Wearing the Crown is not by Force
When somebody says a cup is half full, and another person says that the same cup is half empty, the differences in their perception of what is true are definitely irreconcilable. This is exactly the way I perceive political developments in this country during this period of transition from the past regime to the present one.
Many Nigerians who hailed the Supreme Court’s 122/3 judgment of 1979 when many of us wept are still alive. For those of them who are not, their progeny and political offshoots are very much alive. Those of us who wept in 1979 also wept when MKO Abiola’s victory was annulled in 1993 and also when Chief Falae was denied victory through the polls in 1999. We also wept when Atiku Abubakar and Nuhu Ribadu could not make the Presidency through the polls in 2007 and 2011 respectively. Our tears were wiped off when Muhammadu Buhari won the Presidency in March 2015. The party under which Buhari coasted to victory was and still is an amalgamation of progressive politicians from the south led by Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the hard core conservatives from the North led by Buhari. In the strictest sense, this amalgam ended up producing a liberal conservative party that is not in any way close to the center of the ideological continuum in respect of socio-political formation. They failed woefully in delivering Nigerians from where the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) government landed us in the early part of the Fourth Republic. Although there were pot-shots of infrastructural development in a few segments of the economy, our debt problem was aggravated and the security issues have remained unresolved.
On October 26 this year, the Supreme Court secured the job of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his political appointees. Pessimists who believe that Nigeria’s cup is half empty are now weeping both openly and privately. I pray that they don’t take steps that will result in anarchy. Those of us who wept severally in the past did not do this so I hope they would not take the hatred in their hearts to this barbaric level.
In the first 16 years of this Third Republic, PDP was in power. Opposition which was initially deeply rooted in the Southwest could not dislodge this party from power. The frustration of opposition from the North due to the victories of Umar Yar’Adua and Goodluck Ebele Jonathan forced them to combine with opposition from the south to form All Progressives Congress (APC) which eventually drove PDP out of power.
If I am to award marks, I would give APC and its constituent political groups a pass mark in respect of provision of alternatives to governance when they were in opposition. When PDP found themselves in opposition, they introduced a new dimension to the concept of opposition. I cannot remember anything they did both collectively and individually that could be described as constructive criticism throughout Buhari’s eight-year rule. They took advantage of Buhari’s ailing health to spread rumours about his demise when the man was still alive. When this failed, they claimed he was a clone of himself. At the same time, a contradictory story of one Jibrin from Sudan with Photoshopped photos filled the spaces on the Social Media. Many half-empty cup crusaders swallowed this story hook, line and sinker. Opposition during the Buhari administration was rudderless and bereft of viable alternative ideas on governance.
Opposition fumbled again when APC was about to change the baton from Buhari to Tinubu. They chose a Fulani man to succeed Buhari. Genuinely disgruntled elements left the party for another party that had never garnered enough votes that could bring them close to the gubernatorial seat of any state government, not to talk of the Presidential Aso Villa. Another set of disgruntled elements encouraged their supporters to vote against their party’s candidate. A political warrior from the Northwest helped to reduce their votes by a significant number of votes that could have arguably earned them a marginal victory. With this scenario, each disgruntled group was sure of victory. Their votes when added together formed the majority of votes cast but the minority won with votes significantly higher than the votes of the main opposition and each of the splinter groups. Thus, the opposition inadvertently succeeded in ensuring victory for APC. This is a wonderful development in Nigeria’s political landscape that should serve as a lesson to all politicians in the future.
The most prominent of their attempts to prevent the winner from claiming victory was the allegation of certificate forgery. This to me looks like the desperate last attempt of a drowning person. It suggests strongly that they were most probably soundly asleep during the pre-election period. Spurious claims of Nigeria’s reputation under a certificate forger rented the air while we were waiting patiently for the verdict of the Supreme Court. Opposition at the Federal level wanted the court to award them victory without proof of the number of votes cast for them at the polls. This earned them several derogatory names that one wonders if they would have been able to give us good governance that we so much deserve and desire.
The reputation of Nigeria did not suffer any setback after the politically motivated and extremely illogical 122/3 verdict which rubberstamped the victory of Shehu Shagari after an unconcluded electoral process in 1979. The reputation of Nigeria was not questioned when somebody single handedly annulled the election of a Presidential candidate in 1993. Neither was it questioned when a candidate that was not wanted by his people was imposed on Nigerians by votes from other antagonistic tribes. Our reputation remained intact when an ATM machine without a password ruled this country. Why then should our reputation be dented when a brilliant Chicago State University graduate who had worked in reputable international companies with an unsubstantiated forgery allegation is now in power?
While this controversy on certificate forgery was going on, a friend recounted his recent experience of discrimination on an international flight. He believed it was due to the allegation of forgery. I quickly told him how I had a similar experience in 1984! It is only half empty cup people that will believe that because one Nigerian is alleged to have forged his certificate, the whole world must assume that all Nigerians are certificate forgers. This reasoning is inimical to positive, logical and rational thinking.
The Romans in their hatred of Jesus never queried the circumstances that led to His birth. Immaculate Conception was not one of the offences they levied against Jesus. I won’t be surprised if agitations based on hatred point in this direction in the next four years of PBAT’s rule. The opposition should do their homework this time around and criticize the ruling government on issues based on governance and not on trivialities and frivolities which are objectionable to the sensitivities of Nigerians who believe in the Renewed Hope agenda of the present government.
I believe strongly that there is a spiritual dimension to wearing the crown anywhere in the world. Concerning the Nigerian experience, Chief Obafemi Awolowo never wore the crown; neither did MKO Abiola and a few other Nigerians with aspirations of ruling this country. So, Atiku, Obi, Kwankwanso, Sowore and other desperate serial and potentially serial presidential aspirants should reflect on this.
Prof. ‘Tola Badejo
Department of Zoology, OAU, Ile-Ife.
October 30, 2023.
Prof. Badejo was the Vice-Chancellor of Wesley University in Ondo from 2008 to 2015.
