Tinubu: First Time Lucky

For Bola Ahmed Tinubu the President -elect of the February 25, 2023 presidential election, he did not miss his first shot at the presidency of Nigeria despite the booby traps set on his path by those who did not want him to become the commander- in- chief.

From the very time he informed President Muhammadu Buhari that he was running for the highest office in the country, to the time he contested the APC presidential primaries, and when he defeated other presidential aspirants of his party including Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to clinch the party’s ticket to contest against other aspirants, he waded through murky waters all the way.

The biggest opposition he faced, apparently came from some All Progressives Congress, APC, stalwarts and presidency officials who did not want him to succeed the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari whose tenure expires on May 29 this year.

During one of his Campaign tour in Abeokuta, Ogun State, the distraught Tinubu accused some powerful persons in Aso Rock, Nigeria’s seat of power of trying to derail his presidential ambition.

For instance, he accused some officials of his party of ochetarting the controversial Naira Design Policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, and the fuel scarcity across the country to prevent voters from coming out to vote for him.

Tinubu stated, “We will use our PVCs to take over government from them. If they like let them create fuel crisis, even if they say there is no fuel, we will trek to vote. They are full of mischief; they could say there is no fuel. They have been scheming to create fuel crisis, but forget about it. Relax, I Asiwaju, have told you that the issue of fuel supply will be permanently addressed.

“Whoever wants to eat the honey embedded in a mountain won’t worry about the axe. Is that not so? And if you want to eat palm kernel, you would bring stone and use it to break it, then the kernel will come out.

“Let them increase the price of fuel, let them continue to hoard fuel, only them know where they have hoarded fuel, they hoarded money, they hoarded naira; we will go and vote and we will win. Even if they changed the ink on naira notes. Whatever their plans, it will come to naught. We are going to win. Those in the PDP will lose.”

The crisis in the ruling party was further exposed after Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State alleged that some presidency officials were trying to stop Tinubu from becoming president after Buhari.
Speaking in Kaduna few days before the election, El Rufai, a staunch supporter of Tinubu assured his people that te former governor of Lagos state will reverse the Godwin Emefiele CBN naira swap and redesign policy.

The biggest threat to Tinubu’s victory, however, came during the collation of the results when some prominent Nigerians, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Labour Party, LP called for the cancellation of the results for alleged irregularities.

Obasanjo, a strong supporter of Peter Obi, the LP presidential candidate had called on President Muhammadu Buhari to stop INEC from further announcing the results until the issue of alleged election malpractices in some parts of the country were fully addressed.

“Your Excellency, President Buhari Muhammadu, tension is building up and please let all elections that do not pass the credibility and transparency test be cancelled and be brought back with areas where elections were disrupted for next Saturday, March 4, 2023, and BVAS and Server officials be changed,” the former leader said.

In spite of the opposition, the Prof Mahmood Yakubu on Tuesday night said Tinubu has met the requirements of the constitution to be declared as the 5th democratically elected President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

” I will give you my utmost as your next president and commander-in-chief. Peace, unity and prosperity shall be the cornerstones of the society we intend to build. When you gaze upon what we shall accomplish in the coming years, you shall speak with pride at being a Nigerian, “Tinubu said in his first statement after he had been declared winner.

Recall that President Buhari  tried only became president  after he had tried four times.

On his part, Atiku Abubakar, Tinubu’s  closest rival in the just concluded  presidential election will go down in the nation’s history as the only candidate to contest the presidency five times without  success.