By SKC Ogbonnia
The blind ambition of Bola Ahmed Tinubu to rule Nigeria at all costs is on course to provoke a civil war. But this war will not be fought between the Yoruba and the Igbo, as Tinubu would wish; it is a civil war between the Nigerian masses and the corrupt oligarchy that he represents.
Keenly aware that he is neither physically fit nor morally sound to mount a presidential campaign let alone governing Nigeria, Mr. Tinubu is already attempting to win by hook or crook. Barely less than one week after grabbing the presidential ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC), he is already fanning the embers of war. Very glaring is a recent incident in which armed thugs were sent to disrupt the traders of Alaba International Market, Ojo, Lagos State, who went the extra mile to shut their shops in order to obtain their Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVC). Any serious inquiry into the mayhem would reveal a page from Tinubu’s patented plot to control the Lagos State electorate by terror.
A sham selling point in Tinubu’s march to the APC nomination is the assumption that he dictates who wins and who loses in the Nigeria’s most populous state of Lagos. But, as an APC chieftain and the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, noted in a recent speech, Tinubu has been able to lord himself over the good people of the state because of low voter turnout. “Here in Lagos, you have over six million registered voters, only about a million voted (in 2019 general elections); five million did not vote.”
This low voter turnout is rooted in Tinubu’s lack of popularity among the masses. To that end, he has always deployed all manner of terror to suppress the votes of his opponents. Like the attack on the Igbo traders at Alaba International Market, armed thugs were also used to unleash terror on the voters in many parts of Lagos State with heavy Igbo population during the 2019 elections.
Tinubu’s penchant to incite the Yoruba against the Igbo is well chronicled. Recall the murder of Funke Olakunrin, the daughter of Afenifere leader, Reuben Fasoranti, by Fulani Herdsmen. In attempt to appease the Fulani, whom he believes would crown him president, Tinubu quickly exonerated the herdsmen without any iota of evidence. Instead, he stoked the name of Chukwudi Onuamadike, popularly known as Evans, a notorious kidnapper, to suggest that heinous crimes in Nigeria owe their origin to Igboland.
Follow the above with the callous attempt by Remi, the wife of Tinubu, to instigate hatred against the Igbo living in Lagos. In one instance, she was caught on camera on a campaign trail spewing the following snide: “Igbo, we no dey trust una again!”
One must not forget the case of Tinubu’s close ally, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, who peddled the false allegation that the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a predominantly Igbo group, was planning to wreak havoc in Lagos. Further, Tinubu cannot feign ignorance of the origin of another false claim by state authorities that the IPOB was behind the burning of the palace of Oba of Lagos and other public infrastructure during the #EndSARS protest in the 2020.
In each of these instances, however, the Yoruba masses and their true leaders have been bold to denounce Tinubu’s evil machinations. They have resolved to stand side by side with their Igbo counterparts for the common good.
The Nigerian masses are becoming wiser. They are beginning to recognize that the powerful corrupt cabal, where Ahmed Bola Tinubu is a high chief, has no sympathy for what the ordinary man or woman is going through—be it Igbo, Hausa, Fulani, Yoruba, Ijaw, Tiv, etc. They must resist the temptation to shed each other’s blood, by fighting the Tinubu war. The only war the masses ought to fight, and must fight, is against the corrupt elite. The purpose is to reclaim our country. The year is 2023. The ammunition is the PVC!
Dr. SKC Ogbonnia, a 2019 APC Presidential Aspirant, wrote from Houston, Texas.
