Never have there been more strident calls in Nigeria for a sitting President to vacate office before elections than during President Bola Tinubu’s current first term. These unceasing calls have many colourations, from political to economic reasons, while others include tribal, social and even spiritual considerations. I’m equally joining this band, asking the Jagaban of Borgu to remove himself from the inner recesses of Aso Villa to his Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi, Lagos residence, or anywhere he chooses in Lagos.
It is certain that the Godswill Akpabio Senate won’t help in this respect. There is no need to ask the National Assembly to help in getting this Jagabanish President out of the Presidency.
Unlike the five men who stormed the West End Roundabout in Maiduguri on September 25 donning ‘Tinubu-Must-Go’ T-shirts, I will be bringing very solid charges against our non-performing President on why he must leave office immediately regardless of his term of office. Elections are still three months away. I’m not too sure I can wait for the coming polls to actualise this demand.
This should not be highly surprising to you, by the way; that’s in case you are surprised at all. Oga Tinubu, as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress ahead of the 2023 presidential election, admitted to staying completely far away from social media as a result of serial caustic abuse on the platforms. He doesn’t appear to have repented, as there appears to be a gang of social media warriors and internet terrorists permanently against the President, especially for stealing the mandate of their candidate in the 2023 presidential election. Imagine someone stealing another candidate’s mandate to be President!
I doubt that Nigerians will hesitate to join hands with me to remove Tinubu from Aso Rock as a result of his thoughtless removal of the fuel subsidy in 2023, a move he has stubbornly maintained without any sense of repentance to date. At least, if most patriotic Nigerians won’t support my move on this premise, I will enjoy the unflinching backing of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress in the 2027 poll, and his counterpart in the National Democratic Congress, Mr Peter Obi, who is a former governor of Anambra State. Other paperweight presidential flag bearers would have supported my big movement, except that their support won’t add any value to this huge campaign.
I had erroneously thought that the former governor was a smart Lagos boy until his stout defence of the removal of the ‘opaque’ fuel subsidy regime. How can the absence of any budget for our much-beloved fuel subsidy in the 2023 budget, an exit budget for the Muhammadu Buhari regime, be a justification for the removal of the juicy fuel subsidy which, by the way, made many NNPC Limited’s chiefs, pot-bellied fuel marketers and barrelled-chested importers massively richer?
Is it not lame for anyone, including the President, to think that spending a token of N4.4tn (about $10bn, according to an NNPC report) on fuel subsidy in 2022 was enough to ground Nigeria’s economy?
As how now? Agree that Tinubu’s predecessors borrowed serially in hard currency and diverted funds meant for capital projects to fund fuel subsidies to the detriment of the economy. Why did this Jagaban not continue this model of illogically destructive economic strategy, at least for the poor masses to breathe, why?
I have never been a fan of Atiku, especially for allegedly selling some national assets to himself when he was in charge of the Olusegun Obasanjo government’s privatisation agenda. His more than obsessive desperation to become President (even immediately after Buhari (another Fulani man) truncated the vaunted dream of the once ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, to be in power for 60 years.
The ex-Vice President hasn’t hidden his plots to get his only opponent to realising his overriding ambition out of the way through obviously duplicitous schemes, long before the January 2027 presidential election, including hiring a lobbying firm in the US headed by another Nigerian not surprisingly high on the character deficit.
Aside the above, however, Atiku happens to be my unusual man of the moment. He has been very consistent, unlike Obi, my man, in his resolve to restore fuel subsidy if (not when) he mounts the saddle as the President. The only thing missing from this pronouncement at the moment is that there is no data, facts and figures, to back this audaciously novel plan. In the absence of figures like the volume of fuel to be imported (definitely); amount to be budgeted to fund this easy lifestyle, and the sectors of the national life to pay the ultimate price for this, I’m afraid the plan of the ex-Obasanjo’s deputy remains defectively political and not based on any economic or altruistic consideration.
For a start, adopting Atiku’s economic model, Nigeria will help the International Monetary Fund to kill the nation’s local refineries fast; revive long queues and perilous vigils at filling stations (so much fun at these stations in those days) and bring Nigeria’s economy down to its knees where it was in 2023. Is this not better than this Jagabanish economic reform, which has ensured that Nigeria could embark on legacy projects in different parts of the country in roads, rails, housing, airports and others?
Even if the wickedness exhibited in removing fuel subsidies is not solid enough to sack Tinubu, how can one excuse the capture of 32 governors out of 36 by the political machinations of the President? Wetin! When APC had 21 governors in 2023, PDP had 14 governors and one solitary All Progressives Grand Alliance state executive, Tinubu won the presidential election, and succeeded in stealing the mandate of third-placed Obi. Will it not be comforting enough for someone to educate me how this support base for a President will not translate to a landslide victory in 2027?
Just pretend you don’t know I’m an amateur at political permutations. The Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states’ governorship elections taught me a few lessons in spread and acceptance of political parties. The abysmal showing of key opposition parties in these elections is fearfully unsettling. How does one reconcile the fact that the ADC candidate scored below 20,000 across Osun State, a state where the party’s National Secretary, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, hails from? Haba!
The other opposition parties didn’t do better in other states under reference. In the September 19 rerun, the APC won four of the five seats in the bye-elections while the Allied Peoples Movement won the remaining seat in Bauchi State. Can anyone identify with my current dilemma on how to sack Tinubu from office asap before he becomes unmovable by 2027? And Jagaban must go!
Since it is becoming absolutely glaring that the opposition parties appear to lack the spread to command victories at the polls, one would have thought the key actors would have joined hands with the former Cross River State governor, Mr Donald Duke, to fast-track his Project 100 and actualise the Tinubu-Must-Go agenda. Strangely, the tight-fisted combatants have so far stuck to their empire-building ambitions, banking on unresolvable calculations to seize power in 2027.
You may wonder how Duke would help my agenda to ensure Tinubu’s removal from Aso Villa in 2027. Honestly, I must admit that I’m as confused as darkness on how to achieve this. On current dynamics, Atiku alone can’t defeat Tinubu in a national election. Obi, as a lone ranger, will struggle to place a distant third, at best, while the PDP is not certain to field a candidate in the coming presidential election. Seyi Makinde’s APM will manage to emerge second in Oyo and Bauchi states. Dear brethren, which of these burdened vehicles do you figure out will be capable enough to drive out this Tinubu in 2027?
As if on steroids, BAT is equally working a state police, a security apparatus that will be grounded in the intricacies of the immediate communities to protect the people; the police that will make it impossible for Nigeriens, Malians, Chadians and Sudanese from invading Oriire community in Oyo State and kill dozens of innocent worshippers in Ondo peaceful town on Sunday. Mustn’t a man like Tinubu be forced out?
I’m beginning to think that the Tinubu-Must-Go obsession may land Nigeria in deeper trouble, but I’m not deterred. The same concentration without planning in 2015 handed Nigeria to a visionless Buhari who, in turn, grounded the wheel of progress of the nation. The man just wanted to be called a President, nothing more.
None of these antagonists is talking about what happens at the state and local government levels; only Tinubu matters. Meanwhile, Tinubu’s governors have collaboratively grounded the local government administration in the country in clear violation of the judgement of the Supreme Court granting the tier of government autonomy.
My fear is heightened by the fact that none of these opposition characters is proffering solutions to insecurity, to Nigeria paying for darkness, to a monolithic economy, to near-zero industrialisation, to a refusal to mechanise agriculture and agric value chain, to manufacturing challenges, to executing the 2025 budget in December of 2026, to 25 per cent interest rate, to barefaced corruption, to the grounding of key sectors like steel and textile in a fashion-vibrant society, to remaining militarily weak and outdated in a world full of bullies and invaders.
Instead of bringing up workable solutions, my dear opposition leaders are either hiring locally-brewed fraudulent foreign-based mercenaries at millions of dollars, a wealth whose foundation is rooted in illegality; demanding details of fuel subsidy savings that do not exist; questioning the qualifications of a former two-term governor and the number of foreign travels of the President; or mocking the President’s health. And meanwhile, Tinubu Must Go!
To help fight escalating kidnapping, banditry, mindless killings and terrorism in the land, the President could not think of any other solution than pushing his personal agenda of a state police. Opposition figures say the fear is that the President may plan to use this instrument as a personal tool to suppress opposition and win the 2027 election convincingly. That is why it is impossible to trust this Jagaban, a born politician.
Who among us does not know that it is better to give free rein to lunatics and criminals to turn Nigeria into a killing field while holding elections than to establish a state police that will stop the killings? Is it not clear that Tinubu is pursuing a personal agenda to win elections in 2027 rather than using state police to boost the security of the country?
Why does the President want to stop killings, kidnapping and banditry, by the way? That is the koko, why Tinubu must go!