Browsing: Hassan Gimba

There are 18 presidential candidates, out of which we have the “big four”, among whom we expect the next president of Nigeria to emerge. They are Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Gregory Obi of the Labour Party (LP) and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP).

There is something about Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Jagaba of Borgu, the presidential candidate of the All Peoples Congress (APC), and Abeokuta. Whenever he feels threatened or that things are not going the way he wants them to, he goes to Abeokuta and delivers what we can term a declaration – in Yoruba. Appealing to the sentiments of the Yoruba, he plays the victim of a conspiracy. True or false, it somehow pays for him. Agreed declarations are not legally binding but they show certain aspirations.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s followers, therefore, created in him the image of an ascetic, beyond reproach, and so canonised him as a saint. And he also did his best to fit into that picture. Ramrod, bare of any fat and wearing the cheapest materials around, the story was said to have seen it all yet refused to be tempted into taking anything from anywhere he worked.