by The Yorubas adage that says “where there is smoke, there is fire” is likely playing at the troubles of our President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT).
His ability and capability as an achiever are not in doubt, his penchant to identify talent is not in controversy, and his doggedness to focus on goals are lacking; his antecedents as a vibrant and result oriented leader are well known.
As to the issue of PBAT’s identity shrouded in controversy, the following observations needed be stated. It will be practically impossible for anyone, even at age 100 as of today, not to have any living primary and secondary school classmate as witness to attest to President Tinubu’s claims of his tertiary education. President Tinubu had not proved or provided any.
Almost everyone has a family picture of their toddler, adolescent, or youth life, no matter what, there will be some family members who will have them. President Tinubu had not provided any.
The claim of his birthplace and birth parent had been shrouded in controversy, he should have at least provided a certified document explaining what happened, when, who and where. President Tinubu has not provided any.
His college and university admission documents as per revealed documents had led many of us with apprehension about veracity of PBAT’s early education and subsequent education. President Tinubu has not clarified such details, and it is in his own best interest and the nation he intends to lead for 4 or maybe 8 years to clear the clod on this issue. PBAT has not.
With so many controversies trailing the emergence of Jagaban Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the President and commander in chief of armed forces in a fiercely contested election, tensions has risen, nerves are flared by innuendos, fallacies, and lies about rigging, election manipulation, and outright misplaced accusations without providing succinct evidence to back such claims.
Cut it, dice it, batch it, Tinubu won the election on clean ground, if there are any electoral malpractices as claimed by other candidates, it does not negate the votes in numbers of the winner. All candidates and all parties try and succeed in election infractions at every election, some might be able to beat others on a grand scale. No party and/or candidate should lecture us, use sentiments, and the usual statement of “it is not about me, but Nigeria” to plead election rigging, malpractices, and umpires bias to Nigerians, please safe that for your kitchen followers.
Because INEC did not transmit results via IREV, does not invalidate the collation and the result. All the candidates know very well, because there is an INEC form EC8 signed by every party agent after voting closes at polling booths, INEC representative will also sign, a copy will be posted at the polling booth, and all agents are allowed to capture the signed form with their electronic equipment’s. These EC8 forms will be taken to ward, local, and state government level where all party and INEC agents will sign and have a copy. It is these results that will be collated in INEC office in Abuja, those signed forms cannot be invalidated or compromised in any way shape or form by INEC. The result of this past election is accurate and correct.
How did Atiku, Obi, and Kwakwanso hope to win the presidential election, when their house was divided into three? If Obi did not leave PDP for Labor’s party, Waziri Atiku will be President today. The Eastern region since 1979 always vote for northern candidate except Buhari, and last election because of their son Peter Gregory Obi. There was no way President Tinubu could have pulled it out to win presidency if Waziri Abubakar’s house was intact.
The press conference by Waziri Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, was a disgraceful, disrespectful, and outright maligned of Nigeria as a nation, the citizens, and the very little dignity left to us as a nation stripped off by the actions of both Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, it was unnecessary, it has no purpose, it is outside of patriotic decorum, and belated.
Both candidates should have saved us the embarrassment of calling our number one citizen, a certificate forger, a drug dealer, a non-identifiable non-bona fide Nigerian, and all sorts of other names. This futile effort and unnecessary energy should have been spent years back or at most before the election. Shall we say both Obi and Atiku whose sojourns in the Nigerian corridor of power spanned over decades, did not know nor aware of Tinubu’s alleged background, history, and education that are questionable?
Why are they coming with all these revelations now, after Bola Tinubu was elected a Senator, a two term Governor, party leader, kingmaker, a presidential candidate and won the presidential contest.
How did Atiku Abubakar, a one-time number two citizen blindsided by the better smarter Tinubu? Why did Peter Obi, with all resources he can muster couldn’t unravel the mysterious Bola Ahmed Tinubu?
Both Atiku and Obi are sore losers, who are wearing mask of patriotism, that they are seeking truth, and wants to bring sanity to the office of President of Nigeria; thus, thereby bringing 200 million of Nigerian to disrepute, dishonor, disgrace, and foolishly calling all Nigerians fraudsters in the global sphere because of their “quest for power” outside election wins. Atiku and Obi did Nigerians more harm than good with the CSU certificate saga, the diploma submitted to INEC and everything surrounding this issue.
Truth be told, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is shrouded in too many controversial contents, but it is equally out of place for Waziri Abubakar to go after the president’s certificate after the election was won, after he was sworn in as president, after they both lost at the election tribunal, and after he already appeared on world stage representing Nigeria.
Peter Obi held a world press conference, demanding the president identify himself, confirm his identity and be truthful to Nigerians; of what use is the press conference? Well, he succeeded in bringing the office of the Nigeria Presidency to mud, dragged the office in to the sewers of disrepute, knowing fully well that it will not yield his desired outcome.
We should respect President Tinubu’s resolved, tenacity of purpose, resilience, perseverance and focus to go all the way to achieve his desired goal, you will all agree that the mud, stain, missile, accusations, and finger pointing of malfeasance offense and wrong doing, targeted towards him since he declared to run for the Presidency is unprecedented, I am not sure if there is any other candidate that could survive such attack, ran a focused campaign, and win the election.
PBAT must however address this issue in the best interest of our nation, the youths, and adults equally. There is hardly anyone with no skeleton wound in their wardrobe, either self-inflicted or rubbed on, PBAT should not be the exception. He can tender an apology about some misconceptions of the real issues or find a way to assuage our yearnings about his identity, education and so forth.
If he is shrouded by controversy, no matter his achievements in years to come, there will always be that question, “is PBAT for real”. If he addresses the issue even in the feeblest terms, at least we can now focus on something else rather than his age, school, and birthplace. There have been too many rocks thrown at this man, and I hope this will be the last one.
NASS must make reforms to our electoral laws, there ought to be two different independent institutions to verify candidates offering themselves for electoral offices, not only to verify their certificates but scrutinize who they are from birth to their present, before such person goes to the Independent Electoral commission to obtain forms to contest.
There should be no ambiguity in the law about how many states a presidential candidate must win, no words like “may or shall”, the word “must” should be clearly stated. It must be stated that all results announced must be transmitted electronically, not allowing INEC options to do manually or otherwise.
Inauguration dates must be at the minimum of six months from election conclusion dates to give ample time for challenges of results and process. It is unfair for a declared winner by INEC after assuming office to be deposed by tribunals or courts. It doesn’t speak well of us as a nation.
Conclusively let’s assume or agree that PBAT birthplace, parents, and dates are ambiguous or unfounded, that his primary and secondary education are unfounded, that he gained admission into Southwest College and Chicago State University with altered or misrepresented gender, and name, and that he presented a different certificate to and for different institutions.
I think we should see PBAT as someone who is determined to succeed not minding the odds, it should be seen as strength, rather than weakness, positive rather than negative, and someone who can turn adversaries into advances, impediments into improvement, denigration to dignity, blockage to openings, and a classic leader that will turn a “no way to multi lane highway of achievements and successes”
Otunba Olakunle Ajiboye – Kay
