Only an act of God can stop Asiwaju Bola Tinubu ascent to presidency. The lines are persistently falling to favour him. This presidential election does not come in February 2023. It would hold this November, and the results would be out by Christmas. Is this fallacious? It looks but it’s not.
PDP, the only obstacle to Tinubu, is profusely bleeding from the knife stab by Peter Obi. And now, Nyelsom Wike and four other governors are baying for the party’s last reservoir of blood. lf by November that wound is not surgically patched, PDP would faint and collapse before December 2022. Atiku Abubakar cannot survive the treachery of Obi, Wike and co. In fact, no one could. Therefore, what is coming in February is not an election but an attestation. And by New Year, the winner would have been generally assumed. Only a decree of God can stop Tinubu being sworn in as president. Not even our rebellious votes!
But how would Asiwaju Bola Tinubu presidency be? What would be the form of his policies and politics? Tinubu’s era would be oxymoronic. It would be good bad. His economics would be fantastic, but his politics would bleed the noses of many. As an unrepentant tax man, Tinubu would drain blood from us and turn our hemoglobin to cash. He needs money for monstrous infrastructure, more money for recurrent expenditure, and a lot of money as repayment for dollar loans. Therefore, henceforth, we would pay! All of us. Taxes, rates, fines, fees, tickets, zero subsidy. That’s what he did in Lagos. That’s what await me. And it’s your portion too. Every one of us would chop breakfast.
But I like the menu. lt is the main reason I endorse and would vote him. We need more of our monies – public money – to run government. See, corruption is a tsetse fly on our polity, but it is not the cause of its leukemia. There is no state governor that is stealing 30% of his revenue. Most can’t even pay salaries. So, our bigger problem is lack of enough funds. For example, what my state needs is an additional ₦3.5b to add to its gross monthly income of ₦6.5b; and then we would be on the way to eldorado. Lagos, Rivers, Oyo and Kano have crossed that line. Unfortunately, federal government hasn’t. We currently milk a little less than ₦1trillion monthly as income through FAAC. Expectedly, Asiwaju Tinubu presidency would attempt to double that in his first term – so that he can borrow more money in his second term. In summary, Tinubu would tax more and borrow more to spend more. Don’t be afraid! The only time nations would finish paying their national debts is after Rapture and when we all appear at the judgement throne of God. In 2021, the US borrowed ₦2,000 trillion naira. UK borrowed ₦300 trillion naira. And Nigeria borrowed ₦6trillion Naira. I therefore say unto this nation: Borrow, for even up till this time, ye have borrowed nothing! Okay.
How would Asiwaju’s presidency shape the political landscape? What would happen to our national politics? Tinubu is a deal man. He plays poker. And he’s a ruthless soccer player. Once he misses the ball, rather than let you go, he breaks your legs. And no Video Assistant Referee alias VAR can prove it. Your only proof is a painful tendon. Like the one Rotimi Amaechi is nursing now. When I predicted on this page in 2017 that Tinubu would yẹyẹrize, mess with, and destroy PDP by luring out Nyelsom Wike to selfishly use him for 2023, no one believed. But that’s who Jagaban is. He’s a tactician. A slave buyer. A bricklayer. Therefore, Bola Tinubu would turn this country into a one party state. He would turn APC into ANC of South Africa. He would bring Bukola Saraki, James Ibori, Ayo Fayose, Peter Obì, Daniel Bwala, Dino Melaye, even Nnamdi Kanu and the remaining remnants in northern Nigeria back to APC. I know you don’t believe. But I do. Because, I know Nigerian politicians: their god is their belly; they would eat their vomit rather than stay long out of power.
But we need to stay alive to see these wonders. Can Bola Tinubu keep us safe? What would happen to criminals and criminality? You would see.That guy, he would rout out these workers of iniquities out of our land.
Tinubu is ex agbero. He used to be a bandit. An oil vandal. These titles are literary cosmetics of course, they mean to say, unlike Muhammadu Buhari, Tinubu is a man of the world who had swam in deep black underwater of businesses and political exile. He knows the game. The biggest trading post in Nigeria is organized crime. It is a multibillion dollar enterprise. If you are not a trained gangsta, and you don’t have “ẹjẹ loju bi t’Abacha” and the stubborness and ruthlesness to jail billionaires and run out former military generals and national security advisers out of crime business: corruption, kidnapping, banditry and oil bunkering would stay. Asiwaju would break the powers of criminality in Nigeria. He would use the courts. You can’t fight organized crime behind and without the courts. Once judges and judicial officers trust they have the backing of government, you would see how cheaply jail terms could be. Safe this paragraph: Bola Tinubu would jail more powerful persons than any other administration. Why would he? Because Asiwaju is a man who loves and wants power. To prove and display his extra presidential powers, he would tell sponsors of crimes – those in his calbre and class, that ọga na master. Men like Bola Tinubu who love power are jealously territorial. They can’t share a piece of their authority with lesser gods. That’s why Sani Abacha and Olusegun Obasanjo tenures were relatively peaceful. Imagine someone stealing crude oil under Sani Abacha, or some Chadian herdsmen rolling freely with AK 47 under Olusegun Obasanjo. The both would never permit such sacrilege. Likewise Tinubu. He won’t share his bed of power with any warlord either.
Postscript.
Nnamdi Azikiwe was enigmatic. Tafawa Balewa was charismatic. Obafemi Awolowo was emblematic. Muhammadu Buhari is iconic. But Nigeria has not produced a president in the form of Bola Tinubu. Asiwaju is a man of numbers, an accountant. He would raise taxes, stop subsidies and print paper money to build a greater Nigeria. He would remove the pillars of opposition parties and collapse all of them into a single cauldron to produce successive leaders after him like he did in Lagos. Demons of crimes would see his torchlight and flee. The only person that can stop Tinubu is God. Not an abadoned Atiku Abubakar. Nor a playful and shishiless Peter Obì.
By Taiwo Olanegan.
