WEDNESDAY COLUMN BY USSIJU MEDANER
info@medaner.com, justme4justice@yahoo.com
So much has happened since after the February 25 presidential election. The citizens have become more partitioned along a new divide that is apparently more dangerous than the usual religious and ethnic segregations that we have perennially created for ourselves since independence. While we are concentrating on the election results and the hurt that comes from the stark reality of the outcome that did not go the way we want it; and the ensuing arguments and counter arguments for cancelation or otherwise of the declared result, we have collectively become victims of the hits on the delicate fabric of the Nigeria nation.
It began a long time before the 2023 election. It began with the rising urge in Nigerians, especially the youth population, to become more involved in Nigeria public affairs. The youths have become heavily driven by the propensity to have a say, and even increasing voice in the running of the affairs of the country and much more to survive, given the continued insecurity, unemployment and what they considered government insensitivity to their plight. And no one can rightly blame Nigerians for this position. It is a decision long due. Perhaps, if we had risen up long ago to ask questions and take actions that put our leaders on their toes, much better it would have been for us and our nation.
Unfortunately, this decision and the energy of the youth were apprehended and coordinated still by individuals who had been part of the rot in the national system to their own advantage. While the youths thought they were fighting for themselves and for their country, the reality is that they have become ready tools in the hands of politicians and regional leaders who want to re-allocate the national cake to themselves.
The ENDSARS outburst was the beginning. The motive was quite right, but when it was planned and financed by politicians whose sole objective was to discredit the sitting government and certain individuals who were already becoming stumbling blocks to their political aspirations, the whole national disturbance became a nuisance and a misrepresentation of the energy of the Nigeria youths. Regrettably, the youth, by and large, failed to recognise the reality of the situation; they failed to realise they have only become expendable pawns in the hands of their oppressors.
Then, the Yoruba Nation agitation, spearheaded by Sunday Igboho, a known PDP member over the years, emerged. The strategy was to hide behind fighting against Fulani attacks to organise the youths ahead of the 2023 elections for the PDP. The youths once again fell for it hook, line and sinker, and took to the street in support of the man.
While it appeared that both the ENDSARS and the Igboho uprising were defeated, the truth remains that the youths were already prepared subconsciously for an attack on the status-quo, that is the establishment and were only waiting for any ripe opportunity to rise up as we witnessed in the Obedient phenomenon.
Then the greatest error in the history of the Nigeria nation was committed when Peter Obi split away from PDP; by some unbelievable occurrence, the bottled readiness of the youth was set free and they erroneously mistook the man Obi for the messiah who would lead them to the new Nigeria of their dreams. We then saw the rare mass movement that constitutes the Obedient population, and the manifestation of the irregular behaviour associated with youth energy. These youth wanted the best for the national system, but they had a misstep and took the same wrong decision that our leaders took from the onset that landed us where we are today.
Peter Obi took advantage of the youths’ political innocence and sincerity; the youths’ desire to see a better Nigeria. He accepted the false image created for him – by his handlers and the naive youths – even when he knows he is no way different from all other regular politicians in the country. The youths have made up their mind; Obi is God’s sent and nothing would change that. But the real Obi is the exact opposite of the image created for him as he possesses recorded antecedents that negate the new found image and persona of him that were created for the 2023 presidential election.
Peter Obi wore the toga, he became the new face of sanity among Nigerian politicians, the saint who would take the nation to its Eldorado. He created a fresh rhetoric to back the new image and it sold like fire. A mob of Nigerians has been created who would do anything to defend the image of Obi that they have created; they are not five million plus that cast their votes for Obi, they are in tens of millions of our citizens inclusive of those who are under eighteen and could not vote and countless others who for whatever reason did not vote.
We are dealing with a sizable number of our population who are ready to go against all of us if that is what it would take to enthrone their messiah. Nothing would stop the Obedients; we saw it all in the build up to the election. We saw the pattern of the irrational campaign they run. We saw what we all meant to them by the path they took in the last season of the campaign and build up to the elections.
The Obidients who largely are political neophytes believe their messiah won the election; they are absolutely sure Peter Obi was rigged out of victory by INEC’s connivance with the APC candidate. No one would be able to talk them out of that illusion. What we have to deal with is way beyond IPOB or the Boko Haram onslaught; we are dealing with a relatively significant population that has compromised all known truth and rationality, by believing and accepting things that are either not verified or are not veritable as truth; a population that is bent on believing without evidence.
We are dealing with a one-way mob that takes instruction only from their lord and master, Peter Obi. We are dealing with a population that would accept the devil as a saint today if he speaks out in support of Obi. They would claim he was chased out of heaven because he challenged godfatherism; he would become their hero of democracy. And today, if Jesus would speak against their Obi, they would immediately start digging his past and look for whatever they will label as his many sins.
The 2023 presidential election came with evidence to defend its fairness and credibility; yet, they have chosen to be blind to realities. In all the history of elections in Nigeria, we have never until now witnessed an election where unbelievable upsets were thrown at all of us as that of February 25th. it remains presently unexplainable how the ruling party and the president-elect lost his home state of Lagos; how the incumbent president lost his home state of Katsina for the very first time in his history of elections; how APC lost in Kano, Kaduna and several other states that were taken by the party before the election. We just had an election that saw sitting governors losing senatorial bids and unknown contestants winning elections across the states of the federation. These are tenable and enough proof of the fairness and credibility of the election.
While this is the most credible election and most transparent one so far in the history of Nigeria and we are supposed to be giving kudos to the electoral umpire for a job well-done, Peter Obi and his foot soldiers have robbed the country of the chance to have that; rather, we have found ourselves at the point where INEC is under an unprecedented attacks.
Peter Obi has chosen the path of continuously weaponising his Obedient bloc. He has told them he won the election; he has told them the election was stolen from him, and a monster is already unleashed upon all of us. We can only imagine what the next years ahead hold for the coherence of our nation and the legitimacy of the coming new administration, all thanks to Peter Obi.
Peter Obi is telling his followers that INEC refused to transmit results in order to be able to change figures in favour of the president-elect. Peter Obi knows the truth but he chose to lead his supporters in this destructive way. The same Peter Obi and his party had approach the court long before the election, on August 22nd, 2022 in an originating summon marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1454/2022 to sue INEC as the sole respondent, praying the court to force INEC to transmit the election results from the polling units.
The Labour Party sought two injunctive reliefs in the events that the questions were resolved in its favour; one, “A declaration that the respondent has no power to opt for manual method other than the electronic method provided for by the relevant provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022; and one other.
On January 23, 2023, prior to the presidential election, Justice Emeka Nwibe, of the Federal High Court Abuja dismissed the suit after submitting that INEC has the prerogative right to decide whatever method it deem fit for the exercise without external interference or control.
Obi knew this before the election; he knew INEC would not transmit results electronically but chose not to disclose or educate the Obidients on the court verdict. Peter Obi and his party ran an election situation room where they accessed all polling units results real time and they collated them. They knew very well they didn’t even come second, but have chosen to turn the country upside down. Is that how you run a democracy?
The same Obi and his Obedient followers, post-election, set up a parallel iReV collation center to prove their victory as promised. They had the entire Obedient population waiting for the final tabulation to serve as part of their evidence for a tribunal hearing. Suddenly, reality dawned on them, as results from their own agents and fellow Obedients across the country started reflecting the reality of a Tinubu victory. They shut down the process inconclusively; now it is no more an issue. What they are told is what matters.
In all ramifications, Peter Obi’s decisions and unprincipled conducts, politically speaking, have become a challenge to the country. We have Nigerians ready to rise against Nigeria, only waiting for the final whistle. We are sitting on a powder keg now. We need to get our country back. Will Obi be patriotic enough to do the needful? For instance, to use his platform to educate the Obidients on democracy, healthy civil engagement, sportsmanship and on fostering national unity. Rather, what we have seen so far is the man claiming he is not challenging the outcome of the election even though he had earlier claimed to had won, but that he is contesting the process of the election which in itself is strange. Because the only legal ground to contest the outcome of the election under our law is well captured under Section 134(1)(c) of the Constitution which is the ground to contest the outcome of the election. If he pursues a strange course which is what he seems to be doing and the court throws his case out of the window, I do hope he and the Obidients will accept the outcome in good faith.
I think it is high time for all those who feel disappointed in the election to accept the reality and for once show true sportsmanship. This message is particularly important to the leaders and elite who are supposed to lead by examples. One must give credit to Pastor Chris Oyahkilome who has demonstrated this good stance and rallying others to accept the President-elect who has paid his dues politically and has emerged victorious despite all the obstacles that he faced. In his words, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the man from the house of Pharaoh who knows the system and he hopes that he lives for history. The Nigerian youths need to learn and seize this election as an opportunity to begin their journey into politics and most importantly, to begin learning leadership and politics from the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the President-elect.
