothing about it.

If this is not an islamization plan, can Buhari explain to Nigerians and the world, why his nomadic Fulani kinsmen freely parade the streets and bushes of Nigeria with AK-47 assault Rifles?

Where did they get such deadly weapons from if not aided and abetted by the powers that be? And who gave them the impetus to proudly display their weapons and use it at will while other Nigerians are not allowed to?

Their political wing Miyetti Allah openly threatens Nigerians and the Nigerian government on national television giving government ultimatum to implement their wishe and the government does nothing to stop them.

Meanwhile, ordinary Nigerians with government issued gun licences are banned from holding their licensed double barrel guns not to talk of displaying them in public as the privileged Fulani herdsmen do.

If President Obasanjo and many top Nigerians who have their loyal insiders in government are openly crying foul, brothers and sisters there’s serious fire on the mountain. It can no longer be business as usual. I truly pity any Southerner who is yet to grasp the magnitude of the calamity that has befallen us.

The threat is real and there’s no going back.

#NigerianChristiansAreBeingProsecuted! #NigeriaIsAtWar

Disclaimer: 

The opinions and views expressed in this write-up are entirely that of the Writer(s). They do not reflect the opinions and views of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or any of its employees. The designations employed in this publication and the presentation of materials herein do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever of the Publisher (Nze Ikay’s Blog) or its employees concerning the legal status of any country, its authority, area or territory or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers. Equally, the sketches, images, pictures and videos are gotten from the public domain.