Gradually, we are getting closer to the D-day - the President-elect and his vice would be sworn in as the new administration is inaugurated on the 29th day of May, 2023. Maybe, after that day, the unbelievers, particularly the adamant rejecters of reality would come into alignment with the truth. Funny indeed, it has been from one episode of denial to Tinubu can never be president. Now, we are counting the days to the beginning of Tinubu's presidency.
The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, PEPT, has been bubbling with activities under its mandate. The Obidients are busy prejudicing the court in an attempt to force the latter to speed up its process, so that their Peter Obi could be sworn in on May 29th. However, Peter Obi and his lawyers are in the court praying the court to grant them seven (7) weeks to organise their evidence and witnesses to appear before the court. Would anyone be able to comprehend that Peter Obi's original plea to the Tribunal has just ten (10) witnesses to establish the facts of his alleged stolen mandates in 176,000 polling units across the country? And now, he needs a whole seven(7) weeks to organise them - the ten witnesses. What an irony talking from both sides of the mouth! Even the ruling party and the closer second place PDP's Atiku Abubakar would be ready in far shorter days. So I begin to wonder why the much-propagated media rush for the tribunal to dispense justice before May 29th.
And it all goes back to what the entire Peter Obi and the Obedient mob represent; experts at emotional blackmail, blackmailing the entire system, including the current high-level blackmail and attacks on the judiciary, to attempt the impossible swerving of judgment in their favour. And by the actions of Peter Obi and the Obedient mob, we have seen a duplication of the Trump-led election denial in the United States.
The American 2020 presidential election was like all the country's previous elections: transparent, credible, and fair to all contestants, but a particular Trump, the incumbent president at that time chose to reject the fairness of the polls, and has maintained that stance till date, even after losing all election-related cases across over seventy courts across the country. Even at a time when individuals and institutions that supported his false claim and helped him reecho it then are now openly withdrawing their statement, and even some paying heavily for the lies they propagated, Trump has remained adamant and stiff-necked; he insisted the only reason he could have lost the election was if it was rigged.
Peter Obi insists he won the election. He won out rightly in the Southeast, won Lagos state, and won in FCT; but according to him, he was rigged out in the entire Northwest and Northeast; his votes were stolen in the remaining five states of the Northwest; otherwise, he is the winner of the election. Apparently, he does not care to allow common sense to guide his responses to the election; he does not care about the fact that the governorship election has revealed that he and his party had no presence in the regions that control the bulk of the election figures by antecedents.
Regardless of facts, Peter Obi has weaponised his Obedient mob to demand for his alleged stolen mandate. Even as we approach the sacrosanct inauguration day, the social media at the behest of the Obedient mob has continued to disagree, and insist there be no swearing-in for the duly elected president and his vice. Would they go all the way the Trump way to disrupt the inauguration just as the Trump mob stormed the US Capitol in a vicious attack to overturn the election outcome? Just like it happened in the US, the acts of the Obedient mob would forever be recorded as an almost unthinkable challenge in Nigeria's evolving democracy and the nation’s sanctity.
Rather than allow the country to settle down to prepare for the inauguration and set agendas for the incoming administration, Peter Obi has chosen the part of serving the nation with irrelevancies in order to stay relevant in the permutations of events in the country. *They said the vice president-elect, Shettima isn’t qualified by law to be the vice presidential candidate to the president-elect because he was contesting to be a senator, but forgot that Atiku Abubakar was already an elected governor of Adamawa state and yet was picked by Obasanjo as his vice Presidential Nominee, it's settled in the electoral act that the position of the Vice President is not contestable through primary election but a nominated slot as provided by law. But now, this would not be a smokescreen strong enough to save the entire Labour Party from its gross error of presenting candidates who were not contained in its submitted membership register to INEC weeks before they all defected to the party inclusive of the Obedient mob's principal. They thought they were safe because INEC accepted the nominations and did not raise any issue, forgetting that it was not INEC's job to determine such status.*
It is a fact, whether Peter Obi and his uncontrollable mob agree or disagree with the outcome of the election, there would be an orderly transition of power on May 29th. We will record in the history of Nigerian democracy, how a supposed democrat lost an election and chose not to accept the result because he lost to a better, well-prepared candidate. It would be recorded and read through history how he gave his supporters the boost to march against the country, every system and individual who refused to agree with the unfounded rhetoric of the Obedient family about their alleged stolen mandate; and utterly put our common existence as a nation under unprecedented democratic assault.
It would be on record that we saw a presidential candidate that created an enraged mob, whipping them up into a frenzy over and over again with the big lie that the 2023 election was rigged against him and that his mandate was stolen and must be reclaimed. We witnessed election umpire staff, institutions, and eminent citizens subjected to death threats, intimidations, abuses, and humiliations; all because they had the courage to do their jobs, and stood up for the truth and our democracy when it mattered most.
The period preceding the presidential election and after it, and up till now, remains a defining moment for Nigeria and Nigerians, and definitely an inflection point for all of us and the democracy we hold so dear. Good enough, a greater population of Nigerians have stood strong, with an overwhelming, unified voice against the Obidient mob that has chosen to break us apart. We have altogether maintained there is no place for what they brought into our system.
And now, more revelations are flowing out; Nigerians must be fully ready to take both the shock and the mammoth attacks from the Obidient mob when the cock finally comes home to crow and the court begins to throw out elected members of the Obidient-dominated party out one after the other. INEC has officially responded to an APC inquiry to the effect that the election umpire, in line with the electoral laws and regulations, did not monitor the Labour Party wards, LGAs, and State Congresses, inclusive of the party’s delegate list. We all know what the implication of this simple information is to all the ongoing election tribunal cases involving the Labour Party candidates who won elections across the states that will soon be consumed by the fire of justice.
In five days, the new administration would be on board; the reality would dawn on all dreamers of an Obi presidency; but for the larger Nigerians, the task of building a greater Nigeria of our dreams would commence, the time of a 'Renewed Hope' would soon start. What must be done to create and deepen trust among Nigerians must begin to take root in the priority policies of the incoming president and his Administration. The broken bond of citizen-government relations must be repaired through the conscious effort of those in leadership through transparency in governance and open commitment to an all-round national development; that is when our commonwealth is generated, harnessed, and equitably distributed to all free citizens of Nigeria, without the influence of corruption that is the current norm.
It is a season of joy and good tidings for us; especially as the much-awaited Dangote refinery finally became operational and adding to the joy of the moment. We have so many expectations that coordinated and maintained local production and supply of nationwide PMS, AGO and DPK requirements would literally bring to an end the non-profiting endless regime of fuel subsidy, permanently end seasonal shortages of the products in the country, and stabilise metering cost to a level bearable by the citizens, particularly the commoners.
Nigerians would expect the incoming administration to effectively collaborate with the Dangote group. We would want to see a pragmatic change in the nation's negative exchange rate with other foreign currencies; we would want to begin to see a more favourable balance of trade and payment and we would want to see improved infrastructural development on the back of outright subsidy removal once energy product importation is finally stopped.
The Tinubu-led APC government must live up to its bidding; our hopes would only be renewed when we begin to see positive changes in the nation’s education and health sectors. When the standards that our educational institutions were known for decades ago are restored and our system resumes to compete favourably with their counterparts across the globe. When serving the motherland becomes fashionable for our medical personnel.
And above all expectations, the incoming administration must find a working and lasting solution to the national insecurity challenges. We cannot afford to carry over the needless killings. Maiming and dispossessing our people across the country from their ancestral homes and their businesses. The former Jonathan government collapsed under the burden of insecurity; close to a hundred thousand citizens were killed and millions were rendered useless and traumatised by insecurity. Some said he was unfit to be president since he could not handle the challenge.
The Buhari Administration expended all its ideas, organises and reorganises the nation's security apparatus, but all to no avail. We have on record well over sixty thousand killings in the past eight years. It would take a whole different strategy, out of the box, fresh and workable security architecture, to face the current Nigeria security challenge. I seriously hope that the Renewed Hope package will contain the magic wand that will bring lasting peace and freedom from the perennial insecurity plaguing Nigerians.
*GOD BLESS THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA!*
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