By Suleiman Abdul-Azeez Abbah
When Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu squarely beat all his opponents at the primary election for the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC), most discerning Nigerians knew there was no stopping him from proving his now famous phrase, ‘Emi Lo Kan’ which literally translates ‘It’s my turn’ boldly uttered when he declared intention to run.
For too long, Tinubu famously addressed as the Jagaban of Borgu, had competently and eminently played the role of a kingmaker in Lagos and other Nigerian states, especially in the South West.
In the first post-transition Lagos State governorship election in 1999, Tinubu, as the candidate of the Alliance for Democracy, defeated the Peoples Democratic Party’s Dapo Sarumi and the All Peoples Party’s Nosirudeen Kekere-Ekun. He secured a second term in 2003 and after leaving office in 2007, Tinubu retained his status as one of Nigeria’s most influential politicians.
In 2013, he led the bloc of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, that merged with the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and the new PDP (nPDP), a faction of the then ruling party – into forming a formidable All Progressives Congress (APC), which ousted the PDP from power after 16 years. This feat elevated him into the national scene as he is rightly referred to as the national leader of the APC.
On the 6th of February, 2013 the APC, Tinubu’s brainchild, was formed primarily as a peoples vanguard to rescue democracy from the ravages of the PDP which held and wielded power on the back of the most gratuitous insults to justice and fairness wrapped in the crude cover of crass political opportunism and breathtaking ineptitude.
Few events had made more impact on the 16-year PDP rule than the formation of the APC, and fewer occasions had assured the Nigerian people that the country had not been abandoned at the mercy of a rampaging political elite with a calculated design to continuously weaken it and pauperize it economically.
Throughout the 2014 campaign period, Tinubu led the APC to awaken Nigerians to the futility of continuing to trust the responsibility for addressing the fundamentals of Nigeria’s national existence by an administration that had acquired the reputation of being the worst in the history of our nation in terms of any capacity to generate confidence in achieving credible national goals.
It is no exaggeration therefore, to say that Tinubu’s inspiring presence and untiring efforts in the year 2014 represented the high point in activities that laid the foundation of the collapse of that citadel of poor governance, indifference, insensitivity, and unprecedented plunder that was the PDP presidency.
Through his efforts, Nigerian political elites closed ranks, except those whose personal wealth and personal ambition remained tied to the continuation of decay and destruction of a nation and a people.
Christians and Muslims closed the religious divide, awakened by the burden of the shared legacy of the PDP in the deteriorating standards of living as politicians fleeced the poor of resources to develop.
For the first time, northern votes in particular overwhelmingly went to one candidate and one party, and combined with those from other parts of the nation to comprehensively reject an administration and a party that had run their course.
From Borno to Ilorin, Sokoto to Yola, the poor, young, and northern women rejected the tradition of lining up to receive handouts to abandon their future and chose instead to install an APC leadership that will make them more secure and provide their children with a productive future.
Today, as we look back to the historic birth of the APC, we are humbled by the value of Tinubu’s understanding and conclusions regarding its organization and goals which also made him the master of the political chess game and the numero uno kingmaker.
About seven and a half years after the Asiwaju magic of 2015, Nigerians once again trooped out to offer a verdict over their future in the February 2023 elections which were universally adjudged the freest, fair, peaceful, credible, and transparent.
At 4.10 a.m. Nigerian time on Wednesday, 1 March, Tinubu, the candidate of the APC, was declared president-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
That development marked not just the conclusion of a peaceful presidential election process, but also the culmination of one man – Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s long and difficult march to the zenith of Nigeria’s political power.
The outcome of the elections of February 2023 was pre-eminently a victory for the people of Nigeria who jubilated not just over the victory of the popular will but over desperate attempts to subvert it. The jubilations went beyond the relief that our nation did not go up in flames over disputed elections. They were about the possibility that under Tinubu, Nigeria could look to a future without security threats; that the young will get a good education, acquire skills and get jobs; that corruption will be arrested, contained, and eliminated.
Through the ballot, Nigerian voters in February trusted Tinubu to lead the nation through and out of its limitations, into a future in which people will live secure lives and pursue livelihoods in a united Nigeria whose resources will be protected by leaders.
It was also the best way to pay back a leader who had spent a large part of his life asking all Nigerians to vote for competent people to lead a nation that is critically endangered by leaders who fail to lead with justice and sensitivity to its plural nature and the limitations of its political process.
With the elections won and lost, it is impossible not to recall the millions of young people who followed Tinubu on his campaign trails, pledging to him their unquestioning support and loyalty with full faith that his leadership will address their hopes and aspirations.
It is impossible to forget the picture of hundreds of thousands who turned up at his campaign rallies to register their faith and support. It is not possible to forget adolescents and children who defied parents and security agents to catch a glimpse of a man they had been brought up to believe had the solution to Nigeria’s problems.
It is impossible to ignore the unprecedented response of communities in the South and the North to the Asiwaju pull, responses which defied decades of entrenched sentiments that had fed the fiction that there are two Nigerians; the Nigeria of northerners, and the Nigeria of southerners; the Nigeria of Muslims and the Nigeria of Christian. It is impossible not to remember the patently transparent and credible election, the result of which was only rejected by people who would mind destroying the nation if they were not winners.
Now that Nigerian voters have done for Tinubu what they did for Buhari with their PVCs, it is important to note that moving from where we are to where we need to be will require patience and fortitude. Until we get there, it will be President Bola Tinubu’s lot to assemble the Nigerians to advise him and take forward his vision. He will need people who will convey his concerns and compassion; who will reach and bring comfort to millions who suffer in an economy under recession; and people who will combine his personal integrity with competence and commitment.
He would be expected to leverage the successes of our gallant troops and the strong will of President Buhari in the fight against insecurity and corruption and to key into the new spirit of cooperation among our regional neighbors, and appreciate the support of our friends across the world who are assisting us in this fight.
We urge the incoming government and relevant security and financial agencies to continue to fight insecurity and corruption with resolve and awareness of their obligations under the law, as well as the knowledge that victory will only be pronounced when the nation achieves full cessation of hostilities, disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration all the regions.
Let us say, by way of conclusion, that we believe, without any doubt, that President Tinubu can meet these challenges, or at least lay solid foundations for their achievement.
(Abbah, a journalist, wrote from Abuja)
