By Sonnie Ekwowusi
We need a new President who will foster the beliefs and aspirations of the Nigerian people. We need a brand new President who believes in the pre-eminence of the individual citizen and his rights-with the government his servant, not his master or oppressor. As I have constantly argued, if the Nigerian democracy must yield the so-called democratic dividends, it must have a national character, a national character that defines democracy and establishes the parameters and moral high ground in which democracy should operate in order to promote the well-being of the people. Devoid of character, politics and political activities in Nigeria, in the words of Frederic Bastiat, French political economist and philosopher, are legalized plunder. My brother, my sister, the choice is before us. Either we choose the path of liberating principles and vote for character in 2023 in order to advance the truths and ideals which will strengthen our democracy or choose the path of perfidy and infamy and vote for a “419” person or a customs thief or a drug baron or a scallywag or a never-do-well who would hijack the political leadership once more to the ruin of our country.
We need a President with a minimum human character and integrity. We need a President who believes in rigorous and impartial enforcement of the laws of the land. We need a brand new President who will halt the on-going radical Islamization of Nigeria. Till date, conscience of the nation and daughter of Zion, Leah Sharibu, is still languishing under the iron grips of Islamic terrorists (or, maybe they have killed her) for refusing to convert from Christianity to Islam. Lai Mohammed had lied that the Buhari government would do everything possible to ensure that Leah Sharibu regains her freedom. Lai lied. We need a President who can discharge his constitutional responsibility of protecting the lives and property of the citizenry. We need a President who will pay University teachers their salaries as and when due. We need a healthy President who will not squander our hard-earned British pounds in medical tourism in London.
It is in the foregoing context that the Tinubu/Shettima-Muslim-Muslim ticket is completely unacceptable. Voting Tinubu/Shettima-Muslim-Muslim ticket is tantamount to bringing Buhari back to power because both Tinubu and Shettima have vowed to continue from where Buhari stopped. Where did Buhari stop? He stopped at fanning the embers of nepotism in Nigeria. He stopped at Fulanization and Islamization of Nigeria. He stopped at wrecking the Nigerian economy. He stopped at incestuous narcissism. He stopped at wooden-headedness. He stopped at allowing the thieves in his government to loot the national treasury. Therefore the Tinubu/Shettima-Muslim-Muslim ticket is completely flawed. It is hereby rejected.
Come to think of it, Mr. Ahmed Tinubu is ontologically a good man. He is not a bad human being. For example, he is generous with his money to a fault. He is a kind man. He is shrewd and astute. He has political friends across Nigeria. He is courageous and daring. He is a “king” maker. He is an optimist. He doesn’t accept No for an answer. His net worth is said to be in the neighborhood of US 8.4 billion dollars, which greatly exceeds the net worth of Atiku or Obi. Besides, Tinubu is the commander-in-chief of bullion vehicles. He can command a bullion vehicle stacked with wads of Naira notes to come to his house, a feat which Atiku and Obi cannot achieve in their lifetime.
But unfortunately, given the avalanche of evidence constantly being reeled out almost on daily basis about Tinubu’s failing health; his progressive and incurable goofs and gaffes; his cognitive thinking decline, unsoundness of mind and general character flaws, it is crystal clear that the man would bring disgrace to Nigeria if he is elected President. He exhibits symptoms of unsoundness of mind. When he wants to say one thing another thing spontaneously comes out from his mouth. For example, in trying to rationalize his absence from the Town Hall debate organized by media organization in Owerri, the Imo State capital, the following spurted out of Tinubu’s mouth: ,“a town hall, different from “balabloo-bloo-blu-bulaba”, to the embarrassment of his listeners and Nigerians as a whole. In a video still making its round, Tinubu was shown committing another goof at the APC Presidential Rally at Teslim Balogun Stadium. Lagos. Instead of asking his followers to get their PVCs ready for the election, he slurred and said that they should go and get their APV ready. Two days earlier, the same Tinubu looked at Senator Omo-Agege and told him that he was a fit and proper person to be the next governor of Niger Delta State, a non-existing State in Nigeria. The deduction from Tinubu’s progressive memory failure, unsoundness of mind, and cognitive thinking decline is that if he is elected President he would be unable to address an audience let alone answer questions put to him. May I invite you to reflect again on Tinubu’s shameful conduct at Chatham House, London, recently. His audience asked him some questions. Instead of responding to the questions put to him he shamelessly delegated the questions to Dele Aleke, Governor El-Rufai, Speaker Gbajagbiamila, Betta Edu and co to answer for him. Does it mean that if Tinubu becomes President the aforesaid persons would be following him everywhere and answering questions put to him? You see, what this shameful conduct indicates is that Tinubu would make a disaster President otherwise how can a candidate aspiring to be elected President of Nigeria lack the soundness of mind to answer simple questions put to him?. Section 137 (1) (2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria states that a person shall not be qualified for election to the office of President, if he is, among other things, declared to be of unsound mind. Therefore Tinubu is not qualified to be President of Nigeria.
Aside from Tinubu’s cognitive thinking decline, unsoundness of mind and physical incapacity disqualifying him from the job of President, overwhelming evidence abounds that he is carrying a huge character-flaw baggage. The thing is that everything about the man smacks off forgery, impersonation and fraud. To begin with, Tinubu has no past (and if he has no past, it means that he has no present or future). They can’t find the primary school which Tinubu claims he attended.They can’t find his age. They can’t find the secondary school he claims he attended. They can’t find the University he claims he attended. They can’t find his primary, secondary or University classmates. They can’t find his primary school certificate. They can’t find his secondary school certificate. They can’t find his University certificate. They can’t find his State of origin. They can’t find his identity. They can’t find photographs of his childhood. To solve this problem, Tinubu impersonates former governor of Cross Rivers State Donald Duke. He presents Donald Duke’s childhood picture as his. On seeing his childhood picture in a Tinubu documentary, poor Donald Tinubu cries out loudly: “I have seen the documentary, I have no issue with it. My issue is that my 12-year old self was used as a young Tinubu because they can’t find any picture of him when he was young”. Shamelessly, Tinubu issues a press statement apologizing to Donald Duke for impersonating him. As we speak, Donald Duke is still hoping to get justice from the impersonation. I don’t know whether his lawyers have brought an impersonation lawsuit against Tinubu. The same Tinubu impersonates Christian clerics without qualms. He recruits street urchins and motor-park touts, dresses them up in somewhat Christian clerical vestments and presents them in his political gatherings as if they were Christian clerics endorsing his candidacy.
