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If Asiwaju Bola Tinubu had a bit of sensitive conscience he would have gone down in sackcloth and ashes a long time ago in penance apologizing to Nigerian people for causing them untold hardships and pains by charting a course that led to the emergence of a plague called Mohammadu Buhari. The first plague occurred from 2015 to 2019. As if that plague was not hurtful and damaging enough, the same Tinubu engineered another course for the return of the same plague in 2019. That plague, as we speak, continues to hurt us day by day. Instead of going down on his knees and apologizing to Nigerians for causing this plague to be, Tinubu has the effrontery to be going around and chorusing E mi lo kan as if Nigeria were his inheritance or his father’s fiefdom.
The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance that if you lose your wealth, you have lost nothing: if you lose your health, you’ve lost something; but if you lose your character you’ve lost everything. You see, character is the core of our existence. It is the core of who you are. Show me your character and I will tell you who you are. Bereft of character a man or a woman is an empty vessel notwithstanding that he or she may have succeeded in amassing monumental material wealth for himself or herself. This is the point contained in the latest letter of former President Olusegun Obasanjo endorsing Peter Obi. “None of the contestants is a saint but when one compares their character, antecedent, their understanding, knowledge, discipline and vitality that they can bring to bear and the great efforts required to stay focused on the job particular looking at where the country is today and the experience on the job that I personally had, Peter Obi, as a metee has an edge”, writes Obasanjo
I don’t know whether you have listened to a certain video clip that has been making the rounds. It is a video clip of Bishop Samuel Olumakinde Olawode of the Maranatha Lord Cometh Ministries, Ibadan, Oyo State. In that video clip, the outspoken Bishop was conducting a church service. Apparently sensing that many members of his congregation may be contemplating voting for Tinubu/Shettima in the 2023 presidential election, he said to his congregation: “I have discovered that it is the society that reproduces the leader. When we shout about the leaders, we are the ones that produce them. We are the ones that put people that we want there, and they represent who we are. How many of you have a candidate in mind you wish he could win. Those of you that want to vote, I want to pray a prayer for you. That man you want to vote for, may your children have his character and destiny, in Jesus name. Nobody is saying “amen”?. “That man that you are rooting for, shouting on Facebook and shouting about, may your great grandchildren behave like him. May they act like him, may they behave like him”.
Expectedly, no member of Bishop Olawode’s congregation answered “Amen”. Instead of answering: “Amen’, they all turned and started looking at the faces of one another and chuckling down with laughter. They knew that the presidential candidate whom they are contemplating voting for on February 25 does not have good character worth emulating by their children or grandchildren. So, they all kept mum and refused to answer “Amen”. None of them want the character of their children or their grandchildren to resemble the character of the man whom they are contemplating voting for on February 25. Obviously Obasanjo and Bishop Olawode are not saying anything new. There is no culture or democracy in the world that extols bad character. Instead, all democracies in the world cherish good character. At the threshold of elections such as we are now in Nigeria, the people normally dig into the past of political contestants to ascertain their character. In the case of Tinubu, all the things that have been dug up about him attest that he lacks character and therefore doesn’t merit the votes of the electorate.
Even if we overlook Tinubu’s character, we cannot overlook his ailment. His demeanour and utterances during his recent political campaigns and recent public outings show that he is not well. Tinubu is incapacitated to function as President. To begin with, he is about 85 now. So, age is not on his side anymore. He is too old to withstand the rigors intertwined with the exercise of power of the President. Gone were the days when old men were elected to power to probably die wielding power. Today the world electorate prefers electing youngsters to shoulder the arduous task of governance. For us in Nigeria, considering the gargatuum tax payers’ money incurred by the government in the medical treatment of former sick President Yar’ Adua and the current President Buhari, we cannot afford to elect another sick President on February 25. Pastor Oyedepo vividly recaptures it: “You can’t hand over a sick country to a sick President”. Tinubu is sick. He suffers from urinary inconvenience. Occasionally his hands can be seen visibly shaking suggesting he suffers from Parkinson. He easily loses his balance in public. He seems to be suffering from progressive disease that impairs his cognitive thinking abilities. The same illness slurs his speech. His cognitive thinking decline has so overcome the better part of him that he doesn’t succeed in saying what he intends to say or doing what he intends to do. For example, whenever he wants to say one thing another thing spontaneously comes out from his mouth. In one video clip, he was heard asking his followers to get their APV instead of PVC.
Worse still, Tinubu’s listeners or audience hardly understand him. I agree with Rueben Abati that the man should speak the language the electorate understands. Oftentimes he speaks unintelligently blurring his words like “blablue blue blab” as if he is speaking “in tongue”. Is this how he will be speaking if elected President of Nigeria? The other day he was asked to test whether the microphone he was about to use to speak was working, and he ended up licking the microphone to the embarrassment of everybody. This is serious. It means that if the man becomes our President he would be going for medical tourism in London as President Buhari has been doing. Already Tinubu has been frequenting London for medical tourism. He is not President yet he has been frequenting London for medical treatment. Imagine what would happen if he becomes our President. He would close shop in Nigeria and start junketing to and fro London for medical treatment, of course, at the expense of the country. So, come February 25 2023 we must vote for a much younger and more intelligent presidential aspirant with the requisite good health, energy and drive to perform the arduous tasks of the President. As Obama’s wife Michelle Obama rightly observed, being a President does not change who the President is rather it reveals who the President is. According to her, if a presidential candidate is useless during his political campaigns he would equally be useless as President.
Even if we overlook Tinubu’s character, ill-health and his other incapacities, we cannot overlook the fact that Kashim Shettima is his running mate. Shettima is not only enmeshed in a credibility crisis he is strongly allegedly linked with terrorist killings in Nigeria. Besides, Shettima vows he will continue from where President Buhari stopped if he becomes the Vice-President. He brags he owes nobody any apology for that. He talks arrogantly. More importantly, if he is allegedly linked with the on-going terrorist killings in Nigeria, why should the voters vote for Tinubu/Shettima?